Jenna Bush Hager entered her dystopian era with her March Read With Jenna pick, โThe Dream Hotelโ by Laila Lalami.
The novel follows Sara, a woman who finds herself pulled aside by airport security not for smuggling a few extra toiletries in her carry-on, but for a dream that they believe indicates she may one day commit a crime.
In โThe Dream Hotelโ universe, officials use dream-monitoring data to predict whether someone could pose a threat to society. Sara’s dreams are enough of a threat to land her at a retention center with other โdreamers,โ all of whom are trying to prove their innocence.
Lalamiโs latest novel is not only a commentary on todayโs heightened surveillance, but also the role that technology plays in an increasingly distrusting world.
While March is rapidly coming to a close, Lalami has five book recommendations for lovers of โThe Dream Hotelโ and beyond. For all her thought-provoking recommendations, keep reading.
“The Trial” by Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka’s famous novel โThe Trialโ is the unsettling tale of a respectable bank officer, Josef K., who is suddenly arrested for a charge that he must defend himself against with no information.
โWe follow K on a harrowing journey through a legal bureaucracy that surveils and punishes him without ever telling him why he is being imprisoned,โ Lalami told TODAY.com.
โThis book begins with one of my favorite first lines: โSomeone must have been telling lies about Joseph K., for without having done anything wrong he was arrested one fine morning.โโ
“The Memory Police” by Yoko Ogawa
Taking place on an unnamed island, โThe Memory Policeโ follows the eerie disappearance of various everyday objects โ and how people have been made to forget them altogether.
The novel details โa writer who discovers that someone close to her actually remembers the forbidden words,โ Lalami explained.
โOgawa explores life under authoritarian systems, the ethical choices that people have to make, and the vital role that language and storytelling play in our survival.โ
“Oryx and Crake” by Margaret Atwood
โOryx and Crakeโ is an unconventional, layered environmental dystopia about a man navigating love, loss and survival in a world overtaken by powerful corporations.
โA man who believes he is the last human alive tries to carry on, in a world that was both decimated and repopulated by genetic engineering,โ Lalami said. โAtwood is so adept at world building, and this one is especially fascinating.โ
“The Intuitionist” by Colson Whitehead
โThe Intuitionistโ is a dystopia by award-winning author Colson Whitehead. In the Department of Elevator Inspectors, two factions โ the Empiricists and the Intuitionists โ are warring for dominance.
Lila Mae, an Intuitionist and the cityโs first black female inspector, comes under fire after a new building crashes on her watch, making the feud between the two opposing groups even more intense.
Consequently, the elevatorโs crash allows Lila Mae to โdiscover the truth about the school of thought she has devoted herself to for years,โ Lalami said. โYears after reading this one, Iโm still amazed that a novel about elevator inspectors could be so riveting, so fun, and ultimately so profound.โ
“Parable of the Sower” by Octavia Butler
โParable of the Sowerโ follows the harrowing story of Lauren Olamina, a young girl who is faced with extreme grief after a fire kills her immediate family and destroys her home. Completely alone, Lauren is forced to approach the dangers of the world head-on.
The novel struck Lalami as eerily current. โThe apocalyptic wildfires that raged in Los Angeles this past January have made the fictions of Octavia Butler seem even more prescient,โ she said. โBut โParable of the Sowerโ offers more than just a future of climate disaster; it also shows us ways that people can work together to survive.โ
