The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin

Title: The Dispossessed

Author: Ursula Le Guin

Publisher: SF Masterworks

Originally published in 1974, in Great Britain in 1999

Pages: 319

Genres: Science Fiction

Format: Paperback

The Principle of Simultaneity will revolutionise interstellar civilisation by making possible instantaneous communication. It is the life work of Shevek, a brilliant physicist from the arid anarchist world of Anarres. Shevek’s work is being stifled by jealous colleagues, so he travels to Anarres’ sister-planet Urras, hoping to find more tolerance there. But he soon finds himself being used as a pawn in a deadly political game. 

This is my favourite book of all time, and I can read it again and again. Every time I read it there’s more and it is utterly unputdownable. So where to start? The most fascinating element of this book is the stark difference between the society on Shevek’s native Anarres, with its anarchist state, and the more familiar capitalist regime on Urras. Shevek travels to Urras and as a foreigner entering a world that to the reader makes sense, his experiences shed light on the absurdity of our own system. This is an exploration of how an anarchist state might exist on a large scale and just by presenting an alternative Le Guin has fundamentally changed the way I look at our world. 

That’s not to say that Anarres is presented as perfect, there’s a sinister undercurrent there too and the planet itself requires more help to function than the neighbouring Urras. One of the best things about this book is that nothing and no one is presented as perfect. Shevek is the hero of the story and he is irresistibly likeable, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t make mistakes or behave badly. As a reader we follow him through a huge culture shift and that change does bring out the worst in him at times. He is an alien, and yet utterly human at the same time. 

(at this point I opened the page at a random point, started reading, and then suddenly realised i’d lost half an hour) 

The only draw back of this book is that it takes two or three chapters to get into. The style is jarring at first and I think that initially one has to muster some determination to carry on. That’s it. The only downfall I can think of. Get through the first three chapters, the rest will follow and you will be well rewarded. Le Guin is a creator of worlds, and in this she is masterful. If you read to broaden your mind, if you read to learn what questions are the right questions to ask, then you must read this book. 

I am yet to read a science fiction book not by Le Guin that I can place in the same class. Dune by Frank Herbert might do it, but as i’m still reading that one we’ll have to wait and see.