Full Disclosure: This book was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via Netgalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on June 14, 2022 in exchange for a potential review. I give my word that this did not affect my review in any way - if I felt conflicted in any way, I would simply have declined to review the book.
January Fifteenth by Rachel Swirsky
January Fifteenth is the latest work by Award Winning Author Rachel Swirsky. The novella is in theory - per her own author's note - Swirsky's imaginative take on a world in which the US imposed Universal Basic Income ("UBI")*.
*For those who haven't heard of UBI, it's the policy of a government providing every person in a country with a basic income - basically a monthly or yearly stipend - so that in effect everyone has at least some money to spend.*
Per that author's note, Swirsky conceived of the scenarios in this novella based upon some research - although no sources or research is cited here, so it's hard to tell what she actually looked at - like if she looked at experiments that have been done in various places in the world of giving people money....or just listened to proponents and opponents of the policy suggest outcomes.
Unfortunately it seems like Swirsky just listened to the latter, and then attempted to take the most outlandish and extreme scenarios she could think of being affected by UBI to create four unconnected scenarios to make up this novella. The result is as subtle as a sledgehammer, and features Swirsky honestly more interested in most of it in attacking an idea that money brings happiness....which of course isn't actually the point of UBI. The result is basically four dystopian stories, without much commonality or real interest to recommend, often dealing with other issues that the novella doesn't take time to actually deal with properly or interestingly.
This novella has four stories it alternates between rather than a unifying plot, each from the perspective of a different character.
Hannah: a woman fleeing her abusive ex-wife with her two kids in tow, thanks to help from UBI, but now lives in fear of collecting her UBI check or appearing in public for fear of her ex-wife finding her;
Janelle: A black Freelance reporter in her mid 20s who is raising her teenage sister (due to their parents' death in an accident) who is trying to interview people about UBI while her trans girl sister tries to be a firebrand and speak out about how UBI isn't enough or only hurts as its implemented;
Olivia: A Rich girl whose friends are throwing a party about wasting UBI...while she floats around in a drug-helped haze as if she's not there since she's burdened by troubles she's unable to share and a feeling that nothing really matters;
Sarah: A teen bride in an extremist Mormon cult that relies on UBI to survive, who is bursting with mental trauma about how she is treated and about how the cult abuses and uses her loved ones....and might be using them to commit a horrifying fraud.
These stories are kind of ridiculous and extreme as if they come out of people's talking points about UBI, and barely relate to the policy as much as the central idea that More Money isn't making one Happy (see Olivia's arc). So you have Right Wing anti-UBI people talking about how UBI will help extremist cults made into a plot (Sarah); you have Center-Left anti UBI people talking about how not means testing UBI will result in a waste of money by rich people who don't care about money and just aren't happy and desrve pity anyway (Olivia); you have a Left Wing anti UBI view about how UBI will be means tested and marred by racism* (Janelle); and you have I guess a pro UBI view about how money will help abused people get away from their abusers.
*Yes, Janelle's story seems to assume means testing while Olivia's does not. No there's no coherence here.*
You'll note that's like 3 anti UBI viewpoints to one pro UBI viewpoint, and even that pro UBI viewpoint barely really revolves around UBI, but is more about an abused spouse and kids trying to flee and needing kindness to get away from their abuser. And there's just not enough substance in any of it really for the plot to say anything interesting other than "here are some of the more outlandish scenarios that pundits speculate about happening due to UBI!". And well, we could've gotten that in a non-fiction book, which could have also then examined how research and experiments have found UBI to actually work. Instead we get all these scenarios, which well you can kind of get out of like a pundit show on cable TV.
There just isn't really anything here, and like where the stories deal with other themes, like Janelle's struggle as a teen mom, or Hannah's struggle to evade abuse, or Sarah's dealing with cults, or Olivia's with mental illness, there isn't enough substance for those plots to really treat those subjects with any seriousness they deserve.
So yeah, I think you can probably tell by my tone on this review that I'm interested in the idea of UBI, even if I haven't seen a proposed UBI policy I've actually been in favor with yet. And I'd certainly be interested in some sort of SciFi exploration of it. But this isn't it - instead it just feels like creativity inspired by a week watching debaters on cable news, and that's a hard pass.
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