Bina Shah
Forfatter af Before She Sleeps
Om forfatteren
Image credit: from author's website
Værker af Bina Shah
Associated Works
Satte nøgleord på
Almen Viden
- Fødselsdato
- 1972
- Køn
- female
- Nationalitet
- Pakistan
- Land (til kort)
- Pakistan
- Fødested
- Karachi, Pakistan
- Bopæl
- Karachi, Pakistan
Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA - Uddannelse
- Wellesley College (BA)
Harvard University (MEd) - Erhverv
- Columnist
Teacher
Medlemmer
Anmeldelser
Before She Sleeps af Bina Shah
Interesting to read, particularly the plot & characters, but aspects of the world-building were hard get past. Specifically, operating a brothel of prostitutes who don't have sex for decades in a dystopia where opportunities for sex are severely limited. The story itself is at the point where the desire for sex finally interferes with the operation, but it's something that probably should have happened much earlier in the universe's timeline.
½The world building and concepts in this dystopian novel are great and well thought out. The plot, though, isn't quite worthy of the story--there's not really enough of it, and you don't get much of a sense of action until late in the story. The narrative is much more focused on the interior lives of the characters, their thoughts and memories, than on action. It feels weighed down, for what is a relatively brief book.
//~ Our mothers, aunts, grandmothers live only in representations of their lives as we, their daughters, try to re-create them…///
Name: Before She Sleeps
Author: Bina Shah
Genre: Dystopian, Satire, Future,
Rating: 4.9/5
Review:
Before She Sleeps by Bina Shah is a satire on the present patriarchal society and the future it is heading towards. She writes about a future world that is not so far away, yet not so close. It can be considered a South Asian contemporary of The Handmaid Tale by Margaret Atwood.
This book is set in a dystopian future, where most the countries are destroyed by wars and climatic changes. The number of women has gone very low due to wars, violence and a virus, which killed a large portion of female population. To raise the number of female ratio, women are forced to take several men as husbands.
In Green City, women are seen as nothing more than reproductive machine, they are forced to go through several hormonal test and fertility test to increase their reproductive health. Bearing more children is the easiest way for poor families to climb their way into the middle class. This reminds me of the women under the Nazi rule, who were too seen in a similar way. Even in this oppressive authoritarian rule, there are some women, who refuse to be a part of this system. They are forced to hide underground, away from the oppressive system. At night, they provide a service which is now something one cannot buy, intimacy without sex.
The story is told from multiple perspective, from Sabine, Lin, Rupa to Robert Faro. Each character is so well developed, having their backstory. Each character is from a different background and had a different life, but what bound them together was their pain, they were all victim of this authoritarian government. The writing style was good and engaging. It took me some time to get into the story, but when I did, I was lost in the world of Green City. The ending was not something I expected, it left a bittersweet feeling with me and left me wondering if there will a sequel of this story.
For Further Reading:
The Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley… (mere)
Name: Before She Sleeps
Author: Bina Shah
Genre: Dystopian, Satire, Future,
Rating: 4.9/5
Review:
Before She Sleeps by Bina Shah is a satire on the present patriarchal society and the future it is heading towards. She writes about a future world that is not so far away, yet not so close. It can be considered a South Asian contemporary of The Handmaid Tale by Margaret Atwood.
This book is set in a dystopian future, where most the countries are destroyed by wars and climatic changes. The number of women has gone very low due to wars, violence and a virus, which killed a large portion of female population. To raise the number of female ratio, women are forced to take several men as husbands.
In Green City, women are seen as nothing more than reproductive machine, they are forced to go through several hormonal test and fertility test to increase their reproductive health. Bearing more children is the easiest way for poor families to climb their way into the middle class. This reminds me of the women under the Nazi rule, who were too seen in a similar way. Even in this oppressive authoritarian rule, there are some women, who refuse to be a part of this system. They are forced to hide underground, away from the oppressive system. At night, they provide a service which is now something one cannot buy, intimacy without sex.
The story is told from multiple perspective, from Sabine, Lin, Rupa to Robert Faro. Each character is so well developed, having their backstory. Each character is from a different background and had a different life, but what bound them together was their pain, they were all victim of this authoritarian government. The writing style was good and engaging. It took me some time to get into the story, but when I did, I was lost in the world of Green City. The ending was not something I expected, it left a bittersweet feeling with me and left me wondering if there will a sequel of this story.
For Further Reading:
The Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley… (mere)
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Statistikker
- Værker
- 9
- Also by
- 1
- Medlemmer
- 184
- Popularitet
- #117,736
- Vurdering
- 3.8
- Anmeldelser
- 12
- ISBN
- 22
- Sprog
- 4
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- 1