Woman [Paperback]

Richard Matheson (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Bad things happen to bad people in Matheson's systematic but suspenseful composition about a rapidly escalating war between the sexes. It's the night of the Emmys, and David, a radio show psychologist, and his wife, Liz, Emmy-nominated producer of the hit TV show Country Boy, are hosting a preshow party. In attendance: Liz's vain, lecherous younger brother, Val, who's the show's star, and Candy Regina, his floozy of the week; Charlie, the show's hard-drinking executive producer; Max, the show's misogynistic head writer, and Barbara, his beaten-down wife. Practically everybody's up for an award, so what's the problem? Besides the fact that no one's very likable—and they don't much like each other—Charlie's brought in this weird girl he found on David's doorstep, the same girl who'd accosted David earlier that evening, begging desperately for his help. (With what, David wasn't sure.) Liz freaks out, but then her splitting headache is suddenly gone: could the girl have something to do with it? And in the subsequent booze-fueled argument about sexual politics that has guests ready to claw out each other's eyes, is she more than just a witness? Pretty soon Charlie's suffering from some inexplicable bleeding and Val may be losing his mind—and that's just the start of the trouble. Dated gender psychologizing morphs into full-on horror in this relentless, gripping little novel. (Apr.)
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From the Publisher

We've published Matheson's classics as well as previously unpublished material. This spring we go a step further.

Richard Matheson has chosen Gauntlet to publish both the trade and limited edition of his new novel WOMAN, a novel Matheson considers his first true horror novel since HELL HOUSE. It's premise: Men and women can no longer co-exist.

Product Details

• Paperback: 125 pages
• Publisher: Gauntlet Press; First Edition edition (May 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1887368752
• ISBN-13: 978-1887368759
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 6.4 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #789,918 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Great Writer, Bad Book, June 4, 2005

By 

rawk "rawkabilly" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Woman (Paperback)

Without question, Richard Matheson is one of the greatest American writers who ever lived, particularly in the genre of horror. Matheson was so ingenious and original that he is sorely responsible for reshaping many elements of horror as we know it, so much so that certain horror themes which we now think of as standard and cliché were actually created by Matheson fifty years ago and have just been ripped-off to the tenth power by others.

With books like I AM LEGEND, WHAT DREAMS MAY COME, HELL HOUSE, SOMEWHERE IN TIME and many others, including numerous scripts for the original TWILIGHT ZONE series, Matheson reserved a throne in the hall of fame of horror and supernatural fiction. I AM LEGEND is so good that I think it should even be considered literature rather than fiction.

With all this said, his new book is terrible.

The first of many disappointments in this novel is it's length. Let the buyer beware, it's just slightly over 100 pages. It's more like a novella, and, if you read it you'll see that the first half is more like an essay or a transcript from a debate class, and then the other half is a weak and even tired horror concept thrown together for a totally unsatisfying short story experience.

The tag-line on the cover of this "novel" is ominous and promising. It says : men and women can no longer coexist. This makes one primed for a good battle of the sexes in the literal sense. Something like Jack Ketchum's gore-splattered LADIES NIGHT only with a more complex and purposeful cause behind the ensuing chaos. But Matheson's novel does not delve into such exciting territory. And while this book is supposed to be Matheson's first real horror novel since HELL HOUSE, it doesn't manage to be even half as suspenseful or frightening as his last novel, HUNTED PAST REASON.

Two thirds of this book consists of the main characters sitting around an apartment discussing the feminist movements, women's role in society throughout the ages, male oppression and prejudice and so on. Each character in the book is totally not likable, from the lead character David who comes off like a more educated Dr. Phil, to his snotty, self-centered wife Liz, to their many obnoxious guests. We have Charlie the big fat cornball, Max the cold-hearted writer, his wife Barbara who hates him but won't leave him, a bubbly tramp named Candy, and Val, Liz's brother, who is so over the top in his male chauvinism that it is simply ridiculous. Then, we have Ganine, the weird "Carrie" like character, who is seeking help from Dr. David.

The group argues about men and women for about sixty pages (remember, the book is only slightly over one hundred pages long). Each character in the book shoots off random quotes from everyone to Freud to Esther Harding to Richard Burton. Matheson uses so many other people's words to prove his point here that you almost expect to see a works cited page in the back of the book. And he is trying to make a point here, he really is.

That's one of the biggest problems with the book: it's preachy nature. While Matheson makes great points and while I don't necessarily disagree with his rants in sympathy of the opposite sex's blight, it is nonetheless annoying that he bombards the reader with his pro-feminism throughout the book. The majority of the novel seems like nothing more than a platform for Matheson to kiss up to women upon. In his last few novels Matheson has gotten on a high horse, letting his philosophical notions leak into his fiction, like the unbelievably weak and preachy ending to HUNTED PAST REASON, a book that I liked up until the end. But WOMAN is by far his most preachy piece of fiction, struggling so hard to drive the same point into the reader's skull that it forgets to entertain.

For you see, to top it all off, the story, what little of one there is, is rather boring and contains tired supernatural elements. I won't elaborate on this because I don't won't to spoil it for any potential reader, but anyone who has read even a few horror novels will not be impressed by the bland plot and childish ending this book contains.

I wish I had something good to say about this novel but there simply isn't. I think it is the worst thing I've ever read by Matheson. The story is weak and contrived and seems almost like an afterthought to an essay on feminism. The characters are without depth and are impossible to like so any threat to them is unthreatening to the reader. The "villain" is a worn out stereotype and the other characters' approach to this villain is as cheesy as any up-all-night b-horror flick, spouting such bad lines as "She's evil I tell you, evil ... EVIL!" It's sad when dialogue by Matheson sounds like it came from George Lucas.

Matheson has written some great novels. This just isn't one of them.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars what happened?, October 10, 2005

By 

David (Seattle) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Woman (Paperback)

Richard Matheson is one of my favorite authors of all time, but I have to say that his last couple books and this one in particular were very disappointing.

I think he has gotten lazy. Richard Matheson has forgotten how to write anything but dialogue and minimal descriptions of what is going on. This is not good writing. This book is very short and very simplistic. Coming from someone who has produced some amazing books in the past, it leaves me wondering what happened?

The overall story could have been great, but no time was taken to develop it. It could have been expanded a lot to make it much more interesting. The parts that were supposed to be scary were not built into at all, leaving absolutely no feeling of suspense or tension whatsoever.

The only way that this book was even worth the time was because it took less than two hours to read...and about that long to write from the looks of it.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars WOMAN by Matheson both horrific and controversial / A WINNER!!!, July 10, 2005

By 

ANTONIA ALCARAZ (PENNSYLVANIA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Woman (Paperback)

Richard Matheson's new novel WOMAN both harkens back to I AM LEGEND and HELL HOUSE and introduces the theme of the failure of the women's movement with a terrifying conclusion. Without giving away the plot, Matheson introduces Ganine a woman who feels she "no longer herself." She also claims she's pregnant, though she hasn't had sex in several years. She's obviously mad, which is why she seeks out a radio psychologist for help. Ganine has had certain destructive powers since she was young, but she can no longer control them. Is something controlling Ganine? That's for the reader to find out. The second half of the novel, in particular, is a page-turner with one surprise after another. The final surprise some might say comes out of the blue. But, just the title and cover blurb "Men and woman can no longer co-exist" actually foreshadows the end. WOMAN will have men quaking in their boots. Some women will love Matheson's solution to the gender problem, though others will feel deeply threatened. At $12.95 the book is well worth the asking price. Richard Matheson, now nearing 80, hasn't lost a step.