What Not: A Prophetic Comedy

"What Not: A Prophetic Comedy" by Rose Macaulay is a funny story that makes fun of society, taking place after a big war, where a special government group called the Ministry of Brains tries to make everyone smarter and control how things are going. The main character is Ivy Delmer, a young office worker who finds herself in a strange world with silly rules about how smart people should be. The story starts by showing everyday life for people going to work in London after the war, while also making us think about what the war did and what might happen next. Ivy is shown as a simple, curious person working at this Ministry, and we also meet other characters like her smart friend Miss Kitty Grammont and Vernon Prideaux, who wants to get ahead. The book suggests there will be a lot of conflict between being smart, what society expects, and what people really want, all while making fun of the dumb things governments do.