The Unit

The Unit is a dystopian novel set almost entirely within the confines of the Second Reserve Bank Unit which is a complete living facility for older people that society at large has deemed dispensible. As readers, we don't know how this legal situation came about or what drove their country to create these facilities, but we can see from the people who end up there how society's priorities lie. The novel is Swedish authored and set in Sweden so it was interesting for me to see how much of The Unit's philosophy meshed with what I know of lifestyle choices in that country.

If it wasn't for what has to be given in return, life in The Unit sounds like bliss. There are excellent leisure facilities, empathetic staff, it never rains and the library can swiftly get any book requested! However, the price is to repeatedly volunteer for potentially dangerous clinical trials and experiments, and to donate increasingly more vital organs to more deserving people on the outside. I was fascinated by how these 'dispensible people' cope with this situation. The criteria by which they are chosen would almost certainly make me one of them in just a few years so to say I was unsettled by this book is a massive understatement!

I was completely convinced by Holmqvist's creation and from thinking about how drug trials are actually carried out in poor African towns and villages, it's not a huge leap of faith to get to Units. I thought the intensity of friendships and relationships was very real and poignant and I was gripped by this story from start to finish. Holmqvist's writing style suits her subject perfectly. A scary prospect!

Maybe it's because I read the two up so closely, but this book kind of felt like "The Handmaid's Tale" for the elderly mixed with "The Island" / "Jonas 7: Clone"



Dorrit lives in Sweden, in an undetermined future. Society sees the elderly only as a financial burden if they haven't shown their value in their past life, either by procreating or achieving great successes. Those who didn't manage after a certain age are marked "Dispensable" and brought to "The Unit" where they live the rest of their life. Dorrit, a writer without a family, is one of the Dispensables and the novel starts with her move. "The Unit" is a resort, where she and other "Dispensables" have access to all luxuries of life and no more duties - except participating in medical experiments and donating, bit by bit, their organs to people who are more valuable to society, until they die by giving their final donation.



Like in "The Handmaid's Tale" actually not much happens as such - Dorrit mostly remembers her previous life and settles in The Unit, finds friends and a new love. There is no much drama except what is expected - she becomes close to people only to see them waste away by sickness or being taken in for their last donations. But other than "The Handmaid's tale" the novel has a very passive protagonist in every respect. Dorrit does not more than observe and she does not make any progress by going through her story. In the end nothing is changed, nothing is learned. The horrors of The Unit are shown to us so that we may look at them shock, but nothing is made of it.



I still give three stars because it was an entertaining audibook with a very pleasant reading voice by Suzanne Toren. It just not left any big impression on me.