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A review by kghunter
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
adventurous
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
I legitimately cried and threw this book at my wall like a lunatic during the stories climax near the end. Which is unhinged feral street cat behavior, I know. I’ve never done that before with any book ever; what this book made me feel is worlds away from my normal range of emotions (thank god). And I think that is the best selling point I can offer as to why everyone should read this book at least once in their life. That’s all I have to say because this story and the way it’s told is so good that there’s nothing else I can say that would do justice in conveying this novel’s greatness.
Also completely unrelated side note but I heard in a podcast once that Ursula K Le Guin’s father was one of the leading anthropologists that made a dehumanized spectacle of the native man Ishi that had his brain preserved as an artifact against his will after his passing. Not sure what all of the story or facts are behind the nonconsensual theft and objectification of Ishi’s remains in terms of Le Guin’s fathers involvement (I just vaguely remember a brief mention of this on a podcast I was listening to years ago) but her fathers career as an anthropologist during the early 20th century and involvement in the institutionalized observation of living indigenous peoples as some type of primitive anthropological artifact is an interesting lens to view Le Guin’s work through.
Also completely unrelated side note but I heard in a podcast once that Ursula K Le Guin’s father was one of the leading anthropologists that made a dehumanized spectacle of the native man Ishi that had his brain preserved as an artifact against his will after his passing. Not sure what all of the story or facts are behind the nonconsensual theft and objectification of Ishi’s remains in terms of Le Guin’s fathers involvement (I just vaguely remember a brief mention of this on a podcast I was listening to years ago) but her fathers career as an anthropologist during the early 20th century and involvement in the institutionalized observation of living indigenous peoples as some type of primitive anthropological artifact is an interesting lens to view Le Guin’s work through.