Reviews: Zoë Ann Fairbairns

Benefits (1979)

(London: Virago, 1979) (translated into German as: Der Frauenturm: eine Apokalypse).

Closing (1988)

editor, Cinderella on the Ball

editor, Tales I Tell My Mother: Feminist Short Stories

editor, More Tales I Tell My Mother: Feminist Short Stories

Reviews & Synopses:

Fairbairns' Benefits traces a future history of women in Britain. Concentrating on government influence over women's fertility, this novel portrays an all-too-possible dystopia. Particularly striking were Fairbairns' dissection early in the novel (p. 38) of double-speak phrases like "the fight against inflation" and "giving parents a free hand," phrases that ring all too familiarly to us in 1996. All in all, a neat book -- well-written, well-thought-out, and depressing as hell. An interesting spin on the same sorts of ideas as in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale; and in fact, there were actual references to the Biblical handmaid. This in a work published six years prior to The Handmaid's Tale. -- lq, 6/21/96.