"What is a woman for?" asks Red Clocks. And while the novel doesn't contain any definitive answers, it does a great job of playing the Devil's Advocate while exploring issues of pregnancy, abortion, motherhood, work and relationships, while asking us to consider the expectations that society places on women.

These issues are given a sharp focus by placing the novel's four protagonists in a worryingly plausible near future USA where abortion and IVF are banned, and where only married couples can adopt - a classic science fiction setup. (And make no mistake, this is a science fiction novel.)

The book's chapters are each told from the point of view of one of the four protagonists, and while this constant shifting of perspective is perhaps a little confusing at first, it quickly becomes clear how the four characters' lives relate to one another, and the unfolding of their personal dilemmas and how they affect each other is immensely satisfying. It's also incredibly stressful - I was terrified for the four women, scared throughout that they were going to do, or have done to them, something awful. The book does, however, avoid the trap that too many dystopian futures fall into, of portraying an utterly bleak hopelessness - things are very bad, but there's the sense in the end that it doesn't necessarily have to be this way forever.

So what is a woman for? Red Clocks won't tell you, but it will demand that you give it some serious thought. It's a great book - sad, funny, despairing and hopeful all at once - and I can't recommend it highly enough. ( )

Going through my physical bookshelf, I almost got rid of this one. But now it feels really relevant, a cautionary story. I'll definitely need to read this

I devoured this after midnight in a Newark hotel. Great and, as others have noted, a necessary story in this moment. Not a dystopian novel — currently we’re only one heartbeat away from this reality. My only disappointment? I don’t think we’re going to get the complete Minervudottir biography. Spin-off?? ( )

Synopsis: The tale of 5 women struggling with different aspects of womanhood. This story is set in a world where laws are much more right leaning than present day America. It follows a woman in a historical setting who is an explorer, a woman going through fertility treatments, a unconventional healer, a teenager, and a struggling mother.

Rating
3 out of 5 stars

I expected to really love this book but unfortunately I didn't.

I thought the message of the book was interesting and the ideas presented were valuable but it is a very literary novel which made it semi inaccessible. The main character in each chapter is denoted by their role rather than a name. We only learn their names when other characters interact with them.

My favorite character was the one who was struggling with her fertility. I didn't really connect with the rest. I wasn't entirely sure what we were supposed to be learning from the explorer or the struggling mom. The healer was very odd. I assume she is meant to be neurodivergent but a few things about her character were really off putting to me. The teenager was the only other character I cared about.

I felt like the author had a lot to say about womanhood but I just felt like I wasn't getting a lot of her messaging.

I think this book could really work for people who are more used to literary works. This book could also create awesome discussions in a book group or class room. I just didn't enjoy it in my personal reading experience. ( )

Red Clocks follows the lives of four women: the biographer, the wife, the mender, and the daughter shortly after a constitutional amendment has passed that has made abortion and IVF illegal and is about to make adoption by a single parent illegal as well.

While Red Clocks presumably focuses on the current "hot button" issue of abortion, for me this book provides more of a retrospective on the many ways in which women have been relegated, in times past, to a role of "less than" in society. The characterization of one woman (the mender) as a "witch" and another (the wife) as an unhappy housewife I believe to be examples of how women have been trapped and persecuted in the past. The biographer struggles with an all consuming desire to have a child while writing a book about a female polar explorer who is again, limited by pre-defined gender roles. There's an irony to the biographer's desire to be a mother as she writes a book about a woman trying to shake off the traditional female role in favor of exploration and adventure.

It's also interesting to look at the tension between the women themselves. The women intersect in interesting ways, torn between their own desires, judgements, and experiences and empathy for their fellow women. The biographer wants a child and the daughter is going to bear one, but the biographer can't decide whether to support the daughter's desire to end her pregnancy (illegally) or beg her to permit the biographer to adopt the baby. The wife, saddled with two fairly typical children and a stifling marriage of her own, judges the biographer for taking every available avenue to become pregnant. The mender is falsely accused by her lover; herself an abused wife. .

For me, all of this interplay was very interesting and the dystopian premise was probably the weakest part. The subtleties of the story where the true nature of feminism is revealed made the book more meaningful. I loved the structure and the writing itself. I think there is an underlying message here that we women are oftentimes our own worst enemies and not as united in our collective feminist drives as we might think we are.

The ending of the book is beautifully done - - a capstone on writing that felt fresh to me:

"She wants more than one thing."

Does that not summarize the entire truth of the female human experience in the most simple possible way? ( )