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Gabrielle (Reading Rampage)'s Reviews > The Dispossessed
The Dispossessed
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by
Gabrielle (Reading Rampage)'s review
bookshelves: sci-fi, favorites, mandatory-reading, speculative-fiction, reviewed, own-a-copy, read-in-2015, desert-island, book-crush, to-read-again, own-multiple-editions, read-in-2019, sf-masterworks, read-in-2025
Aug 13, 2015
bookshelves: sci-fi, favorites, mandatory-reading, speculative-fiction, reviewed, own-a-copy, read-in-2015, desert-island, book-crush, to-read-again, own-multiple-editions, read-in-2019, sf-masterworks, read-in-2025
Read 3 times. Last read September 26, 2025 to October 7, 2025.
Updated review after a re-read in October 2025.
“Those who build walls are their own prisoners.”
I was only a few pages into what might be my fifth or sixth reading of this masterpiece, and let me tell you, reading ‘The Dispossessed’ in 2025 hits different. Perhaps because that was the first place where I was introduced to the concept of ‘oligarchic plutocracy’ many, many years ago and now I see that shit on the news every single day. Perhaps because I can’t remember the last time I picked up my phone and wasn’t flummoxed by whatever my newsfeed was showing me. Perhaps because I really struggle to stay hopeful about the absolute shitshow that the planet has been turning into over the last ten years…
But.
I love this book with my whole heart. I love how Ursula LeGuin always refused to be hopeless - and she saw some fucked up shit happen in her life. And I love that she once said that while we feel like the capitalist system we live in right now seems inescapable, so did the divine rights of kings, once upon a time…
It can be a tough book, in the sense that it forces readers to look at hard questions: about freedom, individuality, society, the value of human lives and ideas. Big, big questions. The enemy in LeGuin’s book is not any one specific ideology, but complacency and consolidation of power in the hands of the rich on one planet, and the bureaucrats on another. She knew that this was where the real threat was, and she wondered how broken do systems need to be for people to break free, truly.
But it’s also a wonderful book because LeGuin never talks down to her readers, she never assumes we are not going to get it. And it is so layered that every time I pick it up, I find new, incredible sentences to be awed by, to underline and cherish. I love Shevek, who never wanted to be a main character in any story, who just wanted to do good work, love his partner and be himself. And somehow, there’s no place for him to do that in either of the societies he is exposed to. LeGuin knew how much courage and hard work it takes to be yourself. She also knew what a true loving partnership looks like, because the bond between Shevek and Takver can seem unusual to us, but I find it deeply romantic.
Revolution can be a scary word. But I read this brilliant, brilliant novel and see the world of Urras through Shevek’s eyes, and yeah, it makes no sense. What does make sense is unmaking walls and being the revolution, keeping it in your spirit every day of your life.
Read LeGuin if you need hope. If you look for me, I’ll be gulping her words down like life-saving water in the desert of Anarres. This was always an important book, and now more than ever, it should be read by everyone. It was a welcome antidote to the miasma of ambient despair for a few precious hours.
“We left with empty hands (…) and we were right.”
---
“Change is freedom, change is life."
"It's always easier not to think for oneself. Find a nice safe hierarchy and settle in. Don't make changes, don't risk disapproval, don't upset your syndics. It's always easiest to let yourself be governed."
"There's a point, around age twenty, when you have to choose whether to be like everybody else the rest of your life, or to make a virtue of your peculiarities."
"Those who build walls are their own prisoners. I'm going to go fulfill my proper function in the social organism. I'm going to go unbuild walls.”
This novel will for ever be one of my favorite books: when graceful, intelligent prose and brave, nuanced ideas collide into one great story that intertwines the personal and the political, you get a treasure like “The Dispossessed”. This book jumped at the top of my favorites list mere seconds after I finished the last line.
Shevek was born and raised on the anarchist colony of Anarres, and while he has always embraced the principles on which his society was founded, as his work in physics becomes more complicated, challenging and promising, he begins to see cracks in the utopic system his ancestors created. A visit to the twin (but capitalist) planet Urras brings into sharp relief the differences between the two worlds, but also brings to light more commonalities than Shevek had expected. He soon finds himself caught in a high stake political game that would seek to make him the figurehead of a new revolution – or let him take the fall for its failure, depending on who has the upper hand.
LeGuin built her story carefully, and the two narratives, one set on Urras and one on Annarres, feed each other and collide at the perfect moment to bring the story together flawlessly. Brilliant narrative structure aside, this book is simply stuffed with beautiful and thought-provoking passages I had to stop and re-read a few times.
It would be a gross over-simplification to say that this is a sci-fi book about communism. Yes, it is that, but it is so much more. It is a nuanced, idealistic, heartbreaking, gentle and extremely intelligent novel. The subtitle “Ambiguous Utopia” is perfect: a book like that challenges the reader without ever trying to preach to them, letting them make their own minds up about the fictional anarcho-communist planet of Annares and its relation to its capitalist home world of Urras.
Shevek is one of the most beautifully rendered characters I’ve encountered. Stuck between both worlds, he struggles with the philosophies he lived his whole life by, the advantages of the new world he is discovering and his longing for what he left behind. He is flawed and lost, but also incredibly wise and brave, with a strong sense of compassion and integrity. I just loved him. And unexpectedly, I found his relationship with his partner Takver to be deeply romantic.
Le Guin definitely preached to the choir in terms of politics with me, I admit it. But I admired the fearlessness with which she chose to point out that whatever system of wealth distribution you live in, people will try to exploit each other, people will bully and ostracize those who don’t fit quite right with their herd, people will feel jealously and hatred. People on Annares share the wealth and the work, but they are still humans, with all the good and negative connotations that entails. This is why her utopia is ambiguous: human nature remains no matter what system you place it in and while you can dream of giving people a better life by giving them a system or code to get rid of inequalities, you can never remove the wild card of “people and how they will behave” from the equation.
I believe this book to be a classic, and I believe it completely transcends the science-fiction label. It is nothing less than a great work of art in my eyes and I recommend it to everyone.
"You cannot buy the Revolution. You cannot make the Revolution. You can only be the Revolution. It is in your spirit or it is nowhere."
“Those who build walls are their own prisoners.”
I was only a few pages into what might be my fifth or sixth reading of this masterpiece, and let me tell you, reading ‘The Dispossessed’ in 2025 hits different. Perhaps because that was the first place where I was introduced to the concept of ‘oligarchic plutocracy’ many, many years ago and now I see that shit on the news every single day. Perhaps because I can’t remember the last time I picked up my phone and wasn’t flummoxed by whatever my newsfeed was showing me. Perhaps because I really struggle to stay hopeful about the absolute shitshow that the planet has been turning into over the last ten years…
But.
I love this book with my whole heart. I love how Ursula LeGuin always refused to be hopeless - and she saw some fucked up shit happen in her life. And I love that she once said that while we feel like the capitalist system we live in right now seems inescapable, so did the divine rights of kings, once upon a time…
It can be a tough book, in the sense that it forces readers to look at hard questions: about freedom, individuality, society, the value of human lives and ideas. Big, big questions. The enemy in LeGuin’s book is not any one specific ideology, but complacency and consolidation of power in the hands of the rich on one planet, and the bureaucrats on another. She knew that this was where the real threat was, and she wondered how broken do systems need to be for people to break free, truly.
But it’s also a wonderful book because LeGuin never talks down to her readers, she never assumes we are not going to get it. And it is so layered that every time I pick it up, I find new, incredible sentences to be awed by, to underline and cherish. I love Shevek, who never wanted to be a main character in any story, who just wanted to do good work, love his partner and be himself. And somehow, there’s no place for him to do that in either of the societies he is exposed to. LeGuin knew how much courage and hard work it takes to be yourself. She also knew what a true loving partnership looks like, because the bond between Shevek and Takver can seem unusual to us, but I find it deeply romantic.
Revolution can be a scary word. But I read this brilliant, brilliant novel and see the world of Urras through Shevek’s eyes, and yeah, it makes no sense. What does make sense is unmaking walls and being the revolution, keeping it in your spirit every day of your life.
Read LeGuin if you need hope. If you look for me, I’ll be gulping her words down like life-saving water in the desert of Anarres. This was always an important book, and now more than ever, it should be read by everyone. It was a welcome antidote to the miasma of ambient despair for a few precious hours.
“We left with empty hands (…) and we were right.”
---
“Change is freedom, change is life."
"It's always easier not to think for oneself. Find a nice safe hierarchy and settle in. Don't make changes, don't risk disapproval, don't upset your syndics. It's always easiest to let yourself be governed."
"There's a point, around age twenty, when you have to choose whether to be like everybody else the rest of your life, or to make a virtue of your peculiarities."
"Those who build walls are their own prisoners. I'm going to go fulfill my proper function in the social organism. I'm going to go unbuild walls.”
This novel will for ever be one of my favorite books: when graceful, intelligent prose and brave, nuanced ideas collide into one great story that intertwines the personal and the political, you get a treasure like “The Dispossessed”. This book jumped at the top of my favorites list mere seconds after I finished the last line.
Shevek was born and raised on the anarchist colony of Anarres, and while he has always embraced the principles on which his society was founded, as his work in physics becomes more complicated, challenging and promising, he begins to see cracks in the utopic system his ancestors created. A visit to the twin (but capitalist) planet Urras brings into sharp relief the differences between the two worlds, but also brings to light more commonalities than Shevek had expected. He soon finds himself caught in a high stake political game that would seek to make him the figurehead of a new revolution – or let him take the fall for its failure, depending on who has the upper hand.
LeGuin built her story carefully, and the two narratives, one set on Urras and one on Annarres, feed each other and collide at the perfect moment to bring the story together flawlessly. Brilliant narrative structure aside, this book is simply stuffed with beautiful and thought-provoking passages I had to stop and re-read a few times.
It would be a gross over-simplification to say that this is a sci-fi book about communism. Yes, it is that, but it is so much more. It is a nuanced, idealistic, heartbreaking, gentle and extremely intelligent novel. The subtitle “Ambiguous Utopia” is perfect: a book like that challenges the reader without ever trying to preach to them, letting them make their own minds up about the fictional anarcho-communist planet of Annares and its relation to its capitalist home world of Urras.
Shevek is one of the most beautifully rendered characters I’ve encountered. Stuck between both worlds, he struggles with the philosophies he lived his whole life by, the advantages of the new world he is discovering and his longing for what he left behind. He is flawed and lost, but also incredibly wise and brave, with a strong sense of compassion and integrity. I just loved him. And unexpectedly, I found his relationship with his partner Takver to be deeply romantic.
Le Guin definitely preached to the choir in terms of politics with me, I admit it. But I admired the fearlessness with which she chose to point out that whatever system of wealth distribution you live in, people will try to exploit each other, people will bully and ostracize those who don’t fit quite right with their herd, people will feel jealously and hatred. People on Annares share the wealth and the work, but they are still humans, with all the good and negative connotations that entails. This is why her utopia is ambiguous: human nature remains no matter what system you place it in and while you can dream of giving people a better life by giving them a system or code to get rid of inequalities, you can never remove the wild card of “people and how they will behave” from the equation.
I believe this book to be a classic, and I believe it completely transcends the science-fiction label. It is nothing less than a great work of art in my eyes and I recommend it to everyone.
"You cannot buy the Revolution. You cannot make the Revolution. You can only be the Revolution. It is in your spirit or it is nowhere."
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Quotes Gabrielle (Reading Rampage) Liked
“He was appalled by the examination system, when it was explained to him, he could not imagine a greater detterent to the natural wish to learn than this pattern of cramming in information and disgorging it on demand.”
― The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia
― The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia
“He explained to Atro that he now understood why the army was organized as it was. It was indeed quite necessary. No rational form of organization would serve the purpose. He simply had not understood that the purpose was to enable men with machine guns to kill unarmed men and women easily and in great quantities when told to do so. Only he still could not see where courage, or manliness, or fitness entered in.”
― The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia
― The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia
“And the strangest thing about the nightmare street was that none of the millions of things for sale were made there. They were only sold there. Where were the workshops, the factories, where were the farmers, the craftsmen, the miners, the weavers, the chemists, the carvers, the dyers, the designers, the machinists, where were the hands, the people who made? Out of sight, somewhere else. Behind walls. All the people in all the shops were either buyers or sellers. They had no relation to the things but that of possession.”
― The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia
― The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia
“You cannot buy the revolution. You cannot make the revolution. You can only be the revolution. It is in your spirit, or it is nowhere.”
― The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia
― The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia
“Change is freedom, change is life.
It's always easier not to think for oneself. Find a nice safe hierarchy and settle in. Don't make changes, don't risk disapproval, don't upset your syndics. It's always easiest to let yourself be governed.
There's a point, around age twenty, when you have to choose whether to be like everybody else the rest of your life, or to make a virtue of your peculiarities.
Those who build walls are their own prisoners. I'm going to go fulfil my proper function in the social organism. I'm going to go unbuild walls.”
― The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia
It's always easier not to think for oneself. Find a nice safe hierarchy and settle in. Don't make changes, don't risk disapproval, don't upset your syndics. It's always easiest to let yourself be governed.
There's a point, around age twenty, when you have to choose whether to be like everybody else the rest of your life, or to make a virtue of your peculiarities.
Those who build walls are their own prisoners. I'm going to go fulfil my proper function in the social organism. I'm going to go unbuild walls.”
― The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia
Reading Progress
August 13, 2015
– Shelved
August 13, 2015
– Shelved as:
to-read
August 14, 2015
–
Started Reading
August 25, 2015
– Shelved as:
sci-fi
August 31, 2015
– Shelved as:
favorites
August 31, 2015
– Shelved as:
mandatory-reading
August 31, 2015
– Shelved as:
speculative-fiction
August 31, 2015
–
Finished Reading
May 18, 2016
– Shelved as:
reviewed
August 15, 2016
– Shelved as:
own-a-copy
August 21, 2016
– Shelved as:
read-in-2015
December 8, 2016
– Shelved as:
desert-island
January 11, 2017
– Shelved as:
book-crush
July 26, 2017
– Shelved as:
to-read-again
August 29, 2018
– Shelved as:
own-multiple-editions
November 6, 2019
–
Started Reading
November 6, 2019
– Shelved as:
read-in-2019
November 10, 2019
–
Finished Reading
February 16, 2021
– Shelved as:
sf-masterworks
September 26, 2025
–
Started Reading
September 26, 2025
– Shelved as:
read-in-2025
October 7, 2025
–
Finished Reading
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carlageek
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rated it 4 stars
Feb 26, 2020 02:27PM
The narrative structure and worldbuilding in this book are both truly astonishing.
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carlageek wrote: "The narrative structure and worldbuilding in this book are both truly astonishing."It's truly a masterpiece!
Great review, Gabrielle! Yes, human nature gets in the way of any utopia, doesn’t it?
Nataliya wrote: "Great review, Gabrielle! Yes, human nature gets in the way of any utopia, doesn’t it?"Thank you Nataliya!
I really enjoyed this book, so I will be eager to read about your reactions to it.
path wrote: "I really enjoyed this book, so I will be eager to read about your reactions to it."Hi path! I have read this one many times and it's an absolute favorite!
What a great review. I've had this on my list for a while but I honestly forgot about it. Thank you for the reminder. Just requested it from the library
Alexandra wrote: "What a great review. I've had this on my list for a while but I honestly forgot about it. Thank you for the reminder. Just requested it from the library"Thank you Alexandra! This book is so incredible, and now is an excellent time to read it!
What a great bumper sticker that would be: "Be the revolution." I love your passionate review, Little Sis.
That’s a stirring review, and it does certainly seem like the kind of tonic one needs these days.
Julie wrote: "What a great bumper sticker that would be: "Be the revolution." I love your passionate review, Little Sis."Thank you, Big Sis! I want that bumper sticker!! 🖤
path wrote: "That’s a stirring review, and it does certainly seem like the kind of tonic one needs these days."Thank you, path! LeGuin is the sane relief I needed.
