Book Review: Sandra Newman puts a feminist spin on ‘1984’ with ‘Julia’
Advertisement
Read this article for free:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Monthly Digital Subscription
$1 per week for 24 weeks*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Billed as $4.00 plus GST every four weeks. After 24 weeks, price increases to the regular rate of $19.95 plus GST every four weeks. Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.
Monthly Digital Subscription
$4.99/week*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Billed as $19.95 plus GST every four weeks. Cancel any time.
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional
$1 for the first 4 weeks*
*Your next subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $16.99 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $23.99 plus GST every four weeks.
Read unlimited articles for free today:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 23/10/2023 (922 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Rejoice, comrades! Almost 75 years after George Orwell’s “1984” was published in 1949, readers can return to Airstrip One with its Newspeak and Ministries of Truth, Peace, Love and Plenty. On second thought, maybe it’s not a place anyone wants to revisit. Maybe Orwell’s depiction of an ultra-totalitarian society in which “doublethink” — “Truth is Hate. Plenty is Hate. Peace is Hate. Love is Hate” — rules, hits a little too close to the real world in 2023.
But don’t let that argument dissuade you from reading Sandra Newman’s remarkable new novel, “Julia.” Marketed as a “retelling” of “1984” (Orwell’s estate actually approved its publication), it’s not quite as bleak as its progenitor. And the omniscient third-person feminist perspective from inside the head of Winston Smith’s lover, Julia, is refreshing.
Julia is a mechanic in the Ministry of Truth’s Fiction Department, “perpetually fascinated by the plot machinery, how it worked and the ways it could go wrong.” When we first meet her, she’s an ideal citizen — embracing the Party line in public, but always cognizant of Big Brother watching via the ubiquitous telescreens and expressing her cynicism only in private. Oh, and she’s falling in love with a young woman named Vicky at the hostel where they both live. In fact, it’s Vicky’s fondness for Julia that sets in motion the events that spark the plot of “1984.” The love note Julia slips to Winston Smith? Turns out Vicky actually slipped it first to Julia!
“1984” fans will enjoy experiencing the story from this point forward through Julia’s eyes, but for readers who aren’t Orwellian scholars, it’s important that “Julia” hold up on its own as well. Newman introduces the tenets of the Party — “War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength” — and describes the surveillance society of Big Brother in great detail and it’s all just as horribly shocking as when you read it the first time.
Don’t be discouraged though — after Winston and Julia, ahem, “rat” each other out to their torturers, we’re treated to a “Part Three” that actually goes beyond the plot of “1984.” It’s the rare answer to that perennial question at the end of a good book, “and then what happened?” And for a little while, just a little, readers can hope that rebellions aren’t always doomed, and an individual might have some power over the collective.
___
AP book reviews: https://apnews.com/hub/book-reviews