Customer Reviews

The Shore of Women

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Pamela Sargent's The Shore of Women works out in persuasively anthropological detail--almost Geertzian "thick description," if you will--a post-apocalyptic world in which women rule with space-age technologies from walled citadels, exiling male children into literal stone age societies of isolated bands clad in animal skins, where lives are nasty, brutish, and short. The violence of Sargent's largely paleolithic male society is mitigated only by its loving devotion to "The Goddess" and her cult, visits to the shrines in which prayer and worshipful communion with the deity transpires, and the occasional "callings" to the enclaves--simultaneously the preeminent male rite of passage and the sole (blind and thoroughly mediated) interaction with the ruling society that enables both worlds to procreate and persist. Within city walls, the master society is strictly bifurcated into elite and masses, in which the custodians of established order replace themselves, presiding over the bought indifference of commoners.

Sargent is a beautifully expressive writer who works out the logic of her story to persuasive conclusions and, along the way, has smart, thoroughly rendered observations to make on societies of women and of men, the humanistic origins of religion, small group interactions under duress, the transformation of nomadic bands into sedentary cultures, the possible retreat of civilization from its points of greatest advancement, a variety of contemporary feminist political ideas, and more. At times, The Shore of Women brought to mind a host of antecedents, including A Canticle for Leibowitz, Lord of the Flies, The Golden Bough, Greek and Roman mythology, captivity stories from 17th and 18th century prisoners of American woodland Indians, the writings of Margaret Meade and other classic anthropologists, and other possible references, but without seeming directly dependent on any. Its principal characters, the inquisitive newly "called" man Arvil and the cast-out woman Birana, are beautifully developed and pass through punctuated sequences of change and unfolding awareness. A third point of view is provided by Laissa, who as the daughter of one of the "Mothers of the City" progresses on her own surprising journey of discovery...

I can't believe this book is out of print. I've read many of what I call 'after-the-apocalypse' novels, but this is one of my favorites. Probably long after a nuclear apocalypse, women lived in domed cities, where they carry on at least somewhat with science, society, learning, arts, etc. Meanwhile, men live much as they did thousands of years ago, roaming a desolate world and living a subsistence lifestyle. The main characters are a woman and a man, neither of whom fit the stereotypical men and women of this age. This book has been compared (and rightly so) with Sheri S. Tepper's also-excellent "The Gate to Women's Country". If this sounds good to you, find a used copy!

Pamela Sargent is a prolific writer who unfortunately does not have a vocal support group. Her novels and novellas are not of the type "This is Cronon from the planet Abuzz, stop your atomic testing of be destroyed" They are instead, intelligen far-reaching reveries on the future. In several of her stories she has extrapolated a Mulism planet but this book goes beyond that to a time we can barely fathom.

What happens when a woman in a strictly segregated society commits the ultimate sin - falling in love with a man? The descriptions of the two varying societies and their need for each other is told with a sense of disquiet. And when the lovers finally "find each other" the language approaches a confession. This is a book that can be read again and again on several levels.

An excellent story of a gender divided society. Women live in a techical society in advance of our own but where technology is frozen as are other social elements of the society. Men live as hunter-gatherers or herders who are held in line by a religion of "The Goddess". The chief rite is orgasmic. In numerous shrines to one or another aspect of the goddess men are lead to manufactured wet dreams. Women live in domed cities without an obvious mechanism for growing food. The novel makes heterosexuality ( and thus homsexuality) more of a social construction and less of a instinct than I believe it to be.
All the characters are sympathetically but sharply dilineated. The one fault is that the love scenes are all hetersexual despite the fact that both sexes are stated to be largely homosexual in behavior. The economic basis of the women's world is not imagined as in the lack of any clearly imagined agriculture Similarly the practical basis of the men's religion The shrines to the Goddess are built and maintained by measures not presented .
One excuse for the shortage of imagined facts about the social and economic basis of the women's society is the women characters are mostly young members of the ruling class.

"The Shore of Women" is a richly textured work of feminist science fiction by Pamela Sargent which deserves long overdue recognition as a classic, highly literate example of the genre. It compares favorably to the classical dystopian novel "A Canticle for Leibowitz", as yet another mesmerizing tale set long after a nuclear holocaust. In Sargent's richly imagined future, men are leading primitive lives as hunters and gathers, while women reside in a technically advanced culture comprised of cities equipped with forcefields, death rays and aircraft. Sargent has melded the epic journey with romance, crafting a most unusual futuristic romance novel devoted to her main protagonists, Arvil - whose notions of what it means to be human is radically altered when he meets and falls in love with - Birana, who has been cast out of one of the cities of women. I truly treasure the author's compelling exploration of their relationship from strangers to devout lovers ever respectful of the other's desires and needs. Sargent's compelling work of fiction may be familiar to those familiar with Ursula Le Guin's beguiling exploration of gender in her Hainish series of novels and short stories, but much to her credit, Sargent has created her own fascinating futuristic world to explore the natures of love and of relationships between man and woman. I am delighted that this book is finally back in print courtesy of BenBella Books; this edition includes an excellent foreword by science fiction writer Catherine Asaro.

Ms. Sargent does an excellent job of mixing the best aspects of "women's consensus" decision-making and the stark reality of only needing males for keeping the gene pool viable. Also the story of one exiled woman who does survive in the "survival-of-the-fittest" world of the men. A must-read.

This book does *not* condemn the chances of men and women living peacefully together. One of the focuses of the story is how knowledge of the past affects the culture today and the choices made in government. Sargent shows that people need great historical narratives--stories--to live. When the current story is stale, people begin to create a new one. The people in charge of the story are the people who control the direction of the race. "The Shore of Women" is about a world on the brink of creating a new story to live by.

This book was wonderful in the way that even years after I finished it, it still makes me think and question the ways of mankind.

Well Done!

The story includes fascinating adventures, with first rate twists and turns. However, even though the story, the setting and the characters are so involving, the view of the differences between men and women, and a pessimistic view indeed, remains with the reader for a long time. Like "The Gate to Women Country" by Sherri Tepper, this book offers no hope for improvement in the relationship between the sexes based on the current model. Both books view women as the only key to conserving this planet from destruction. But "The Shore of Women" goes a step further, in condemning, sadly, any possibility of cooperation between the sexes. Unique in its dealing with hope, beautiful drawing of characters, thought provoking - this is a rare and highly recommended book.

Not a traditional feminist view, provides an interesting and diverting look at a future controlled by women. I thought the ending was a little predictable, but entertaining and satisfying all the same. Well worth it. I read this book 20 years ago and loved it then, too.