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3.39 AVERAGE
3.39 AVERAGE
First half is like two stars and the last fourth is four stars so I guess it gets three?
Russ really said kill all men huh. Good for her
Russ really said kill all men huh. Good for her
10% of this book was really good and still very relevant today (depressing though that be) but I found the majority of it to be confusing and with no discernible plot. It was hard to tell whose point of view I was following and if I had not read the blurb on the back of the book I would have had no clue what was going on. The idea behind this book is brilliant and I really want someone else to start again and write it better, but I’m afraid it’s a ‘classic’ I fail to see the wonder of. I had to fight my way through every page to finish it and if it had been a longer book I wouldn’t have bothered pursuing it to the end.
adventurous
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The Female Man has life -- timeless, unflinching, and idiosyncratic life. It is serious and unflinchingly honest, but it's also energetic and funny. It's a rousing address rather than an angst-ridden lament.
adventurous
funny
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I got about halfway through and then just... stopped. I didn't care about the characters and the plot seemed non-existent.
adventurous
challenging
emotional
informative
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
OK so there was a short section which contained significant transphobia. This was ugly and detracted from an otherwise good book. At first I didn't like the way it faded between first person and third person, the fragments and the difficulty in following it but as I persisted I got a sort of poetic sense and certainly some of the parts that describe what I assume are actual experiences of sexism by Russ (or at least by "Joanna" who is a professor and a novelist) are very relatable and there's a sort of relief in having it so angrily written about.
So I really enjoyed the book and would probably have given it 5 stars up to the point where Jael came into the story. This was a shame because I was really looking forward to meeting her and the complications she would bring but her battle of the sexes scenario was not very convincing (why do women sell out to the men so much? The motivation was never explained) and the transphobia was just vile. Some of this helped me put into perspective a book by Braidotti which I had found (much more mildly) problematic and even Mary Daly who I had experienced as "yikes". The wandering voice of this was reminiscent of Daly - but this does not claim to be non-fiction.
After the short transphobic section that was not a focus of the book any more. It was still there I can't pretend it wasn't but it wasn't the main point. At the end Russ does a rant about writing a book to make people think (sure worked on me) and that she looks forward to a time when this book will be quaint and out of date. This leads me to partially get back my respect for her (I was really liking her as a writer for most of the book) and imagine that after 1975 (when I was 1) she might have learned better. She died in 2011 so I can't ask her.
Things I found useful- the ambivalence around heterosexuality and homosexuality (some of that was problematic, especially m/m stuff), the problematisation of the role of mother, work, technology, aggression, childhood. This was one of the most mature and least silly treatments of time travel I have ever come across (Octavia Butler is another notable writer who deals with it well). Russ explains why things can get tangled but not contradictory. I tend to not like "alternate universes" as a theory but I think this book knows it is fiction and does what it needs to do to explore its ideas.
There's very little resolution but there is enough for this to be a well crafted book. I don't forgive the transphobia (real people suffered and suffer) but I leave it in its time.
So I really enjoyed the book and would probably have given it 5 stars up to the point where Jael came into the story. This was a shame because I was really looking forward to meeting her and the complications she would bring but her battle of the sexes scenario was not very convincing (why do women sell out to the men so much? The motivation was never explained) and the transphobia was just vile. Some of this helped me put into perspective a book by Braidotti which I had found (much more mildly) problematic and even Mary Daly who I had experienced as "yikes". The wandering voice of this was reminiscent of Daly - but this does not claim to be non-fiction.
After the short transphobic section that was not a focus of the book any more. It was still there I can't pretend it wasn't but it wasn't the main point. At the end Russ does a rant about writing a book to make people think (sure worked on me) and that she looks forward to a time when this book will be quaint and out of date. This leads me to partially get back my respect for her (I was really liking her as a writer for most of the book) and imagine that after 1975 (when I was 1) she might have learned better. She died in 2011 so I can't ask her.
Things I found useful- the ambivalence around heterosexuality and homosexuality (some of that was problematic, especially m/m stuff), the problematisation of the role of mother, work, technology, aggression, childhood. This was one of the most mature and least silly treatments of time travel I have ever come across (Octavia Butler is another notable writer who deals with it well). Russ explains why things can get tangled but not contradictory. I tend to not like "alternate universes" as a theory but I think this book knows it is fiction and does what it needs to do to explore its ideas.
There's very little resolution but there is enough for this to be a well crafted book. I don't forgive the transphobia (real people suffered and suffer) but I leave it in its time.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Transphobia
There's one short section with transphobia but it really is horrendous transphobia so approach with caution
I did not have the easiest time reading this book and I think the main reason is that I expected a little more typical novel
But in general it sums up a lot of problems which are still relevant today
But in general it sums up a lot of problems which are still relevant today