Product Description

The Female Man is a suspenseful, surprising and darkly witty chronicle of what happens when Jeannine, Janet, Joanna and Jael - four alternative selves from drastically different realities - meet. Joanna's world is like our own, Jeannine's world is even poorer & grungier, a place where neither World War II nor its resulting developments of technology have happened. Janet - the explorer - comes from 'Whileaway' where men have died off, leaving a world without the 'poisonous binary' of gender. Finally we meet Jael, warrior and assassin, who takes the other three to where the final war between men and women is being waged. The Female Man, Joanna Russ' innovative science fiction novel, caused a furore when first published in the 1970s - it has a power that has stayed fresh, witty and WEIRD. A welcome new edition of a book that now looks as good as it reads.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #557690 in Books
• Published on: 2002-03-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 213 pages

Review
'The Female Man is not only known as a science fiction classic but also as a work of immense significance to feminist literature' Sunday Times

About the Author
Joanna Russ has won the Hugo Award, the Nebula Award, the Locus Poll Award, the James Tiptree Jr Award and the SF Chronicle Award.

Customer Reviews

Compelling
This book is very much a product of the 70's. These characters are all beautiful, intelligent women who, for one reason or another, don't really have men in their lives.

On first glance, the issues mentioned seem to be a touch out of date but while reading, I could not help myself from wondering if women are really as powerful nowadays as much as we would like to think or if, on the other hand, we have managed to tip the balance so far that men are now at a disadvantage - just like in "Whileaway". Still it would be truly a sad world if women all end up like "Jael".

This is a beautifully written book with good insight into the 70's feminist imagination! Enjoy!

A Femninist Sci-Fi Classic, But So Very 70s
Jael and Janet are from the future (but not our future), Jeannine is from the present (but of another past), and Joanna is from now (or, rather from 1970). They meet, interact and communicate: the plot as such doesn't exist. We are very much in the realm of 70s cutting-edge, modernist sci-fi.

This novel is a modern classic in at least two categories: it's a notable sci-fi title, and an important feminist novel. But most of all it's such a typical book from the 70s!

The style is what might be called innocently modern, with a mixture of stream of consciousness, straight first person and even third person narration. The transition between perspectives is very fuzzy, often times one doesn't know which exactly of the four alternative characters (Jael, Janet, Joanna and Jeannine) is talking/being narrated. It actually reminded me quite strongly of this other 70s cult title, The Dice Man, not because it's actually technically similar, but because it stems from the same spirit of the time.

Russ concentrates on the cultural and psychological side of male dominance: and occasionally, especially when sketching little scenes of a male-female dialogue, the satirical edge is brilliantly sharp and very funny.

Ideologically, it's interesting: firstly, because it's a historical account of feminist concerns at a particular time in a particular social grouping; and secondly, because it allows us to look from the perspective of almost 40 years (Russ's book was originally written in 1970) and try to judge to what extent the concerns are still valid.

Possibly surprisingly, the biggest difference is perhaps in the attitudes to homosexuality; and possibly unsurprisingly, the least progress is in the women's own attitudes to marriage and breeding.

Most still are, but most seem, at least to me, rather petty: there is no mention of the ACTUAL discrimination, of the effect of poverty on women, of reproductive rights, of equal pay, of colonisation of women's bodies...of hundreds of concerns that seem rather more valid to me than cultural dominance of the idea that woman who doesn't marry and have children is a failure as a human being. It is possible of course that the fact that I see is a petty is one of the symptoms of progress we have achieved. I personally think it's more a question of Ross's concentration on issues important for middle class Westerners, so typical for a lot of feminist movement in general, and especially in those times.

As a sci-fi, the book works only to some extent: there is too much psychological and ideological rumination and not enough world building or plot.

It's really 3.5 stars not 4, but Amazon won't let me have a half point rating, so I decided to be charitable.

A masterpiece
One of the best novels about sexual roles ever written. Any man that wishes to understand women should read this.