The Unit (Paperback)

~ (Author), Marlaine Delargy (Translator)

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Book Description
One day in early spring, Dorrit Weger is checked into the Second Reserve Bank Unit for biological material. She is promised a nicely furnished apartment inside the Unit, where she will make new friends, enjoy the state of the art recreation facilities, and live the few remaining days of her life in comfort with people who are just like her. Here, women over the age of fifty and men over sixty–single, childless, and without jobs in progressive industries–are sequestered for their final few years; they are considered outsiders. In the Unit they are expected to contribute themselves for drug and psychological testing, and ultimately donate their organs, little by little, until the final donation. Despite the ruthless nature of this practice, the ethos of this near-future society and the Unit is to take care of others, and Dorrit finds herself living under very pleasant conditions: well-housed, well-fed, and well-attended. She is resigned to her fate and discovers her days there to be rather consoling and peaceful. But when she meets a man inside the Unit and falls in love, the extraordinary becomes a reality and life suddenly turns unbearable. Dorrit is faced with compliance or escape, and…well, then what?

The Unit is a gripping exploration of a society in the throes of an experiment, in which the “dispensable” ones are convinced under gentle coercion of the importance of sacrificing for the “necessary” ones. Ninni Holmqvist has created a debut novel of humor, sorrow, and rage about love, the close bonds of friendship, and about a cynical, utilitarian way of thinking disguised as care.

A Q&A with Ninni Holmqvist
Question: The Unit is not set in the present, but its echoes of present-day issues are clear and ominous. Describe the world of The Unit.

Ninni Holmqvist: The Unit is a dystopia set in a near future. It is about people who don’t have any children or anyone else who loves them and need them, and who aren’t useful to the society in any other way either. These people are called “dispensable,” and they are picked up at their homes at a certain age (women at 50, men at 60) and taken to special units (“reservbanksenhet” in Swedish) for biological material, where they are supposed to serve the society through participating in various tests (like animal testing but made on people), but also, eventually, by donating organs to those of the society’s needed citizens—the ones who produce and raise children, the loved ones, the ones who contribute to the economic growth—who are afflicted with severe illnesses and need organs from healthy bodies to survive. Dorrit Weger, who just turned 50, is one of those dispensable. She is a writer, childless, quite poor, and lives alone with her dog. The story begins with her arrival at the unit, an establishment/institution she immediately finds a lot more comfortable and human and loving and beautiful than she ever could have expected.

Question: The Unit raises a number of complex—and sometimes disturbing—ethical questions. Do you see the novel as having a central moral theme?

Ninni Holmqvist: The book is above all written as a critique of society and the way political leaders today see everything in figures and numbers. But my aim was also to raise questions like: What is freedom? What is human dignity? How do we humans value our selves and each other? But The Unit is also very much a story about love (Dorrit meets the love of her life at the unit, a man called Johannes, and she also, miraculously, gets pregnant) and friendship and loyalty.

Question: Who did you write The Unit for? Did you have someone—personally, or in society—that you intended the story for?

Ninni Holmqvist: My intention was that it is for everyone. But I guess it might especially appeal to middle-aged single people, childless ones. But also people who are in or are close to other categories of “dispensable” people: disabled people for instance, long time unemployed persons, culture workers. And people who are critical of capitalism and economism. Perhaps also people who don’t mind being provoked.

From Publishers Weekly

Swedish author Holmqvist's unconvincing debut, part of a wave of dystopias hitting this summer, is set in a near future where men and women deemed dispensable—those unattached, childless, employed in nonessential professions—are checked into reserve bank units for biological material and become organ donors and subjects of pharmaceutical and psychological experiments. When Dorrit Weger, who has lived her adult life isolated and on the brink of poverty, is admitted to the unit, she finds, to her surprise, comfort, friendship and love. Though the residents are under constant surveillance, their accommodations are luxurious, and in their shared plight they develop an intimacy rarely enjoyed in the outside world. But an unlikely development forces Dorrit to confront unexpected choices. Unfortunately, Holmqvist fails to fully sell the future she posits, and Dorrit's underdeveloped voice doesn't do much to convey the direness of her situation. Holmqvist's exploration of female desire, human need and the purpose of life has its moments, but the novel suffers in comparison with similar novels such as The Handmaid's Tale and Never Let Me Go. (June)
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Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Other Press (June 9, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590513134
• ISBN-13: 978-1590513132
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (58 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #22,641 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Chilling, June 10, 2009

By	B. McEwan "yellokat" (Brooklyn, NY USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

(What's this?)

The Unit tells the story of a near-future society that divides its people into two groups: those who are necessary and those who are "dispensable." The latter category is comprised of women 50 years and older and men 60 and older who are childless and don't work in a "necessary" industry. Many of the dispensables are artists. The primary character, a woman named Dorrit, is a writer who has just passed her 50th birthday.

Because they do not contribute to the future society by raising children, the dispensable people are considered selfish. They followed their dreams of self-fulfillment and therefore when they reach late middle age it's time to "pay the piper," so to speak, by offering themselves up for scientific experimentation and organ donation. The Unit is the housing/medical facility where they live while serving as test subjects, until it comes time to make their "final donation," usually their hearts and lungs. These donations are always made to people who are "needed" by their families.

Originally written in Swedish, the novel is marvelously translated by Marlaine Delargy. I say this not because I can read Swedish but because the English translation gave me chills as I read it. Anyone who can create prose that, quite literally, fills readers with anxiety and fear must, it seems to me, have created a superior translation.

One of the many things that is striking about the plot of The Unit is that, once inside the medical facility, the dispensables generally find freedom and an ability to be themselves that they lacked on the outside, where they were made to feel different and generally useless. Even though the unit offers them many creature comforts that they did not have before, it is still a prison and the place where they will be institutionally murdered. Yet most of the characters clearly value the acceptance and even love that they feel within the unit community. Through these characters, author Ninni Holmqvist raises some intriguing questions about the nature of "community" and how its various members become insiders or outsiders.

The one criticism I have of The Unit is that its central concept -- that of a society creating a separate, social caste of organ donors -- is strongly derivative of an earlier, brilliantly original novel by Kazuo Ishiguro called Never Let Me Go. Although Holmqvist devlops this idea in a different way than did Ishiguro, her plot seems too close to Ishiguro to warrant five stars. Nevertheless, I recommend this novel, especially to readers who enjoy stories in the genre of science fiction/future dystopia.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A powerful vision of a dystopian society, May 31, 2009

By	S. Turlington (Hillsborough, NC USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

In The Unit, Holmqvist takes us into a dystopian world that is more frightening because it seems so familiar. In this near-future or alternative society (it is never clear which), people are are deemed "dispensable" are confined to the unit, a dreamlike world where they have no wants unmet, while they are efficiently employed as subjects of dangerous experiments and their organs systematically harvested for the benefit of the "needed." To not have children is the primary means of becoming dispensable, although they seem to be drawn from the ranks of artists, writers and others who cannot conform to middlebrow society for one reason or another.

Dorritt is such a person. Before coming to the unit, her closest relationship was with her dog. But once there, she experiences for the first time true friendship, love and acceptance for who she is, which makes her quiet, detached descriptions of the emotional and phsyical tortures that her friend and, ultimately, she suffers there all the more horrifying.

The power of The Unit is its subtlety. We never really know how a supposedly democratic society instituted this practice of harvesting their fellow citizens, or why the people tolerate it, although we are given hints. As the story progresses, we learn that there are fewer and fewer dispensable people, so that the definition of who is unneeded must be expanded to keep up the supply of organs and test subjects. Meanwhile, the inhabitants of the unit seem unaccountably resigned to their fates, but as Dorritt tells her story, we almost come to understand why -- which makes it all the more terrifying.

The Unit was originally published in Sweded and was translated into English by Marlaine Delargy. I haven't read a lot of Swedish literature, but given the quality of this novel, I should seek out more. Highly recommended.

Note: This review is based on a reading copy provided by the publisher.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A spin on "The Handmaid's Tale" - from the other side., June 13, 2009

By	J. Lee "imajeel" (Houston, TX USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

(What's this?)

Here's one I don't think you'll want to put down and won't be able to stop thinking about for awhile! It's a unique, imaginative "high concept" premise that's executed well.

Ultimately, it takes The Handmaid's Tale (Everyman's Library) and turns it on it's head. Here's the upsides and downsides to me:

SUMMARY: In a future Sweden, childless 50-year old women and 60-year old men deemed "dispensable" are carted off to be more productive for society in a luxurious guinea pig farm. Dorrit, a standout among those, tells her tale of the experience.


Upsides and Downsides:
- Incredibly believable and engaging.
This is a well-written book with a great premise that kept me turning the pages and invested in the character's plights. I literally "couldn't put it down". There's enough twists and turns to keep anyone happy.

- What you'd think might be politically preachy - isn't.
I was afraid this book might be a rant. It's NOT! It's an all out fantasy - with believable characters, and more subtle character-driven insights into perceptions on aging and dispensability.

- It's a depressing perspective, but with bits of light.
This isn't a "feel good" book. But, the premise alone should tell you that. The luxurious setting and the spirited characters make up for that.

- There's one thing that really bothered me.
I was thrown for a loop at one point when the main character (and it's written in first person) confesses that she hasn't told the truth about something - and doesn't reveal the truth. It makes you question everything she's said before. But, there is a reason for it, and ultimately I found it didn't outweigh the power of the story.

BOTTOM LINE: If you enjoy unique, alternative reality premises with complex women protaganists that are well executed like The Host: A Novel or The Handmaid's Tale (Everyman's Library) you will absolutely enjoy this one!