People who read books tend to be dispensable. But the cameras weren’t hidden.Īside from a quick surface tour of the Unit and its enormous Winter Garden, its very popular library (“It’s because there are so many intellectuals here. True, the tiniest nook or cranny was monitored by cameras, and I would soon realize there were hidden microphones there too. It was light and spacious, furnished in a modern style and tastefully decorated in muted colors. A room of my own with a bathroom, or rather an apartment of my own, because there were two rooms: a bedroom and a living room with a kitchenette. It was more comfortable than I could have imagined. The entire novel is narrated by Dorrit Weger, opening with her arrival at the Second Reserve Bank Unit on her fiftieth birthday and her depiction of a seemingly innocuous, yet invasive world: (And may make more sense in Scandinavia?) It’s implied on occasion that economics and general consumption are behind the creation of this system - if you’re not breeding and increasing society’s consumption, you’re dispensable - which is uber-creepy.Īside from the suspension of belief necessary to accept the creation of the Units, this book is actually incredibly straight-forward - essentially just a love story in a weird context. Holmqvist isn’t perfect with this, but she does provide a sort of “live your life alone, spend the end of it giving back to society” mantra that sort of makes sense. The best books in this tradition are the ones that depict a future that seems so potentially possible that the reader doesn’t ask too many questions. In depicting a dystopia, Holmqvist faces the almost intractable problem of making sure that this future seems believable, seems connected to our present, yet sets forth a new set of rules for how human behavior is governed. While in “the Unit,” the “dispensables” participate in experiments (psychological and physical) and donate various organs (kidneys, corneas, etc.) to the “useful” members of society, up until the day that they make their “final donation.” In other words, these freeloaders are essentially harvested for the benefit of those who are contributing more to society. In the Sweden she describes, a law has been passed that women at the age of 50 (and men at the age of 60) who have no living children or spouses are deemed “dispensable” and sent to live at a Reserve Bank Unit for the rest of their lives.

Broadly speaking, Ninni Holmqvist’s debut novel fits into the tradition of dystopian literature.

The unit by ninni holmqvist