We by Yevgeny Zamyatin
This one-hundred-year-old dystopian novel still has teeth. Set in a future where the One State exercises total control over its citizens, known only by numbers, We highlights the suppression of individuality in favor of uniformity. D-503 is a mathematician and chief engineer, working on the construction of the INTEGRAL, a spaceship designed to spread the One State's ideology to other planets. Delivered via journal entries, there's a very interesting "dear reader" dynamic at play.
When D becomes entangled with a rebellious woman known as I-330, and a forbidden romance of sorts beings, Zamyatin noodles around for too long with D's sexual awakening, with blame and attribution landing on I-330. Then, like all well-behaving dystopians—there's a resistance organization, and D is forced to face several life-altering decisions.
The middle is a bit mired down, even when the sexual repression gives way to creativity and imagination, with D's synapses firing before a detour to an almost fetal state, as he sort of short circuits with all the newfound ways of being himself. Between this well-worn path we've seen in dystopian novels and the descriptive words-by-way-of-racist-underpinnings of another character, the entire middle section felt fairly weak and not a little off-putting.
But, if I bat away my 2024 lens, it's a startling piece of fiction and early foundational dystopian novel. What's really interesting, and certainly lit up that little lightbulb over my head, is how there’s a mirrored similarity when the resistance to the totalitarian government rises up and also takes on the singular voice of a "we" — the danger exists on both sides of losing yourself and your personal freedoms.
From the possible influence of two earlier dystopian stories, and the definite impact this had on two later dystopian stories, We holds its own among the heralding bells of danger ahead.
Audiobook, as narrated by Toby Jones: Jones did a great job, and this is one that I think definitely benefits from being delivered by an actor who can project emotions that are both intended to be known and those simmering beneath the surface of the character.
