Julia

May 1, 2023

Newman's retelling of Orwell's 1984 focuses on Winston Smith's lover, the glibly apolitical Julia, who works as a mechanic in the Fiction Department at the Ministry of Truth. But one day she surprises herself by slipping Winston a note and starts rethinking her world. From the author of The Heavens, The Country of Ice Cream Star, and the recent, controversy-stirring Men. Prepub Alert.

Copyright 2023 Library Journal

Copyright 2023 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 15, 2023
In a retelling of 1984, Winston Smith's lover takes center stage. As the author of two previous dystopian novels (The Heavens, 2019; The Men, 2022) and a humorous guide to classic literature (The Western Lit Survival Kit, 2012), Newman seems uniquely qualified to update Orwell's anti-fascist cri du coeur. If you haven't recently read 1984, it's worth perusing a plot summary to appreciate her achievement, placing Julia Worthing at the center of the action and moving Smith to a supporting role. All the familiar lineaments are here--Airstrip One, Oceania, Big Brother, Newspeak, the Ministries of Truth and Love, the dreaded Room 101, the rats (oy, the rats), as well as every character, many of them revised in clever ways. Though Newman sticks with the worldbuilding Orwell planned in 1949, not adding post-'84 developments like smartphones, home assistants, or the internet (though these actually do seem to play the surveillance role that Orwell assigned to the telescreens), she embroiders the edges of the original WWII-flavored vision with myriad amusing flourishes (and if you remember anything about 1984, you remember that amusing is not one of the adjectives that comes to mind). For example, though Julia is still a mechanic, working on the machines of Fiction, her first job at the Ministry of Truth was producing porno novels for proles, e.g., Inner Party Sinners: 'My Telescreen is Broken, Comrade!' She meets "a very willing but ignorant girl with the preposterous name of Typity. It was one of the new ultra-Party names; its letters stood for 'Three-Year Plan In Two Years.' " Orwell described Julia as "a rebel from the waist down" and Newman runs with that, making Winston Smith one of many lovers and recasting his noble anti-state obsessions through Julia's much more pragmatic eyes. "Most folk muddled along, but Old Misery Smith couldn't even say 'ungood' without looking as if it scalded his mouth." Book clubs could have great fun reading the two together. Adding a major plot twist, a nice shot of (somewhat cynical) hope, and more graphic sex should win over even purists.

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August 21, 2023
Newman (The Men) delivers a provocative feminist retelling of George Orwell’s 1984 from the perspective of Julia Worthing, a mechanic working on the machines in the Ministry of Truth’s Fiction Department, where she’s become a master at subverting surveillance. As a result, Julia enjoys a healthy clandestine sex life and averts the ever-present threat of the ironically named Ministry of Love’s “eyeless mice gnawing at her in the dark.” She soon becomes fascinated by Records Department colleague and fellow apostate Winston Smith, whom she dubs “old Misery.” Unlike Orwell’s Julia, Newman’s is dominant and fastidious. Still, Newman stays true to Orwell’s dystopian details as she places Julia at the center of 1984’s plot points, such as having her feign allegiance and alliance to Big Brother and avoid even the suggestion of malfeasance and the horrors of Room 101 at all costs, until she can’t. Julia’s narrative voice is refreshingly fearless as she navigates her way around the Party’s nefarious thought policing, and a wicked plot twist spins the original narrative on its ear. Newman adds a fresh coat of menacing gray to Orwell’s gloomy world.

September 1, 2023
This brilliant novel by the author of The Men (2022) and The Heavens (2019) is about as ambitious as you can get: a retelling of George Orwell's 1984 from the point of view of the protagonist's love interest, Julia, who plays a key supporting role in Orwell's dystopian classic. Here, Julia is an ideal citizen of Oceania, the fictionalized surveillance state Orwell dreamt up, who becomes unmoored when she falls for a colleague, Winston Smith (and Orwell's lead). The novel closely follows the original story, but also expands on it, opening up new corners of the world to make it even darker, more vividly real. Although it never feels like Newman is imitating Orwell's writing style, the novel has the same texture, and in scenes providing Julia's take on passages from the original, Newman reproduces Orwell's original dialogue verbatim. This is not a rewriting of 1984; it's a faithful, respectful retelling of a familiar story from a fresh new angle. Wonderful.

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Starred review from October 27, 2023

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. VERDICT Heartily recommended; a well-executed story with as much significance in today's world as Orwell's original was in 1949. --Lisa Rohrbaugh

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