Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: The Female Man by Joanna Russ ISBN: 0-8070-6299-5 Publisher: Beacon Press Pub. Date: 17 March, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.74 (31 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Thought provoking, for all genders
Comment: I'm a guy. Just thought I'd get that out of the way before I write this. I knew this was considered a classic of science fiction before I even found a used copy, but I have to admit that I wasn't looking all that forward to reading it. For one the cover (the old original one on the paperback) is a garish thing, basically a feathered woman putting on another skin. Plus I knew the book was about female issues and specifically issues that came up during movements that started in the seventies, when the book was written. At least it was short, I told myself. I'd get it over with quick. Boy, was I surprised. Not only does this rank among the best books I've ever read, but it gave me a lot to think about. Part of that has to do with Russ' style, she cascades all sorts of chapters together, bouncing back and forth, her prose is excellent, not just femenist rhetoric, she brings up all sorts of points about everything. And her contrast of the different worlds, there's Joanna's world, which is like ours (she's the female trying to be liberated), and Jeannine's world, where the Depression never ended (she's meek and just wants to go along with the group, essentially), then there's Janet's, where men don't exist at all (my favorite scene is where the newspeople ask how she has sex if there are no men and Janet explains to their dismay). There's one other too but that's a surprise. The style is sometimes confusing at first, sometimes you don't know who is narrating or which character is which but after a while it all starts falling together. Russ peppers it with her own observations throughout, my favorite being when she anticipates the reviews the book is going to get (not good ones). Is it angry? Sure but back then she had a lot to be angry about, and she comes across rationally through, her anger is righteous and not of the "all men should die!" type of rage. Like I said, it gives guys and gals lots to ponder and deserves to be wider read. The style may be off putting but the message is clear as anything. You just have to dig a little with thought to figure it out.
Rating: 4
Summary: A complex, involving sci-fi novel about alternate realities
Comment: Jeannine, anxiously awaiting marriage to her boyfriend, is a librarian on an Earth that never saw an end to The Great Depression. Joanna is a 1970s feminist trying to make it in a man's world by being just like a man. Janet Evason, a traveler from Whileaway which has not been home to a man in over 800 years, suddenly appears on a Broadway sidewalk. The three women are drawn to one another, presumably to learn and to share information. Things take a different track when they meet Jael Reasoner from an alternate Earth with separate, warring male and female societies. She has plans of her own for the three women.
This is a fantastic science fiction book centered on the idea that any given situation has a number of choices. What happens if all the choices actually occur, creating separate realities. What would the Earth be like in each of those realities? How would humans behave and act? Author Joanna Russ lays all these ideas at your feet, and then throws in: and what if you could travel between these realities?
Russ also gives the story a feminist flavor, having each of the characters represent a different aspect of a woman without being weak or vicitmized. They're very strong, very well-defined characters, challenging the reader to open his or her mind to all the possibilities around them.
The only difficulty I encountered with this book was sticking with the narrator. I never really knew who was talking at which time because the scenes would change from chapter to chapter. A little confusing at times, but if you stick with the book, the outcome is definitely worth it.
Rating: 2
Summary: Has aged very poorly
Comment: This rambling bore of a book was one of 18 nominated for a Nebula award in 1975, but it certainly hasn't aged well. Russ ends the book "Do not complain when at last you become quaint and old-fashioned...Rejoice little book! For on that day , we will be free!" This pretentious closing gives The Female Man more self-credit than it deserves. The author thoughtfully provided some disjointed text in Part 7, Section III that sums up my feelings about the book: "maunderings of antiquated feminism...this shapeless book...some truth buried in a largely hysterical...of very limited interest. I should ... another tract for the trash-can...burned her bra and thought that . . . no characterization, no plot...really important issues are neglected while...another shrill polemic which the...this pretense at a novel...trying to shock... the usual boring obligatory references to Lesbianism [and statutory rape no less!]... drivel." If it's satire, it's not funny, except for a couple of pages where the assassin (man-killin' and android-lovin') messes with the minds of some barbarians. Male characters are mostly relegated to leering two-dimensional aspiring rapists. If you are interested in gender-issue science fiction, there are far superior examples, such as works by Ursula Le Guin.
 |
Title: Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy ISBN: 0449210820 Publisher: Fawcett Books Pub. Date: 12 November, 1985 List Price(USD): $7.50 |
 |
Title: He, She and It by Marge Piercy ISBN: 0449220605 Publisher: Fawcett Books Pub. Date: 23 January, 1993 List Price(USD): $7.50 |
 |
Title: The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin ISBN: 0061054887 Publisher: Eos Pub. Date: 01 December, 1994 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
 |
Title: The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin ISBN: 0441478123 Publisher: Ace Books Pub. Date: September, 2003 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
 |
Title: Neuromancer by William Gibson ISBN: 0441569595 Publisher: Ace Books Pub. Date: January, 2003 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
