The novel, We presents the character of D-503, a mathmetician living in a dystopia. His job is working on a spaceship called The Integral, and he starts keeping a journal. He soon begins to question his role in society and finds himself falling in love with the rebellious and revolutionary I-330.

Fans of utopian or dystopian novels will appreciate this novel which is claimed to have been the first major anti-utopian fantasy which directly influenced the well-known works of Brave New World and 1984.

What I particularly liked about We was the way the world was presented, as journal entries from someone living in the society. D-503 does address his audience and goes out of his way to explain things to someone who might live in a different manner than the one he finds himself in, but for the most part, things aren't over-explained. The world is just presented as he finds it, and the reader is left filling in the gaps.

There is nothing I didn't like about this book. I found myself a little confused at times, but I think that was intentional on the writer's part. As readers, we're not given every single detail or explanation of events and actions, but as I said, I think that part is intentional. Instead, our focus is placed upon D-503 and his experiences, feelings and thoughts.

Whenever I finish a utopian/dystopian novel, I just want to find more of them. I find them fascinating and I can't get enough of them! We quickly joined my favorite utopian classics, like 1984 and Brave New World.

Yevgeny Zamyatin was influenced by the Cold War, Dostoyevski, and German expressionism, and was himself a revolutionary, being arrested and exiled a number of times for his revolutionary actions. He wrote We in 1921 and 1922, and was not published in the USSR until 1988.

I always recommend utopias and dystopias, as I find them to be fascinating works of fiction which often closely resemble the world we live in today. I find the comparisons and connections interesting and terrifying at times.

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Created Aug 08, 2009 at 10:25am • Submit your own review...