The Unit: Scary Brave New World Type Book (author, fiction, buy)

[LauraC]

I don't read a lot of fiction. I don't even remember how I got the book recommendation that influenced me to buy The Unit by Ninni Holmqvist.

If you are 50 (women) and 60 (men) and are single, childless and don't have a job in a progressive industry, you are sent to The Unit where you can live out the remaining years of your life and make new friends, enjoy state of the art recreational facilities, parties, eating places and beautiful gardens. The only catch is that since you are a "dispensable" you are expected to sacrifice for the "necessary" people on the outside by submitting to tests (like tests of potentially dangerous new drugs) and making organ/body part donations until you are called upon for the final donation (like heart and lungs).

And when the pool of dispensables starts to run low, and the donations are speeded up decreasing your length of time in The Unit, there are always those pesky laws to lower the qualifying age for dispensable candidates or to reclassify what's actually a job in a progressive industry.

Scary stuff especially with the healthcare age-related rationing tied to resources debates going on now. But, this author is Swedish and lives in Sweden so I doubt she was influenced by American politics.

Still, this book will make you uneasy especially if you meet the criteria of a "dispensable."

[annika08]

This sounds fascinating. I don't read much fiction either (history is my passion), but I have a few on my list for Christmas that are on the dark side ("The Road" being one of them). I'll look more into this one-sounds a bit Soylent Green-ish in a way.