We by Yevgeny Zamyatin

I rarely read books written before 1960, and I rarely have access to science fiction from non-English writers. So when I saw We on the library shelf, I thought it would be a good opportunity to expand my horizons.

We is a social satire written in 1921 by Russian satirist Yevgeny Zamyatin. The main character, D-503 is a mathematician who lives in the One State, where all live for the common good and there is no concept of individual freedom. According to the back cover, D-503's life is disrupted when he experiences love. But that's not the way it read for me. Reading D-503's description of his feelings reminded me more of the obsession described in Maugham's Of Human Bondage.

The character is totally out of control. His actions and feelings are totally foreign to him and contrary to everything he believes. Yet, he insists on maintaining his beliefs in spite of his new experience, which reminded me of Voltaire's Candide.

Satire can be difficult to read if you don't know the subject(s)  being spoofed. And I confess that I know so little about Socialist philosophy that most of the book's references probably went passed  without notice. But I still found the narrative interesting. The view point character, D-503, is a mathematician, and he often describes people and places in mathematical or geometrical terms; something I haven't seen in any other novel. The narrative style also incorporated stream-of-consciousness elements. Sentences were often left incomplete, and the subject of the narrative often jumped without transition. This made the book difficult to read.

Personally, I wouldn't have classified this book as a classic. The story wasn't anything special. But some of the narrative choices were interesting. So the book may be worth studying if you're an aspiring author.