Page Turners – September 2023 review

In September the Page Turners read and discussed ‘The Measure’, the 2022 debut novel by Nikki Erlick. At the start of this book every adult in the world receives a box containing a string which tells them how long their life will be. The book follows eight people who make a choice about whether to look in their box or not and tells how they deal with the consequences of that decision. It also looks at how wider society deals with the strings.

So, what would you do? Would you look in your box or would you prefer to carry on your life without knowing how long you had left? Would you be prepared to start a relationship or have children with someone you knew would die early? Would you be willing to elect a politician who would not complete their term of office? Should overstretched doctors only treat the patients they know will survive? And what about the implications for employers, mortgage lenders or the armed forces? Under what circumstances should people be forced to reveal the length of their string? The book explores so many questions as the world comes to terms with the arrival of the boxes. It also demonstrates how people will always turn on those who are a little bit different and explores the fear and prejudices that emerge around ‘short-stringers’. Our discussions gave us the opportunity to talk about some of these issues.

The majority, but not all of us, felt that we would probably look at our string even if we did not do the calculation to narrow down the exact date of our death.

Some of us found it difficult to get past the initial implausibility of the arrival of the boxes and were not ‘hooked’ by the initial chapters introducing the characters, but others enjoyed the book because it was so thought provoking. It certainly led to a lively and enjoyable meeting.

If you are interested in swapping our page-turner for one of your own, either as an individual or for a book group, do get in touch.

Deborah Wallis, Convenor