Customer Reviews

The first stone: Some questions about sex and power

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One of those books you can't put down, and thus read from early afternoon 'till 3 the next morning. A highly controversial Australian best seller, this is a personal account of the Author's attempt to discover the truth behind a claim of sexual harrassment. Two young, astute and attractive young women are the complainants, a quiet, genial (clumsy or innocent?) college warden approaching retirement the "victim". Helen Garner, a feminist of the old school, questions the destructive bitterness the direction modern feminism has taken on this case, and further questions the portrayal of the young women in the case as "powerless" - the very opposite thing feminism should be doing, in her view. What I can't put in words is the beautiful writing; the sympathetic, transcendent portrayal of the human condition with all its foibles. You must read this book!

This book brilliantly reveals the perversion of feminist ideals and the highly destructive nature of gender-ideological warfare on campuses in Australia in the 1990s. It is a lucid piece of investigative writing that explores the highly complex world of gender politics and its miserable downfall in a country where public opinion has been motivated by default to sympathise with the woman in cases of sexual harassment as a result of stereotypical imagery of male aggression and dominance in the sexual environment. Most importantly, the book describes how incorrect and false these stereotypes can be.

The First Stone illustrates the destruction of one man's life; his profession, his family, his reputation as a respected member of the academic community, all this despite his acquittal, due to the relentless attacks on his person for being identified as a cultural outsider (in the College he ran with great success and enthusiasm) by feminist interest groups hell bent at `getting back' at the class he is meant to represent. This is a highly recommended book by those who wish to understand the other side of the story.

As a university undergradute in the 1990s, i can identify with many of the issues that Garner writes about in this book. There was a culture in Australian universities that harrassment was a big issue, and it did occassionally go overboard (the veiwpoint 'that every man is a potential rapist'is one i heard myself more than once)though i think the pendulum is starting to swing the other way again.

Garner is a good writer, and manages to take what could have been a very dry subject and bring it to life without making it a rant. There is enough of the personal in this to make it interesting, and the author is quite open in relating her biases. I do feel that occassionally she is a little too histrionic in her retelling of conversations with others, and the story does jump about a bit; but overall the reporting is top class.

While things may have moved on in the gender wars in Australia to other battlefields, this book is still important, even if only as an exhibit in the history of Australian feminism. I know that there was a lot of debate generated when it was first published, and i know it made me think through many principles that i myself hold. I hope that other readers are also able to take away something from reading this well written book.

Garner is one of Australia's finest writers, and she can take any subject and make it compelling, insightful reading.

This is a very dense book, and several readings are needed to grasp all the issues that Garner raises.

This book would be best described as Garner's thoughts and feeling about a sexual harrassment case at a University in Melbourne. A Master of a Melbourne university college was accused of harassing two students, ( originally 5 students brought claims against this man, but three dropped their complaints).

There was strong criticism of this book from feminists, and indeed it was later revealed that Garner had obfuscated facts, to suit her viewpoint.

It was hard to read this book, because I had immensely enjoyed Garner's novels - and perhaps fiction is what she should stick with - but The First Stone revealed more about Garner's insecurities about aging, the rapid changes of political context, as well as a lack of grasp of what constitutes responsible journalism. It was simply unethical to "split" one actual person into multiple characters in a book (which lends more authenticity to one's book); likewise, it was also disturbing to read of her opinions about unwanted sexual advances from undesirable men (i.e. one should laugh it off and secretly feel flattered). And finally, there is just an eerie undercurrent resentment against younger women (which recurred again in Joe Cinque's Consolation). In recent times, there has been plenty of criticism about the vampire fiction series, Twilight, particularly with how the author infantilises and erotises power and domination. Well, if you have read Garner's "journalistic" account of the Ormond College sexual harassment case, then you will know where the whole history comes from: tire old twaddle of Jungian theory from the 1970s. Time to put them in their rightful place, which is in the history archive. I would advise reading this book along with Bodyjamming (ed by Jenna Mead), which was an excellent response to Garner. I would also recommend reading Doris Lessing's second autobiography, Walking in the Shade, for a no-nonsense intellectual dissection of psychoanalytic babble.