Vox – Christina Dalcher (2018)

“Think about waking up one morning and finding you don’t have a voice in anything.”

Vox was chosen by my very small book group as our November read, we don’t actually meet until next Wednesday to discuss it. It will give us, I think, plenty to talk about. Touted as a feminist, dystopian novel for the #Metoo generation – it seemed a pretty good fit for a feminist book group.

The cover has excerpts of reviews from Elle and Prima – ok you can call me a literary snob if you like – but that worried me a little. I was also worried that there might be a tiny bit of band-wagon jumping going on with the claim of it being a re-imagining of The Handmaid’s Tale. It isn’t. Dystopian fiction has become very popular of late – almost everyone is reading, re-reading or watching The Handmaid’s Tale. Atwood’s Gilead is referenced by someone almost on a daily basis when discussing international outrages or abuses of power. Vox fits perfectly into this atmosphere which also brought us another piece of feminist, speculative fiction; in Naomi Alderman’s The Power. Mentioning this novel even in the same breath as The Handmaid’s Tale is very misleading, there is nothing in this novel that will make it a classic – it has neither the wisdom nor the style of Atwood’s masterpiece, it isn’t even written all that well. I hadn’t wanted this review to become a hatchet job, I didn’t entirely hate it – it has a very interesting premise and the story is compelling enough for the reader to fly through it fairly quickly. I am sure lots of people will enjoy it.

“We’re on a slippery slide to prehistory, girls. Think about it. Think about where you’ll be—where your daughters will be—when the courts turn back the clock. Think about words like ‘spousal permission’ and ‘paternal consent.’ Think about waking up one morning and finding you don’t have a voice in anything.”

In an America of the near future, the bible belt has expanded to engulf practically the whole country. The result is that the teachings of the bible, and old-fashioned family values are back on the agenda in a very big way – with people interpreting the gospels in a way which starts to oppress and silence the population – in particular women. There is a new government, a theocracy that wants to turn the American clock back to what is seen as a better time. Women seem to bear the brunt of the blame, they, apparently the reason America has lost its way. In order to get things back on track, all women and girls have been fitted with a metal bracelet which counts every word they speak. If they go over their daily limit of 100 spoken words it delivers an electric shock, the more words over the limit the worse the shocks become. Women have been banned from reading and writing, no longer allowed to work they are confined mainly to their homes. Sign language is banned and with cameras everywhere – even on the eternal doors of private homes – designed to enforce the law. Those caught breaking these laws simply disappear.

It’s not subtle – a bit sledgehammer to crack a nut, I thought. The central character bemoaning her carefree student days when she didn’t vote, didn’t march with her friends – blaming her former apathy for the current regime. For me this is all very over blown – and not entirely convincing.

Jean, a former scientist has spent years researching aphasia, she has now been forced to give up her career and her research. Married to a doctor who advises the government, she has four children, the youngest a six-year-old girl, who has been fitted with the bracelet too. Her eldest son has been horribly influenced by the new regime, and Jean is struggling with who he is starting to become. Home is becoming more and more tense, and Jean is worried about her frightened, silent daughter. Then sinister government men in sleek black cars turn up at her door with an offer which will mean the temporary removal of her bracelet and the chance to carry on her research. Jean finds she will do almost anything to help her daughter.

“Whoever came up with the idea of labelling classified documents with larger-than-life red stencilling that advertises—or at least hints at—the contents was a schmuck, I think. You might as well put a tag that says OPEN ME! on it. If it were up to me, I’d hide all secrets in back copies of Reader’s Digest.”

From here things descend into the region of predictable thriller – (those of you who know me will know how much I dislike modern thrillers) – guns, threats, a bit of extra-marital sex – some clever science (the author has a doctorate in theoretical linguistics) a friend from the past turning up just when we knew she would, and a neatly tidied up ending that is perhaps just a little bit too convenient.

Vox is certainly readable – and I got through it pretty quickly – I wanted to find out what happened – although on that point there is a massive spoiler in the first line of the book. So, while we sort of know where everything is going, we need to wait and find out how we get there. Dalcher’s prose is straightforward – I didn’t find it particularly well written, in fact there is a slight young adult feel to it. I can imagine readers of YA might quite like this one. I think it should really have been much better than it was.