Widowland. C.J. Carey. 2022. 432 pages. [Source: Library]
First sentence: A biting east wind lifted the flags on the government buildings in a listless parody of celebration. All the way from Trafalgar Square and down Whitehall, they rippled and stirred, turning the dingy ministerial blocks into a river of arterial red. The splash of scarlet sat savagely on London's watercolor cityscape: on the dirt-darkened Victorian facades and dappled stone of Horse Guards, the russet Tudor buildings and ruddy-bricked reaches of Holborn, and around the Temple's closeted, medieval squares. It was a sharp, commanding shout of color that smothered the city's ancient grays and browns and obliterated its subtleties of ochre and rose.
Premise/plot: Widowland is alternative history. The premise is that England and Germany arrived at an alliance in 1940. The book focuses on the upcoming coronation of King Edward VIII and Queen Wallis. The heroine, Rose Ransom, has been ranked (all women are ranked) high and is enjoying certain privileges that many do not. The purer your 'stock' and the prettier your face, the more life has to offer you. She has been tasked with several things, however, primarily she spends her time REWRITING classic literature to fall into line with the new order. You wouldn't want anyone to stumble into a book, start to think for himself, and start a revolution. (Or herself). At the same time, she's sent on a secret mission to the 'Widowlands' to find disgruntled women who are using graffiti to voice their discontent. Usually the graffiti is comprised of quotes from literature.
While the main 'action' occurs in the spring of 1953, you do get some idea of how things have gone in those thirteen years. Primarily, reading--for men, women, boys, and girls--is not encouraged all that widely. Well, certain books which fit into a certain agenda are okay. But reading for pleasure, reading books that encourage thinking independently, well, no one wants to be caught reading. Self-censorship is high because one doesn't want to be informed against for being too different, too suspicious, too outside the accepted ideals. Blend in at all costs, never be noticed. But women, as you might expect, do have it worse--relatively worse. They exist for one reason and one reason only....and thinking is not it.
As she is doing her job, Rose starts to think for herself...and well...that's not without risks.
My thoughts: I enjoyed this speculative novel. I enjoy a good alternative history, something that asks a good what if. And this one was intelligently done, in my opinion. Unlike some of the more frothy and trivial what-ifs that imagine if America had a royal family--that George Washington was America's first king, this one explores a much darker what if.
I found it an interesting, absorbing read.
© 2022 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews
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