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A review by lizshayne
Tehanu by Ursula K. Le Guin
challenging
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
I'm impressed at the number of "it's complicated" this book managed to produce.
have to trust that this is where I left off reading the Earthsea books, which makes sense because I first read them as a child (on the bus to school, if we're going to be extremely specific) and this one wasn't out yet.
And it's not a book written for a child, it's a book for the children who grew up on Earthsea and it's made up of people trying to have a conversation about the performance of gender (and other roles) in a world without Judith Butler, which is super interesting in its own right, but the way in which Le Guin allows her own characters to deconstruct the world they live in - who am I am if I am not this thing I have been doing day in and day out? - makes it shine.
And it works as a story, which is the oddest part yet.
And also this book has a lot to say about disability and, while it's complicated because it's the story of disability that grows out of abuse rather than birth or illness—meaning something was DONE to a person rather than HAPPENED and that's also an experiential split in the Disability community—and so Le Guin is focused on trauma and recovery rather than the social model of disability and yet, it felt like there was obvious space for a conversation about ableism in the book's terms and that lacuna remains. That is - both Ged and Therru exist are models of having had something taken from them and both are stories of how they move not back but on (transcend) and also the gorgeous conversation of the world that shaped them and judges them that would match the gorgeous conversation this book has with and about gender is missing.
And there's another book so we'll see.
have to trust that this is where I left off reading the Earthsea books, which makes sense because I first read them as a child (on the bus to school, if we're going to be extremely specific) and this one wasn't out yet.
And it's not a book written for a child, it's a book for the children who grew up on Earthsea and it's made up of people trying to have a conversation about the performance of gender (and other roles) in a world without Judith Butler, which is super interesting in its own right, but the way in which Le Guin allows her own characters to deconstruct the world they live in - who am I am if I am not this thing I have been doing day in and day out? - makes it shine.
And it works as a story, which is the oddest part yet.
And also this book has a lot to say about disability and, while it's complicated because it's the story of disability that grows out of abuse rather than birth or illness—meaning something was DONE to a person rather than HAPPENED and that's also an experiential split in the Disability community—and so Le Guin is focused on trauma and recovery rather than the social model of disability and yet, it felt like there was obvious space for a conversation about ableism in the book's terms and that lacuna remains. That is - both Ged and Therru exist are models of having had something taken from them and both are stories of how they move not back but on (transcend) and also the gorgeous conversation of the world that shaped them and judges them that would match the gorgeous conversation this book has with and about gender is missing.
And there's another book so we'll see.