MacKenzie Scott Releases Dystopian Novel on Substack

MacKenzie Scott published her third novel, 'Last Days in Two Nations,' chapter by chapter on Substack in August, presented as downloadable PDFs with typos and a manuscript-in-progress aesthetic. The serialization began on August 8, with the final installment released on August 31. The formatting, double-spaced and scattered with errors, gave the book an unfinished feel.

Plot and setting

The novel is set in a near-future America divided between the authoritarian Dakota Membership and the 'still United' States, following 18 characters over a week as they handle surveillance, rebellion, and genetic control. The story unfolds through these multiple perspectives, charting the tensions in a partitioned nation.

Dakota Membership and its ideology

The Dakota Membership enforces a regime of surveillance, genetic editing, and 'augmented evolution,' assessing citizens for rebelliousness and sending them to 'self-improvement centers' under President Damian Paxton’s leadership. Paxton, an erstwhile surgeon raised in South Africa, believes eugenics are necessary to combat lone-wolf terrorism. He is portrayed as a clean freak who requires decontamination scrubs for visitors and has added his visage to Mount Rushmore. His rule mixes a predilection for 'tits and Taps' with brutal ideological control.

Resistance and character arcs

Liv Lockhart, an event planner for the Dakota Membership, resists the regime after her son is flagged for rebelliousness. She is the daughter of Magnus Lockhart, founder of the Church of the Long Tomorrow, from whose compound she escaped at age twelve. In the present, she drugs an official, steals data, and removes a tracker from her own body. Jonah, a Still United operative, trains a rat for an explosive mission. Liv works for the Bureau of Rewards for Courage, an agency housed in a haunted hotel that is revealed to be a front for the resistance. Her colleague Gary Handler took his government job to secure freedom for his family, while the President's cook, Enrique, accepted his position for his daughter's medical care. The bureau's actions enable the defeat of a dictator but also lead to the internment and genetic mutilation of half a million people. Another subplot involves the wife of a high-ranking official, imprisoned for unknown reasons, who dies after trying to garrote a guard.

Literary context and reception

Scott’s novel continues her literary trajectory from award-winning debut to later works, shaped by her mentorship under Toni Morrison. Her first novel, The Testing of Luther Albright, won an American Book Award in 2005. Her second, Traps, followed in 2013. Both were published by major houses. Morrison, who taught Scott at Princeton, praised her debut. In a 2013 interview, Scott said she tends to be interested in complex problems and likes to endlessly analyze words. The new novel has drawn critical attention for its ambiguous ending, typos, and clichés like 'quiet as a tomb,' alongside inventive wordplay such as 'shitspitality.' One reviewer called the ending a baffling conclusion fit for a baffling project, leaving readers with more questions than answers. Another outlet found the novel hard to untangle. Some drew comparisons between characters and real-world political figures. A publishing expert noted that while ambiguity in the prologue and epilogue appears intentional, deliberate ambiguity still has to earn its keep. Toni Morrison once wrote to Scott, "I have as much disdain as you have for the heavy handed and the excessive." The novel's epigraph is from George Eliot's Middlemarch, describing the 'stealthy convergence of human lots.' Scott's entry into serialized online publishing arrives in an era where Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing has democratized access for many authors, though major success in self-publishing has typically been found in genre fiction rather than literary works. The final installment of the novel was released on August 31.