Vox by Christina Dalcher

By the way, the other book that everyone says ends too fast is A Handful of Dust. Evelyn Waugh did OK for himself.

Oh God, Christina, I'm terribly sorry. I had no idea you were on here.

I loved your book, but I'm an editor and being picky and an annoyance to all is in the blood. Even on SM.

Sorry. Keep going, please. I will buy your second book the moment it comes out.

I thought it started off as a think piece and suddenly ended up a thriller. I suspect someone mentioned broadcast rights halfway through her writing it.

I agree that the central idea of muting women falls to bits too early. None of the next generation would be able to speak, the adult women wouldn't be much good as servants, and there are other groups of people - intellectuals, gays, etc - who would more logically require muting but aren't.

The huge gap is the censorship of the past - women's lack of voice in print and history - that just isn't mentioned. If she'd flicked a few mentions in we would have had continuity and depth, not a slightly sci-fi one-off tv special.

Just out of interest, why different titles in the US/UK?

Dark is good - I'll put it on my wish list

I think it might be interesting! I went a little bit darker... :-)

Sounds like the next one could be interesting too!

Hi Barbara,
Book Two (MASTER CLASS in the US / Q in the UK) is due in spring 2020.
www.amazon.com/Master-Class-Christina-Dalcher/dp/0440000831?tag=mumsnetforu03-21
Cheers,
Christina

Wow! Thanks for coming on the thread, Christina.

And those points about pidgin and language rich creoles are very interesting.

Have you got any more novels in the pipeline?

With respect to the critical period for language acquisition mentioned by Barbara Strozzi, yes, I am aware of this. But there is strong evidence (look at the emergence of structure-rich creoles in children of pidgin-speaking parents, the development of Nicaraguan Sign Language, or Lightfoot's work on cuing new grammars) that peer influence may carry more weight than parental influence. Since the boys in VOX's world are regularly exposed to language outside the home during a rather wide use-it-or-lose-it window, we might expect them to acquire language normally.
As always, thanks for the engaging discussion comments!
Christina Dalcher

I couldn't get into it. I fou d the writing style irritating.

I've read it and thought it was a poor quality rip off of The Handmaid's Tale. Even the style is similar, especially the narrator saying something and then contradicting herself - in THT that works, in Vox it doesn't. The names are also similar - June in THT, Jean in Vox.

I enjoyed this and The Power by Naomi Alderman.

I think i won Vox on mumsnet

Anyway i agree with other posters, good premise but a bit of a disappointing delivery

It was quite a light, easy read

It's her first novel.

who is Christina Dalcher? never heard of them do they right fiction or is it more religious?

Some good ideas but poorly executed. The world of the book wasn't properly thought through and so as it went on I became less engaged and my reading speeded up. As others have said, the ending is rubbish.

It's set up in the plot as a reason some men are prepared to support backing women in their rebellion, yes. My point though is it's deeply implausible this would happen in the first place, though.

Barbara, exactly!
Gilead makes a lot more sense.

I thought the concept was great but the writing is crap and some of it just doesn't make sense. Could be a great TV shoe in better hands than the author.

Even within the author's academic bubble it makes no sense. As a former academic researcher in the overlap area between linguistics and neuroscience, Dalcher must know that the developmental window for language acquisition is a use it or lose it phenomenon. So if you rendered all the mothers in your society mute, and sent the men out to work, those men's sons would end up not developing language. Which presumably the dystopian patriarchy would not want as an outcome.

I thought it was twaddle tbh. It starts off with what feels like a good idea superficially but the more you think about it the more it falls apart.
What did it for me in the end was the realisation that without speech you couldn't do the vast majority of your wifework, so the husband has saddled himself with someone who can cook and clean but not do a lot more. I don't think there are many men who would be willing to effectively take on all the household organisation and parenting and lose the emotional support even if they are nasty sexists and want their wives to shut up.
This in itself struck me as deeply ignorant of how women live outside the author's academic bubble.

It's an interesting and enjoyable read in a disposable pulp fiction sort of way, but not actually very good as a book. The characterisation is a bit thin, and the plot twists are all signalled with signposts that wouldn't be out of place on a motorway, so nothing comes as a surprise. (And if I had to read one more description of her lover's manly man hands, I think I'd have screamed.

Three stars on an Amazon review if I was in a generous mood. I think it got a bit of an easy pass by reviewers on the strength of the "if you liked Atwood here's something to read next" vote. Naomi Alderman's The Power is a much better book.