Just this week Oprah made a speech at the Golden Globes Award Ceremony that grabbed headlines all over the world. In it she envisioned a different kind of world for women and   said:

So I want all the girls watching here, now, to know that a new day is on the horizon! And when that new day finally dawns, it will be because of a lot of magnificent women, many of whom are right here in this room tonight, and some pretty phenomenal men, fighting hard to make sure that they become the leaders who take us to the time when nobody ever has to say ‘Me too’ again.

In The Power, Alderman also posits a world in which women would no longer have to say #MeToo, but her vision is much darker, less hopeful and a much more complicated and nuanced world than Oprah seemed to have in mind.

The Power is set in the distant future and begins with some business correspondence between an aspiring male author named Neil, to his female mentor and editor. Neil has written a novel describing the sudden shift in power between women and men at some point in the distant past and describes how women came to dominate society and men became unequal. At first the female editor is skeptical. What is the basis for his theory? Isn’t this just the way things are? Why does he think there was a sudden shift, and why would he ever think that there was a time when the male sex was the dominate gender in society. With these questions as a backdrop the story shifts to the novel itself.

The Power developed accidentally or maybe it was something in the water. No one is sure, but soon young women were able to manipulate a powerful electrical field, that could shock, hurt, and even kill those it was directed against. The source of the power is centerred at the collar bone in what is called the skein, and once activated it can be used at will. At first it was only young girls who had this power, but then they found away to awaken this latent power in older women as well, and that is when the shift in gender power began.

The novel follows several young women and one man, a Nigerian journalist who follows the emerging story all over the world as the change happens. At first women are stunned with their power, and enter places like convents and other safe places as they try to understand what it means.  One young women, who killed her foster father as he raped her, flees to a small convent in the rural Northeast. There she slowly begins to understand the potential of this power and as more and more young women with the power join the convent she becomes their leader and takes the name of Eve. Margot, a woman whose daughter has the power, sees it as a way to cement her political future. Roxy, a young women from a London crime family, blessed with extraordinary power revels in the way it has changed her fortunes dramatically.

Alderman writes with such authority, that it is easy to slip into this new world and feel completely disoriented in the real world when you stop reading.  The struggles of these women as they see the potential for more authority and power is exciting and hopeful. But there are signs too that absolute power is dangerous and can corrupt. Mythology shifts, and men are known as the weaker gender, the nurturers and caretakers, while women are powerful, and move the levers of the world. Alderman brings her characters to life, and they carry the story, adding depth and perspective. This is a fascinating and enlightening  read in a time when “a new day is on the horizon!”

Brenda’s Rating *****(5 Out of 5 Stars)

Recommend this book to: Sharon, Marian, Lauren, Keith and Ken

Book Study Worthy? YES!

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