Once again, Thomas Berger brings a satiric and irreverent perspective to the human experience, evoking a world that most dare not even imagine and effectively dismantling all existing definitions of sex and gender. "Imagined with such ferocity and glee that we assent to it almost in spite of ourselves . . . a brilliant accomplishment by one of out best novelists."--New York Times Book Review.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Strange, Strange World,
By NoSoupforYou "Doc" (Maryland) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Regiment of Women: A Novel (Paperback)
Some people see Berger's "Regiment of Women" as an anti-feminist diatribe. I've always seen it as a pro-feminist book, with Berger essentially satirizing the extreme exaggerations of those who said women's lib would make women "masculine".
The book is set in a future where women rule the world. And they rule it with an iron fist. Men are excluded from all positions of power and relegated to second-class status. Society has experienced a complete role reversal of the sexes. The women are the politicians, business leaders and generals, while the men are secretaries, clerks and maids. Men are not permitted to hold political office or even vote, serve in the military or the police force. Berger takes the reversal to the most extreme lengths. In Berger's imagined world, it is the men who wear dresses and skirts. They wear panties and stockings, put on makeup to make themselves pretty, and show off their shaved legs in high-heeled shoes. The women wear business suits and crewcuts, and sport fake beards and moustaches. They bind their chests, because thanks to cosmetic surgery, in this society it is the men who wear breasts, in the form of large silicone breasts. Nowhere is the reversal more complete than in the area of sex. Both the male and female genitals have become superfluous organs. Here it is the female who penetrates the male. Thus, in "normal" sexual intercourse, the female vagina has been replaced by the male anus, and the male penis has been replaced by a strap-on dildo worn by the female (not surprisingly, in keeping with the over-the-top style of this book, Berger at different times describes the dildos used as huge, massive, and enormous. The protagonist of the book, Georgie Cornell relates how his high school prom date attempted to rape him with a dildo the size of a policewoman's club). A constant theme throughout the book is power, and how women use it to dominate the male population. Sex appears to be just another tool in their arsenal. Georgie sees a psychiatrist to help him with his sexual problems. Georgie is frigid and unable to experience the joy of the male "anal orgasm". Instead he feels pain. And how does his analyst treat him for this problem? She gives him a beating to let him know what real pain is like, and then she essentially rapes him with a massive dildo. Georgie's friend, Charlie, offers his opinion as to what women get out of sex: "Power, pure and simple. What more obvious assertion of power is there? There you (the male) are, on your stomach, helpless, and they're (the female) riding you". From birth on, men quickly learn their place. They are timid and subservient, meekly submitting to the female power structure. The women are the aggressors in all things, and treat men with a type of casual brutality. Although there are no physiological changes to the sexes, and men are still much larger and more physically powerful than women, in this world they have become the weaker sex. Like most men, Georgie fears women. He is right to fear women - he has been beaten by teachers, doctors, and girlfriends, and has fended off several attempts of rape. Berger presents a world where the family has been eliminated. Children are born in incubators and raised by the state. Segregated by sex, they attend different schools. The girls get an academic education to prepare them for college, but since boys are considered to not be academically inclined, they take mostly home-economics courses. To perpetuate the species, women volunteer as egg donors, while the men are drafted into the "Sperm Service". This involves a weekly milking of their sperm, which seems to consist of being masturbated by a machine. Since the family structure has been eliminated, there is also no marriage. Many men and women do live with together, each seeming to get something out of the relationship. For women, they get free sex and a live-in maid, while men get a nice lifestyle, but more importantly, the physical protection of a women. Rape is a constant theme in the book. It seems to be commonplace and not treated very seriously the women running society (attempted rape is only a misdemeanor). One thing Berger does is use language to surprise and shock the reader. Thus, to be masculine in the book is to be submissive and weak. Georgie worries about "his effeminate streak of brutality". The first paragraph of the books has Georgie waking up, "his baby-doll nightgown up to his sternum, exposing both his pudenda and his thrusting breasts". When Georgie lives with a famous painter, she is finishing up one of her greatest works titled "The Rape of the Sabine Men", which depicts a bunch of brawny women assaulting terrified male nudes. The only problem with the book is it is somewhat of a one-joke note. That being said, I would say it's an interesting read.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Haunting,
By A Customer
This review is from: Regiment of Women: A Novel (Paperback)
I generally read about 75 books a year, and in the very long run few have made a lasting impression on me. This book is an exception; I read Regiment of Women about 20 years ago and I still think about it now and then. I suggest reading this book and Atwoods Handmaids Tale at the same time.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This book needs to come back into print,
By A Customer
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Regiment of Women (Hardcover)
I stumbled onto this book when it first was published, and couldn't put it down. It came out at a time when we were all asking (like the song) "Why can't a woman be more like a man?" While the book may seem a little dated now, if you're old enough to remember, think about some of the sex/gender questions that were being asked then. Are we really any more advanced in our thinking now? This book made me laugh and laugh.
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