The Book of Etta,
by Meg Elison (47 North, 2017). This novel is the sequel to the Philip K. Dick
Award-winning The Book of the Unnamed
Midwife, but can be easily read on its own. Generations ago, a plague swept
the world, killing most of the women and leaving the survivors at grave risk in
childbirth. The expected chaos resulted, social disintegration, and enslavement
of the few remaining fertile women.
Now various communities have evolved their
own cultures with varying roles for the women, often in isolation and ignorance
of one another. Etta lives in Nowhere, a fortified community in which women
hold power as Mothers and Midwives. She frets against her mother’s
expectations, keeps her lesbian love affair secret, and flees to the outside
world under the guise of a scavenger of old technology and rescuer of enslaved
women. In this role, she becomes Eddy, but the switch is not mere disguise for
safety. The prose shifts to the male pronoun to emphasize the transformation in
identity. As the story unfolds, it becomes more and more clear that Etta/Eddy
flips back and forth from one persona to the other, and clues emerge as to the
origin of the personality split. In his adventures, Eddy encounters underground
havens, trading centers where transgender “horsewomen” live openly as women,
and a vicious tyrant bent on conquest.
Elison weaves together elements of
dystopia and hope, tense action and inner anguish, into a compelling tale of
survival and self-revelation. Highly recommended, although with a caution for
younger readers.
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