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A review by ketreads
Native Tongue by Suzette Haden Elgin
dark
emotional
4.5
I hate it. I love it.
I initially struggled with this book. It felt as though the pages dragged by but not for the reason you're probably thinking. It was because I found myself TOO emotionally connected certain characters or events in this that it hurt me to read. By the time I got into the story (around the 40-50% mark) the rest of the book flew by.
To say I "enjoy"d this book doesn't feel like quite the right word to describe how I feel about my reading experience. This book is sold as a feminist sci-fi novel set in a future distopian society where women are reduced to having rights less than children. We follow the story of a set of women linguists bred to become perfect interstellar translators. To say this was a frustrating read would be an understatement. The author does such a fantastic job of linking the obserdity of this setting to real-world misogynist rhetoric. This did the fantastic (and horrible) job of making these otherwise over the top examples FEEL feasible in the universe we are presented with. We watch these women, who we see are as human as we see ourselfs, be repeatedly treated as anything but. So, yes. I felt VERY strongly throughout this novel and probably wouldn't ever read it or anything like it again. In the nicest way!
I loved the characters of Michaela and Nazareth. They both worked perfectly in showing us very different ways in which women navigate this sci-fi landscape, and yet are both still exploited by men.
Overall, I can see exactly why this is a classic and well worth your time. For the short page count, this book goes into a surprising amount of well thoughtout detail and consequences to these details.
I initially struggled with this book. It felt as though the pages dragged by but not for the reason you're probably thinking. It was because I found myself TOO emotionally connected certain characters or events in this that it hurt me to read. By the time I got into the story (around the 40-50% mark) the rest of the book flew by.
To say I "enjoy"d this book doesn't feel like quite the right word to describe how I feel about my reading experience. This book is sold as a feminist sci-fi novel set in a future distopian society where women are reduced to having rights less than children. We follow the story of a set of women linguists bred to become perfect interstellar translators. To say this was a frustrating read would be an understatement. The author does such a fantastic job of linking the obserdity of this setting to real-world misogynist rhetoric. This did the fantastic (and horrible) job of making these otherwise over the top examples FEEL feasible in the universe we are presented with. We watch these women, who we see are as human as we see ourselfs, be repeatedly treated as anything but. So, yes. I felt VERY strongly throughout this novel and probably wouldn't ever read it or anything like it again. In the nicest way!
I loved the characters of Michaela and Nazareth. They both worked perfectly in showing us very different ways in which women navigate this sci-fi landscape, and yet are both still exploited by men.
Overall, I can see exactly why this is a classic and well worth your time. For the short page count, this book goes into a surprising amount of well thoughtout detail and consequences to these details.