Newman hasn’t proved herself a worthy successor to Orwell; she’s outclassed him, both in knowledge of human nature and in character development. Julia should be the new required text on those high-school curricula, a stunning look into what happens when a person of strength faces the worst in humanity, as well as a perfect specimen of derivative art that, in standing on another’s shoulders, can reach a higher plane.” — Los Angeles Times
“The realm Newman describes is no more free nor tolerant than the one Orwell made famous, but it’s given considerably more room to breathe…All this flows from her lively heroine, Julia, which is a brilliant strategy for re-seeing this iconic story… it’s a thoughtful exploration of a clever woman’s survival within an unimaginably cruel bureaucracy.” — Washington Post Book World
"As George Orwell predicted, Big Brother is indeed watching us, making his classic novel, 1984, ripe for revival. This daring retelling moves Winston Smith to the side and centers his badass girlfriend.” — People
“Remarkable...For a little while, just a little, readers can hope that rebellions aren’t always doomed, and an individual might have some power over the collective.” — Associated Press
“Julia is a welcome reminder of just how vital Orwell’s text still is—and how much fun can be had in its unexplored corners.” — Esquire
"A formidable task, to take on a classic and remake it from a new perspective. The bar is set high by Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea (1966)… Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad (2005)… [and] Natalie Haynes’s A Thousand Ships (2019)…In Julia, the American novelist Sandra Newman courageously takes on George Orwell’s 1984, by mirroring the tale through the eyes of Winston Smith’s lover. Spoiler alert: she succeeds, brilliantly." — Telegraph (UK)
“A fascinating reflection on totalitarianism as refracted through Orwell’s times and our own.” — The Guardian
“Offers a female character with a rich inner life. Her Julia is a survivor, more subversive than Winston, adroit at evading control, finding a kind of liberty...A twisty ending in keeping with the original makes this an enjoyable read even to those unfamiliar with 1984...This Julia cannot help but balance out [Orwell’s] blind spots and bring his opus up to date.” — The Economist
"Newman does much more than update 1984, she makes it seem essential reading again." — Sunday Times (London)
“Newman seems uniquely qualified to update Orwell’s anti-fascist cri du cœur…She embroiders the edges of the original WWII-flavored vision with myriad amusing flourishes…Book clubs could have great fun reading the two together." — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Electrically memorable, Julia is as startling and incendiary as 1984 ever was, with dark humor and pathos commenting on perennially timely questions.” — Shelf Awareness
“Newman delivers a provocative feminist retelling of George Orwell’s 1984...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.” — Publishers Weekly
“Brilliant...fresh...Wonderful." — Booklist
"This extraordinary novel is like a newly discovered room in your house, in a dream—the illusion is so precise, the execution so masterful, that you think it must have been there all along, just waiting for you to find it. Sandra Newman has succeeded wildly at the impossible task she was given; Julia should surprise and delight not only devotees of Orwell’s classic, but fans of Newman’s own daring, disquieting, and emotionally affecting oeuvre.” — J. Robert Lennon, author of Subdivision and Broken River
“If you thought you knew Julia, as 1984's Manic Pixie Dream Girl, be warned. In Sandra Newman's compelling retelling, Julia has both a conniving agency as well as an escalating and tragic fragmentation. Oceania, Newman insists, has a whole other layer of dystopian horror for its women.” — Darcey Steinke, author of Sister Golden Hair
“A book whose disturbing imagination reaches through the page into our world.” — Naomi Alderman, New York Times Book Review, on The Men
“Heady and elegant . . . The Heavens is something of a chameleon, a strange and beautiful hybrid . . . I woke from The Heavens as I hope to emerge from any work of fiction: moved and unsettled, a new and intoxicating set of questions alight on the mind’s horizon.” — Laura Van Den Berg, New York Times Book Review
“Special books are Sandra Newman’s specialty, and The Heavens is no exception . . . If you decide to delve into it, Newman will take you on quite a ride through her vivid imagination.” — Lynn Neary, NPR Weekend Edition
★ 2023-07-26
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 cœur. 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.
