Living in an altered past that never saw the end of the Great Depression, Jeannine, a librarian, is waiting to be married. Joanna lives in a different version of reality: she's a 1970s feminist trying to succeed in a man's world. Janet is from Whileaway, a utopian earth where only women exist. And Jael is a warrior with steel teeth and catlike retractable claws, from an earth with separate-and warring-female and male societies. When these four women meet, the results are startling, outrageous, and subversive.
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Editorial Reviews
Review
As hard and mean and fine as Flannery O'Connor. . . . I wish that everyone would read Joanna Russ' books. -Dorothy Allison, author of Bastard Out of Carolina
"Joanna Russ offers a gallery of some of the most interesting female protagonists in current fiction, women who are rarely victims and sometimes even victors, but always engaged sharply and perceptively with their fate." -Marge Piercy
"A stunning book, a work to be read with great respect. It's also screamingly funny." -Elizabeth Lynn, San Francisco Review of Books
"A work of frightening power, but it is also a work of great fictional subtlety. . . . It should appeal to all intelligent people who look for exciting ideation, crackling dialogue, provocative fictional games-playing in their reading." -Douglas Barbour, Toronto Star
"Joanna Russ offers a gallery of some of the most interesting female protagonists in current fiction, women who are rarely victims and sometimes even victors, but always engaged sharply and perceptively with their fate." -Marge Piercy
"A stunning book, a work to be read with great respect. It's also screamingly funny." -Elizabeth Lynn, San Francisco Review of Books
"A work of frightening power, but it is also a work of great fictional subtlety. . . . It should appeal to all intelligent people who look for exciting ideation, crackling dialogue, provocative fictional games-playing in their reading." -Douglas Barbour, Toronto Star
About the Author
Nebula and Hugo Award winner Joanna Russ is the author of The Adventures of Alyx, Extra(Ordinary) People, and To Write Like a Woman, among many other books.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
112 of 122 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I'm a guy. Just thought I'd get that out of the way before I write this. I knew this was considered a classic of science fiction before I even found a used copy, but I have to admit that I wasn't looking all that forward to reading it. For one the cover (the old original one on the paperback) is a garish thing, basically a feathered woman putting on another skin. Plus I knew the book was about female issues and specifically issues that came up during movements that started in the seventies, when the book was written. At least it was short, I told myself. I'd get it over with quick. Boy, was I surprised. Not only does this rank among the best books I've ever read, but it gave me a lot to think about. Part of that has to do with Russ' style, she cascades all sorts of chapters together, bouncing back and forth, her prose is excellent, not just femenist rhetoric, she brings up all sorts of points about everything. And her contrast of the different worlds, there's Joanna's world, which is like ours (she's the female trying to be liberated), and Jeannine's world, where the Depression never ended (she's meek and just wants to go along with the group, essentially), then there's Janet's, where men don't exist at all (my favorite scene is where the newspeople ask how she has sex if there are no men and Janet explains to their dismay). There's one other too but that's a surprise. The style is sometimes confusing at first, sometimes you don't know who is narrating or which character is which but after a while it all starts falling together. Russ peppers it with her own observations throughout, my favorite being when she anticipates the reviews the book is going to get (not good ones). Is it angry? Sure but back then she had a lot to be angry about, and she comes across rationally through, her anger is righteous and not of the "all men should die!" type of rage. Like I said, it gives guys and gals lots to ponder and deserves to be wider read. The style may be off putting but the message is clear as anything. You just have to dig a little with thought to figure it out.
41 of 46 people found the following review helpful
By "the_fanboy"
Format:Paperback
... They chop it off with clamshells. There was a time when speculative-fiction (or science-fiction, pick your term) was filled with writers who experimented and challenged the status quo. These writers, people like Harlan Ellison, Samuel Delaney, and Joanna Russ, are challenging, talented, and even funny when they want to be. If you are open minded, try reading them and their peers.
That background out of the way, of all the books in the speculative fiction genre I've read, this is my favorite. First off, yes, "The Female Man" is a feminist book. Guys, getting scared off at this point would be a bad idea. Jeannine's tragic life is something anyone forced into a role they can't stand will identify with. Janet's life is hilarious and exhilarating, filled with Whileawayan philosophy and sayings. Jael, aka "Sweet Alice", lives in a world that is as dark as Jeannine's and as strange as Janet's, but she has the power to take control of it. Lastly, Joanna, the author's mouthpiece, is the glue that ties the other three women together. The book is entertaining and nearly impossible to put down. The humor is perfect and the feminist ideas presented by Russ are still relevant today. Be happy that Russ has the ability to fling her readers across time and space then shoot them back, because few can make a book this fun and yet this sad.
Many of the reviews here on Amazon.com are from people who just don't seem to "get it". Russ and her peers didn't always write novels that were neat and orderly, and this one in particular can drive the close-minded insane. Russ' style is closer to a James Joyce than a Charlotte Perkins Gillman or an Isaac Asimov, so be willing to read this book on her terms and hers alone. If you can do that, there is little to fear. Russ is a rebel, and at one point in the novel she even predicts the negative reaction of literary critics on her book and provides examples of the reviews she believed they would write. Think about that for a minute, she put fake negative reviews for "The Female Man" in "The Female Man" itself to prove a point about our uptight society. That's just a classic moment, and when you see that it perfectly mingles with the rest of the content and doesn't upset the flow, you can bow before this great novel yourself.
20 of 25 people found the following review helpful
By gac1003
Format:Paperback
Jeannine, anxiously awaiting marriage to her boyfriend, is a librarian on an Earth that never saw an end to The Great Depression. Joanna is a 1970s feminist trying to make it in a man's world by being just like a man. Janet Evason, a traveler from Whileaway which has not been home to a man in over 800 years, suddenly appears on a Broadway sidewalk. The three women are drawn to one another, presumably to learn and to share information. Things take a different track when they meet Jael Reasoner from an alternate Earth with separate, warring male and female societies. She has plans of her own for the three women.
This is a fantastic science fiction book centered on the idea that any given situation has a number of choices. What happens if all the choices actually occur, creating separate realities. What would the Earth be like in each of those realities? How would humans behave and act? Author Joanna Russ lays all these ideas at your feet, and then throws in: and what if you could travel between these realities?
Russ also gives the story a feminist flavor, having each of the characters represent a different aspect of a woman without being weak or vicitmized. They're very strong, very well-defined characters, challenging the reader to open his or her mind to all the possibilities around them.
The only difficulty I encountered with this book was sticking with the narrator. I never really knew who was talking at which time because the scenes would change from chapter to chapter. A little confusing at times, but if you stick with the book, the outcome is definitely worth it.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
Female man
This is a fractured novel, showing four points of view of women from different times, places and dimensions. Read more
Published 2 days ago by Clare O'Beara
5.0 out of 5 stars
Surprisingly and satisfyingly Forward Thinking for Its Time
I just finished this novel after being told by a colleague that the term "female man" that I used within my novel, "Every Boy Should Have a Man," is not exactly... Read more
Published 4 days ago by Preston L. Allen
4.0 out of 5 stars
Satisfyingly angry
Bottom line: Feminist 101 disguised as a meta-narrative disguised as a SF novel. If you pick it up expecting a linear, reliable-narrator plot-based story, you'll be surprised. Read more
Published 17 months ago by SFFic
4.0 out of 5 stars
Mandatory reading
Joanna Russ invented snark -- though she'd want to attribute it to de Stael.
In the small but active world of 70's SF, Russ was the radical. She once called Ursula K. Read more
In the small but active world of 70's SF, Russ was the radical. She once called Ursula K. Read more
Published on March 19, 2011 by the27th
4.0 out of 5 stars
A foundational modern sf novel
I recently finished The Female Man on a flight which happened to show a moment later an episode of Everyone Loves Raymond that was made sometime in this century. Read more
Published on May 14, 2010 by Monty Vierra
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Female Man
The Women's movement has made great strides in our society. Or has it?
"The Female Man" though written years ago, is still a very valid illustration of sexism in our... Read more
"The Female Man" though written years ago, is still a very valid illustration of sexism in our... Read more
Published on April 5, 2008 by G. Nelson
3.0 out of 5 stars
Her solution is a problem
This book is a nice departure from the mostly male-dominated science fiction genre. Instead of concentrating on technical details (like describing intricate new technologies,... Read more
Published on July 12, 2006 by L. Stuart
4.0 out of 5 stars
And then, and so, it was
This innovative feminist science fiction classic centers on the story of four women, each from a different universe, whose worlds suddenly intersect. Read more
Published on November 14, 2002 by "blissengine"
4.0 out of 5 stars
A fragmented feminist sci-fi tale
"The Female Man," by Joanna Russ, is a mind-bending novel about alternate universes and time travel; the book is saturated with feminist doctrine. Read more
Published on July 17, 2002 by Michael J. Mazza
1.0 out of 5 stars
It's not a novel, it's more of a screed
The disappointing thing about The Female Man is not that it's an undistilled feminist statement. It's that it's a statement which is masquerading as a novel. Read more
Published on June 28, 2002 by Michael Rawdon
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