While Orwell’s 1984 had its characters surveilled in a literal sense by Big Brother, Leila Lalami imagines a near future in which a Risk Assessment Authority tracks each individual’s ‘risk score’ through the constant collection of data from observed behaviour, online activity, relationships and even the content of their dreams.
Like many, our protagonist, Sara Hussein, had a device implanted soon after giving birth that allowed her better sleep. However, the fine print allows the monitoring of her dreams. It’s this that causes her detention by the RAA. Like the characters in Philip K Dick’s Minority Report, none of her fellow inmates have committed a crime. Nor have they considered the implications of laws that allow for innocent people to be detained and studied to determine the likelihood of future criminal activity. The corruption she encounters in this process leads her to believe that her captors and the very system they work for are ‘bound to miss exculpatory evidence because it’s not looking for it in the first place’. They only seek the money they can make.
This storyline would likely be enough to have readers seriously contemplating the freedoms we take for granted, as well as the insidious nature of how our data is and will come to be used as a commodity. But there’s also subplot around the detainees being used as test subjects for both sharing and product placement in dreams. But, this is a weaker subplot that isn’t fully explored.
Although it has imperfections, perhaps tries to take on too much, it’s a genuinely engaging and thoughtful, clever novel.
Reviewed by Lauren Cook
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Laila Lalami is the author of five books, including The Moor’s Account, which won the American Book Award, the Arab-American Book Award, and the Hurston / Wright Legacy Award. It was on the longlist for the Booker Prize and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction.
The Other Americans was a national bestseller, won the Joyce Carol Oates Prize, and was a finalist for the National Book Award in Fiction.
Her books have been translated into twenty languages. Her essays have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, The Nation, Harper’s, the Guardian, and the New York Times. She has been awarded fellowships from the British Council, the Fulbright Program, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the Radcliffe Institute at Harvard University. She lives in Los Angeles.
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