FACTORY 19 Dennis Glover

“They tell us that human happiness lies only in the future. But what if it really lies in the past?"

What a thought provoking book, while set in a clearly dystopian future you cant help but feel that the links between where we are now and the world depicted by Glover are not too tenuous. The links to Orwell’s writing are clear to see but this novel certainly identifies with our modern world and the nostalgia of our recent past.

The book begins in 2022 by depicting a world that has embraced technology to an even greater extent than we have today and the story explores the possibility that things were better in the past. Philanthropist Dundas Fausett reopens a fully working factory in Hobart and builds a society based on life 70 years earlier and invites those frustrated by the saturation of the digital age move to it.

Narrated by Paul Richey, a political script-writer recovering from a digital -breakdown and hired to run the factory, the story really challenges the readers to think on what an ideal society really looks like. While 1948 starts out to be a beautiful time at the beginning of this new society, people’s desire to progress can’t be restrained and, as history can show us, you sometimes have to be careful what you wish for!

A really good read that I highly recommend to lovers of Australian writers, political and dystopian fiction.

A solid 4/5 stars from me

(Review date - 3 March 2021)

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