Autonomy becomes urgent necessity in a volume of interlocking stories and a novel, Heroines must shed socio political expectations and their conditioning to remake their worlds.
ANNA & THE AMERICAN PUZZLE is a dystopia that has an uncanny urgency for the U,S. As the new Democratic president faces a congressional logjam of conservative Republicans, the future viability of our system has become a question. Kasman's novel is set in an America ruled by an autocracy of the religious far right. How might this play out for most Americans? Her novel, in the form of a young girl's diary, is a devastating look into this alternative world.
It begins in 2024, when Anna is 14. There is of course the propaganda and how it's used to manage the population. Here are neo-Puritan ideals of "bootstrapping," that hard sustained work and faith in divine laws will be rewarded in this world and the next. If a person or family is not succeeding it is because they are lax. But the truth is that only a small elite, those whose families are part of the ruling class or traditionally serve them have money. Government manages information technology, media, higher education. etc, Only people with good paying jobs and access to higher education are part of the religious-political elite.
Everyone else is poor without even food security, like Anna's exhausted mother. Anna, the eldest of six, must do housework, care for siblings, manage school, as well as scavenge meals, shoes and clothing. She, like her mother, falls short of the official expectations, Then, like its her fault, her mother constantly exhorts her not to flaunt her looks. Ann's natural charisma. beauty and intelligence attracts unwanted attention and eventually she's expelled from school. And, when her mother seeks help from a local political leader,Anna is sent to a reform facility for girls "like her."
Yet, Anna's looks and on camera talent, make her an asset for the government. Eventually, she enters the ranks of the privileged and becomes a media celebrity. She appreciates how rare it is for someone with her background to become a national icon. But becomes unhappy, when she is forced to cede her private life to government management, including her choice of husband and child-rearing. When she learns of torturous ways her image is being used, Anna is finally radicalized. In the underground, she becomes the person hidden all along and enters the fight to for the real America.
ANNA AND THE AMERICAN PUZZLE imagines the results of a far right coup on our way of life. It is a not unfamiliar scenario in the wake of the recent occupation of the White House. Worth the read to consider the fall out for regular people. A cautionary tale for adults, this is also a great read for YA audiences.
I don't often review self published books but this dystopia caught my imagination. I do think this book deserves to be republished, perhaps as a New Edition put out by a real publisher. Such publishers hire professionals to edit, copyedit, proofread and traffic copies to make sure changes have been made-- before having a book printed. The changes to the paperback I read had not been updated before it was out. May be fixed now. Consider a hardcover.
S.W.
