The Unit

The Unit / Ninni Holmqvist; translated from the Swedish by Marlaine Delargy
New York: Other Press, c2008.
268 p.

I've finally got around to reading this dystopian novel that has been on my reading list for years now. Both #WITMonth & my trend toward dystopian reading this year have finally pushed me to pick it up.

It's a dark vision of a quite plausible future. Sweden has decided that women over fifty and men over sixty who are childless and not working in a protected (caring) job of some kind are dispensable. At this age, they are to be moved in to a Unit. They are provided with an apartment, fine meals, entertainment and activities -- overall a pretty good setup. 

The catch, and of course there is one, is that they are living guinea pigs from this point on, to be used in medical trials and for organ donation, until their Final Donation. 

Dorrit Weger is checked in to the Unit one spring day, and after a period of adjustment starts to find the routine quite standard. Even kind of reassuring in some ways. Luckily for her she starts off in some straightforward exercise-based studies that have no side effects, so things seem okay. 

But then the tests she's involved in get more invasive, and at the same time, for the first time in her life she falls in love. It's this, the falling in love, the realization that the two of them could have met in passing in their earlier lives and thus stayed out in the world as a productive couple - but too late now - all this is too much. Dorrit begins to realize that life is precious and living this way in the Unit becomes unbearable. 

It's a slow burn, this story. Seeing Dorrit realize that the cotton batting world of the Unit hides the vitality of real life; that love is a strong incentive to keep living. That ageism and a procreation based valuation of human life is wrong despite its societal acceptance in her world (though there are resisters). Her decision in the final pages is unpredictable and unexpected, and not exactly what I was hoping for, but so realistic and well told. 

This book is a solid read, I really couldn't put it down until I found out what was going to happen to Dorrit, but also to all the other middle aged and wonderful women that Holmqvist creates in this book. It was amazing to see all these different people in the book - sadly most of the 'dispensable' people in this society seem to be artists and creatives, without children or socially valued jobs. There is a lot underneath the surface in this novel, and a lot to talk about in Holmqvist's vision of a future that only values certain people. It was a moving, emotional story that I can't believe I took this long to read.