The Power

I might be the only one who knows what I mean by this, but The Power is like that movie The Adjustment Bureau. The premise got my hopes up, but I kept waiting for it to build to something more.

I did really like some of this:
- Role reversal showing how contrived and arbitrary gender stereotyping is. Swapping pronouns makes it difficult to deny sexism present in our society, and moreover makes it difficult to deny that sexism (and, by extension, gender) is a construct.

- I liked how Alderman played with generation. How the power was surfaced in teenage girls, and it took the adults a while to catch on. And how the young women could awaken the power in older women.

- Tunde's perspective of how power differentials blur lines between sensuality and violence. Similarly, Alderman explores objectification with recurring talk show host snippets.


My main qualm is how the timing of the book clashes with Alderman's broader arguments about power differentials. In The Power, matriarchy replaces patriarchy quickly enough that living people remember what life was like before the power surfaced.

Some of the time, we're celebrating women using newfound abilities to protect themselves and other women from men intending harm.
Other times, we're supposed to see how power inevitably corrupts people. We're supposed to see that matriarchy is no more inherently peaceful and compassionate than patriarchy, and that thinking as much is its own kind of sexism.

And sure, okay, fine, to both points. But the two together are confusing. I don't think Alderman wrestled with that enough, and that muddied what she was saying. Power becomes this weirdly static thing that just attaches itself to certain groups at different times. It's not a book you expect to underwhelm you, but unfortunately it fell a bit flat for me.