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A review by ryannrripley
On Strike Against God by Joanna Russ
5.0
11/5 stars
Oh my fucking god. This book is fucking hilarious. Three words to describe the type of humor in this book: Laugh-out-loud, outrageous, dark. The kind of medicine I needed right now.
So, I read this because Kameron Hurley wouldn't shut up about it in her book of essays, The Geek Feminist Revolution, and as you know, I respect the shit out of Kameron Hurley (despite my disagreements with her about certain things). When I asked her on Twitter to recommend me some feminist science fiction, she told me (in what was probably an annoyed fashion, which I think is understandable, given that I'm just some random douche on the internet that came at her out of nowhere) to just read her damn book of essays, in which she recommends the shit out of things like that. And so I did read her book of essays, urgently, because I desperately needed some good feminist science fiction, and that led me here. To this book. This fucking book.
This book is almost intolerably good. Like, what the fuck. Where has this book been all my life?
First of all, the flying dead therapist with fangs, nagging at her to repress her sexuality and shit. The fuck. Yes. Yes! Fuck therapists! Not all of them, obviously. But a lot of them!
Second of all, why is this book so hard to find? It's not on Audible. I'm not even sure it's on Kindle. There was only one vendor on Amazon selling a physical copy, and I literally purchased the last one. Also, it was a used copy. I've never encountered a book before that was so obscure that there was only one vendor selling it on Amazon, and there was only one used copy of it left. What does that mean? Does that mean that people don't know about this book? Do people not know about Joanna Russ? If that's true, we need to change that. Fast.
The story is told first person as Esther's stream of consciousness. Paragraphs take up full pages, thoughts go zigzagging. Conversations happen in Esther's mind. Sometimes they happen with real people, but only in her head. She says things to people, but not aloud. Disjointed events.
Some people might not like Joanna Russ's writing because of this, and I'll admit, it took me a while to get used to it, to fall into the storytelling rhythm. But if you can make it through the first few pages, I'm telling you- it's worth it it.
Esther is a divorced English teacher. She's tormented by her thoughts about gender, like I am. She is a talented scholar, but people perceive her only as a woman. She doesn't want to be a "woman," though- she wants to be a person, not the "other" that being a woman implies. She's slowly discovering that she's a lesbian. She falls in love. Her heart gets broken. She learns to love herself instead.
I needed to read this book so, so, bad. Thank you Joanna Russ, for writing this. Thank you Kameron Hurley, for directing me here.
I'm going to read this again. This might be one of my favorite books of all time.
Oh my fucking god. This book is fucking hilarious. Three words to describe the type of humor in this book: Laugh-out-loud, outrageous, dark. The kind of medicine I needed right now.
So, I read this because Kameron Hurley wouldn't shut up about it in her book of essays, The Geek Feminist Revolution, and as you know, I respect the shit out of Kameron Hurley (despite my disagreements with her about certain things). When I asked her on Twitter to recommend me some feminist science fiction, she told me (in what was probably an annoyed fashion, which I think is understandable, given that I'm just some random douche on the internet that came at her out of nowhere) to just read her damn book of essays, in which she recommends the shit out of things like that. And so I did read her book of essays, urgently, because I desperately needed some good feminist science fiction, and that led me here. To this book. This fucking book.
This book is almost intolerably good. Like, what the fuck. Where has this book been all my life?
First of all, the flying dead therapist with fangs, nagging at her to repress her sexuality and shit. The fuck. Yes. Yes! Fuck therapists! Not all of them, obviously. But a lot of them!
Second of all, why is this book so hard to find? It's not on Audible. I'm not even sure it's on Kindle. There was only one vendor on Amazon selling a physical copy, and I literally purchased the last one. Also, it was a used copy. I've never encountered a book before that was so obscure that there was only one vendor selling it on Amazon, and there was only one used copy of it left. What does that mean? Does that mean that people don't know about this book? Do people not know about Joanna Russ? If that's true, we need to change that. Fast.
The story is told first person as Esther's stream of consciousness. Paragraphs take up full pages, thoughts go zigzagging. Conversations happen in Esther's mind. Sometimes they happen with real people, but only in her head. She says things to people, but not aloud. Disjointed events.
Some people might not like Joanna Russ's writing because of this, and I'll admit, it took me a while to get used to it, to fall into the storytelling rhythm. But if you can make it through the first few pages, I'm telling you- it's worth it it.
Esther is a divorced English teacher. She's tormented by her thoughts about gender, like I am. She is a talented scholar, but people perceive her only as a woman. She doesn't want to be a "woman," though- she wants to be a person, not the "other" that being a woman implies. She's slowly discovering that she's a lesbian. She falls in love. Her heart gets broken. She learns to love herself instead.
I needed to read this book so, so, bad. Thank you Joanna Russ, for writing this. Thank you Kameron Hurley, for directing me here.
I'm going to read this again. This might be one of my favorite books of all time.