The Misconceiver: A Novel

Lucy Ferriss looked not terribly far ahead (this book was published in 1997) to a world where privacy is a thing of the past. Some of the things she sees, and which have come to pass, are a world that runs on plastic cards, print journalism and other paper-based reading material no longer exists, and women are second-class citizens. Included in the nightmare is the fact that discrimination against homosexuals is not only tolerated but encouraged. Sadly, Miss Ferriss saw the future all too accurately in a few respects. This is a frighteningly prescient novel wherein the lead character, a woman who provides abortions (or "misconceptions") finds a web of conspiracy surrounding her in an Orwellian world. This is a book that raises difficult questions, and it is a troubling, but important, read. While set in the future, it returns us to a time when a woman's only function was to marry and breed. Given that American pharmacists are now allowed (on a supposedly limited basis) to refuse to do their jobs on "moral" grounds, and that there is an idiot spouting off about how condoms cause the spread of AIDS, I found it difficult to read this book without nodding in recognition. Lucy Ferriss writes about the future, and it is a scary place to be.