First Impression Friday will be a meme where you talk about a book that you JUST STARTED! Maybe you’re only a chapter or two in, maybe a little farther. Based on this sampling of your current read, give a few impressions and predict what you’ll think by the end.

Synopsis:

The citizens of the One State live in a condition of ‘mathematically infallible happiness’. D-503 decides to keep a diary of his days working for the collective good in this clean, blue city state where nature, privacy and individual liberty have been eradicated. But over the course of his journal D-503 suddenly finds himself caught up in unthinkable and illegal activities – love and rebellion.

Happy Friday, everyone! Technically, it is already Saturday. So, happy weekend, everyone! Thankfully, we were able to make it through another workweek. With this, I hope you ended the workweek on a high note and were able to accomplish everything you wanted to. I hope you are jumping into the weekend without much worry. Here in the Philippines, the skies started to open up after a couple of damp days, riddled with intermittent sunny days. This unusual mix of hot and cold has resulted in several cases of flu. Nearly everyone is feeling under the weather, whether at work or at home. As such, I hope everyone else is doing well. It is time to let your hair down and wear comfortable clothes. Slow down and take a rest. I hope everyone will have a great weekend. I hope everyone will find peace amid this pandemonium. More importantly, I hope everyone is doing well, in body, mind, and spirit.

With the workweek coming to an end, it is time for a fresh, albeit (as usual) late, First Impression Friday update. Despite the late updates, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to publish one update. It has become an essential component of my weekly book blogging routine, a space that allows me to process my current read. In September, I pursued works of European writers. However, I will be concluding this literary journey this month after spending a whole quarter in this part of the literary world. As always, it was a memorable journey, riddled with amazing reads, both from writers whose oeuvre I have not explored before and familiar writers. It is just sad that I have to conclude, but there are just too many good books out there waiting to be read. To officially conclude this journey is Yevgeny Zamyatin’s WE.

Interestingly, the driver for my foray into European literature is my reading challenges; I realized that I have been falling behind. Ironically, WE is not a part of any of these reading challenges, although technically, the book being part of the 1,001 Books You Must Read Before You Die list makes it part of one of my reading goals this year; I plan to read at least 20 books from the said list, although I have been lagging behind in this as well. WE is the first novel by the Russian writer I have read, and it is the fifth book by a Russian writer I have read this year, making 2025 my most prolific year for reading Russian literature. Originally written between 1920 and 1921, WE has an interesting publication history. Its English translation was first published in 1924, before the full Russian text, with the title Мы, (My) was published in 1952.

Set in a dystopian future, the novel is presented as a series of “Records” written by the story’s primary narrator, D-503. The narrative takes place in the One State, a civilization constructed almost entirely of glass. Ruling over the nation is an authoritarian government led by a god-like, cruel dictator known as the Benefactor. D-503 is a mathematician and spacecraft engineer, as well as the lead designer of the Integral—a rocket ship commissioned by the One State to travel to and invade extraterrestrial planets. The One State seeks to indoctrinate these alien worlds, promoting complete subservience to the government and total reliance on logic, mathematics, and rationality. After all, the Benefactor believes that individual freedom is secondary to the welfare of the State.

Through D-503’s journals, the readers are taken on a literary tour across the landscape of the One State. The denizens – referred to as “ciphers” – occupy glass apartment buildings, which are carefully watched by the secret police, referred to as the  Bureau of Guardians. He has vowed complete subservience to the State, essentially a mouthpiece for the Benefactor. He also has a regular sexual partner named O-90. The state assigned her to visit him on certain nights. The opening chapters also laid out the landscape of the story. Life in the One State is reminiscent of life in the superstates in George Orwell’s 1984. This comes as no surprise because WE served as an inspiration for the beloved literary classic. Both books are highly acclaimed, transcending both time and physical boundaries, and for good reasons.

Ideologically, D-503 is aligned with the One State, particularly at the start. But as the story progresses, I expect a confrontation of his own ideologies. I am expecting he will meet a motley crew who will challenge his personal and political views. From what it seems, both have been stymied by the State. It is interesting because the novel was written when the USSR was under a totalitarian regime, although WE is a prognosis of the future. The basis, however, lies in the past, and the past also serves as a reference for the future. Whatever the book has in store, I am looking forward to how Zamyatin (or Zamiatin) steers the story. The book is a rather slim read, but I want to relish the story. How about you, fellow reader? What book or books have you read over the weekend? I hope you get to enjoy whatever you are reading right now. Happy weekend!