Whereas the chapters that were a few pages meant the scenes were long enough for me to be grounded in the scene and get my head around what was happening.Īs it went along I did have more understanding of each of the central characters, but even in the last quarter of the book there were times where I was confused about what was happening. Many of the short ones were confusing because they weren’t long enough for me to get my head around what was going on. Some of the problem was that the sections of the book are split into really short ‘chapters’, some of which are only a paragraph or even a sentence long.
It also doesn’t help that all four characters have names beginning with J, though that is because they are parallel versions of the same person, it just added to the confusion. At some points I thought it might have changed to another character but I didn’t really have a clue. I couldn’t figure out who the first person narrator was. There are some really vivid images throughout the book, so that I could imagine these unusual alternative universes.įrom the start I was confused. I wasn’t really sure at all times exactly which version of Earth they were on. Whileaway is clear, but the two worlds that are very similar to our Earth were a bit confusing. The world building is creative for the two parallel worlds that are vastly different from Earth. It’s very imaginative and the parallel worlds are unique and captured my attention. What’s amazing to me is that this book was published in 1975, and some of the issues women face in the book are still around today. I liked the concept of exploring the restricted lives of women through parallel universes. This ebook includes the Nebula Award–winning bonus short story “When It Changed,” set in th.The idea for this book is brilliant, but I was too confused all the way through to be able to really enjoy it. leavened by wit and humor” (The New York Times), Russ both employs and upends genre conventions to deliver a wickedly satiric and exhilarating version of when worlds collide and women get woke. When the four women begin traveling to one another’s worlds, their preconceptions on gender and identity are forever challenged. Librarian Jeannine is waiting for marriage in a past where the Depression never ended, Janet lives on a utopian Earth with an all-female population, Joanna is a feminist in the 1970s, and Jael is a warrior with claws and teeth on an Earth where male and female societies are at war with each other.
Widely acknowledged as Joanna Russ’s masterpiece, The Female Man is the suspenseful, surprising, darkly witty, and boldly subversive chronicle of what happens when Jeannine, Janet, Joanna, and Jael-all living in parallel worlds-meet. Four alternate selves from radically different realities come together in this “dazzling” and “trailblazing work” (The Washington Post).
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