Book Review: The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin

The Dispossessed is a major book in the science fiction community, having won multiple awards and being highly regarded. I had, for whatever reason, never actually read it, though I've read other of Ursula Le Guin's books. So after hearing about it recently at work I decided to go ahead and give it a read.

Anarres, Shevek’s homeland, is a bleak moon settled by an anarchic utopian civilization, where there is no government, and everyone, at least nominally, is a revolutionary. It has long been isolated from other worlds, including its mother planet, Urras—defined by warring nations, great poverty, and immense wealth. Now Shevek, a brilliant physicist, is determined to unify the two civilizations. In the face of great hostility, outright threats, and the pain of separation from his family, he makes an unprecedented trip to Urras. Greater than any concern for his own wellbeing is the belief that the walls of hatred, distrust, and philosophic division between his planet and the rest of the civilized universe must be torn down. He will seek answers, question the unquestionable, and explore differences in customs and cultures, determined to tear down the walls of hatred that have kept them apart.

To visit Urras—to learn, to teach, to share—will require great sacrifice and risks, which Shevek willingly accepts. Almost immediately upon his arrival, he finds not the egotistical philistines he expected, but an intelligent, complex people who warmly welcome him. But soon the ambitious scientist and his gift is seen as a threat, and in the profound conflict that ensues, he must reexamine his beliefs even as he ignites the fires of change.

Read on for my spoiler-free review.

Overall Impression

This was an interesting book, heavy on societal implication and moderately light on the plot. We focus on the main character, Shevek, as he struggles to fit in. He's far from perfect, but through him we see the idealized anarchist utopia he wishes his home world was. The commentary on society, both anarchist and capitalist, is the chief focus of this book.

Plot

The plot is told through two separate timelines. We start with Shevek boarding the ship from Anarres, his home world (the moon technically) to go to Urras (the planet). The next chapter we see his early childhood. This progresses through the story- alternating chapters progressing the Urras and Anarres timelines until they converge. It's an interesting approach, which sometimes names characters before we've actually met them. It works very well, though, to show how both societies, the anarcho-syndicalism in Anarres and the capitalism in Urras, are far from perfect.

Characters

The main focus of the book is Shevek's journey. He is a physicist that has some clever ideas about the simultaneity of time, something he hopes will make space travel, or at least communications, instantaneous. While that's interesting to me as a scientist, we only touch on it briefly in the book; this is not hard sci-fi after all. Instead, we get to see his growth and development, how he is sidelined and rejected by his own society. And then in Urras, we see him go through a similar realization as he discovers the grim underside of the capitalist nation he visits.

There are a number of supporting characters, like Takver, Bedap, Rulag, Atro, Pae, Chifoilisk, and others, but they serve mainly to center Shevek in the story. Overall, Shevek was a complex character, idealist and ambitious in equal measure.

Setting / World Building

The story is set in a planetary system around Tau Ceti, in a planet with a large, habitable moon. The planet, Urras, has a long history and at some point a group of rebels establish a refuge in the moon, Anarres. This settlement embodies ideals of an anarchic, socialist society, where nobody owns anything and everyone shares in the work. It's a grim utopia, though, as the moon is more of a desert and it's a daily struggle to get enough food and water to the communities there. We also hear about two other groups of people- those from Terra (Earth) and Hain. I have heard of the Hainish Cycle, and read several books in it, but never really connected them all.

A huge focus of the book is the societal structure and the commentaries on it. In Anarres, we have a society of anarchist working together in syndicates to meet the needs of their society. Shevek, from Anarres, represents this utopia to us as readers, but even he can admit that it's far from perfect. In Urras, there are several nations, but the main one that Shevek visits is a more familiar capitalist society. He is constantly contrasting his experiences there with his expectations, mainly about possessions and about freedoms. It's fascinating to see this commentary and while one is portrayed better than the other, it's still clear that neither is perfect. There is no perfect utopia.

Final Thoughts

This was an interesting book. The plot was a bit slow-going, though I found the time alternating a clever plot device. The main character Shevek was initially not very likeable, but the main emphasis was really to have him there to showcase how the different societies work. That is the books principal highlight and I found it very interesting to hear how the Anarres society works even through it's hardships. In terms of fictional societies, I still think the society presented in The Hands of the Emperor is the best, but probably also highly idealized.