The Book Censor's Library - Bothayna Al-Essa

 

While not a bad read, this one was not one of my recent faves, despite the awards that it has received. Basically it is a slightly surreal update on Orwell's 1984, with numerous references to that tale, but definitely some Alice in Wonderland wackiness added to the mix.

While this is supposed to take place in a near-future, the environment is such a copy or Orwell's story - with a few names changed, although even the author references the book specifically - that it is somewhat distracting.

A book censor, whose job, naturally, is to approve bland books for the publics' consumption that do not encourage imagination or free-thinking, discovers real fictional literature and is immediately addicted. He finds like-minded people and does what he can to save stories from the annual pyre. Unfortunately, his highly imaginative daughter (whose knowledge of fairy tales and stories is unexplained) is taken by the authorities and the censor does what he can in the hopes of her return.

From there, the tale gets even more surreal than it had been, with an unexpected and truly bizarre ending.

Personally, this simply relied too heavily on 1984 without enough originality or even variations on the theme, even as it is obviously a play on modern-day vapidness and the current political environment, which of course, was the point of 1984, as well. Just wasn't for me...