I have read countless reviews of Le Guin’s books and how influential they were. But I hadn’t read any until now.

The dispossessed is often listed as « on of these books you read again and again » but I don’t know… I finished reading it about a month ago and still don’t know what to make of it.

The core idea of the book is: there has been a revolution some ~200 ago and the revolutionaries have been allowed to set up an anarchist colony, living according to their principles, far away so that it doesn’t spread further in the society. The « far away » in that case being the planet’s moon, which is what makes the book Sci Fi but that’s pretty much the one and only element.

And a member of this anarchist society, a theoretical mathematician tries to understand what bothers him in it and to do so, decides to visit/emigrate to the capitalist / proprietarian planet of his ancestors, becoming embroiled into politics and control tactics in both worlds.

As such, the book does a very good job in describing both every day life and power dynamics in both places, confronting the libertarian ideas that led to the establishment of the anarchist planet and how those fossilised since then, as well as the very materialist conditions they live there. On the proprietarian planet, the picture is even more dire with him being controlled by the local government hoping to gain sole control on the output of his research while shielding him from seeing the living conditions and exploitation of the majority of the population, the very same conditions that led to the revolution in the past.

Well, that will do as for the spoiler-free summary of the book. Where I struggled is with names (you might have noticed that there’s barely a review in which I mention a character name, that’s a general issue with me). Up to the very last chapter, I had to check which planet was which because I couldn’t remember. And this wasn’t helped with the fact the book jumps from chapter to chapter from one planet to the other but also in time, in both directions (though the overall direction is forward).

I think that’s made it difficult to connect with book and understand where (and when) it was going. And, actually trying to organise and summarise the main elements for this review actually helped a lot organise my thoughts.

Final word

Yes, I would recommend this book. The writing is very pleasant, witty at some moments. With clear political ideas which the author don’t paint only as apolitical nor all rosy.

That said, it’s not the easiest book to jump into and there are some graphic scenes in the end of the book which might not be for everyone.