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Texas Mirroring Dystopian Fiction.
What are they thinking?
The new anti-abortion ruling in Texas brought to mind a book I read and reviewed for the publishers via Netgalley.
The book is ‘Red Clocks’ by Leni Zumas which was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for political fiction.
This novel presents a near future dystopia where the whole of the USA has made abortion illegal. Women are left with no real choice but to have babies regardless of their circumstances, even if their lives are endangered. Of course their are options, just as in the real world there are options, but they are illegal, they are risky and they are often impossible due to cost or the need for travel (into Canada if they can make it through the border).
The review I wrote (March 2018, around the time of publication) reads as follows:
I thoroughly enjoyed this novel.
The women are simultaneously Everywoman, all of whom have rights worthy of protecting/demanding, or at least representative of a group or 'type'; and also completely individual and different, not representative but entirely their own self. Women are all different after all, each having our own personality, our own disparate set of wants, needs and motivations - which often bring us into criticism/resentment of and conflict with each other as is seen here between the main…
