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Book Review of Anthem

Anthem
Isabel-Batteria avatar reviewed on + 70 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2


Very short. The world in which it takes place is one in which there is no individuality, and there are no singular personal pronouns, such as I and she. The novel is written from a first person point of view, and when the protagonist speaks of himself, he says "we". When he speaks of someone else, he says "they", because everybody is everybody and it's a crime to think of oneself as unique. So the novel is extremely confusing until you realize this. I thought he was always accompanied and that he wasn't one but a group of people with similar qualities until I understood the novel's fictional society. After that, I made a point to substitute the confusing pronoun for the correct one, so I didn't get more confused. So this uncalled-for strain prevented me from enjoying the novel fully. Plus the end is a very long soliloquy, and I hate that.