Julia

Enter into the world of Big Brother, Newspeak, and the Thought Police as George Orwell’s classic novel 1984 is brilliantly retold and feminized in this fantastic retelling. This time around, Julia Worthing is the main character and Winston Smith fills a secondary but important role. Julia is a mechanic working in the Fiction Department of the Ministry of Truth, where the ideas for book plots are assembled with mechanical gears to be further developed and written by people. She is a pretty, amiable young woman who doesn’t know the meaning of the word hate. After suffering through many ordeals and graphic torture, she does admit that she hates Big Brother and The Party. Newman changes the ending of her edition to a welcome one of guarded optimism for the future. Her flawless writing skillfully captures the tenor of this dystopian novel, which would make a great choice for book discussion groups.