A review by luckypluto
We by Yevgeny Zamyatin

challenging dark reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

This book has sat on my shelf for over a decade and I am glad I finally read it. Historically it is a very important piece of literature as it directly influenced George Orwell’s Nineteen-Eighty Four and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, but it is still an interesting novel in its own right. It absolutely has to be read in the context of the Bolshevik revolution in Russian, a revolution a half-decade old at the time of its writing, but it is interesting to read a century later as well. Does it condemn or exult atheism and scientific rationalism? I would clearly argue for the former were I making the argument in 1920s Soviet Russian, but the question is even more interesting now.

The book is, however, very hard to follow, but that may be an issue with this particular translation; I’d like to sometime read a different translation and see whether it is just as difficult to read.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Racism