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Rating:  - Why Me?
Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Percy is a futuristic Science Fiction book that will be enjoyed many readers. I am not much of fan of the science fiction genre, but I found the book to be very appealing to the senses. The main character is a woman named Consuelo Camacho Ramos (Connie) who has lived a very hard life. Connie's is a Mexican American who spent most of her youth in Texas subsistence farming with the rest of her family. Life was hard and money was scarce, so Connie moved to Chicago and things looked as though they were changing for the better. Even though Connie attended a junior college for two-years she had to struggle through life. Many people messed over Connie through the years, but she still kept her composure for most of the story.
The story begins very dramatically with Connie's niece banging at her apartment door with her mouth covered in bloody rags. Dolly comes in talking about how her pimp/boyfriend Heraldo had beaten her severely knowing that she was pregnant. Heraldo came trying to beat Connie's door down looking for Dolly, and of course they opened the door. A fight broke out where Connie hits Heraldo across the face with a large wine bottle and he in turn beats her very severely and has her admitted to a mental institution for a supposed attack on Dolly and himself. Dolly is so afraid of Heraldo that she goes against the one person that is truly trying to help her.
This is the point in the book where we learn that Connie has been in an institution before and her friend from the future Luciente. Luciente is a woman (Connie thought that she was a man) from the future that is based on an agrarian life style where less is more. Connie is afraid of Luciente in the beginning, but comes to realize that Luciente or her people mean her no harm.
Rating: - Marge Piercy as Connie Ramos with Women On th Edge of Time
A woman who has already been through so much, holding on to almost nothing only evaluates the predicament Connie Ramos enters the novel with. Connie Ramos is the main character in the novel, who lives a demeaning lifestyle of being on welfare and unfortunately having her daughter(Angelina) taken away from her, right after her husband Claud was killed. These tragic incidents only left Connie with her family to turn to, but even her family seemed at a distance, not quite as consoling and understanding as one would hope.
Connie's only motivation was her niece Dolly, and she lived a life that was only a mere version of the life Connie once lived, in that both of there life styles over all were looked down upon. Dolly was a prostitute who followed orders by her pimp Geraldo. Like any other pimp Geraldo could care less about Dolly or any of her family.
Later in the novel Dolly was beaten so badly by Geraldo she had to escape and went straight to her Aunt Connie's house. Connie like any other good aunt let Dolly in, but Connie wasn't aware that after this unexpected visit she would be trapped in a situation that would change the rest of her life.
Geraldo later busted through Connie's door, Connie on defense tries to keep Geraldo from beating her niece again. Except Connie couldn't maintain him, Geraldo was cruel and impatient. Connie still tried desperately to keep Geraldo away from Dolly. Geraldo aggravated and furious with Dolly as well as Connie takes both of them down to the hospital (Bellevue) and schemes Dolly into helping him check Connie into Bellevue. The next morning Connie wakes up to total bewilderment.Geraldo had brought Connie back to a place she had once been to before and undoubtedly knew she didn't belong to. She was also frustrated with Dolly for being so naïve and actually helping Geraldo check her in Bellevue.
Connie was also mad with herself, the fact of being on welfare and then being submitted into an insane institute for the second time was pitiful. Living in Bellevue was distressing, and made Connie feel as though she had been sucked into an unpromising life style. At Bellevue know one was respected or projected any type of opinion that mattered except the staff that worked there.
Connie spent most of her time at Bellevue being drugged up off of drugs like thorazizne, or talking with some of the other patients , desperately trying to scheme a way out.
Connie also had a friend by the name of Luciente, which she met at her house one day while sitting in the kitchen. Luciente was from the future, year 2137. She often talked to Connie and tried to explain to her exactly how important Connie is to her year and time. Connie's confused through out the novel,but with the little strentgh and sanity she has, she desperately tries to fight an on going battle between her friend Luciente's world and her own. Connie fights in hope that she can return to a normal life with some sanity.
Rating:  - At the Cross Roads of Time
Jonathan Thurston
At the Cross Roads of Time
Woman on the Edge of Time is a good Sci-Fi novel full of twists and turns that keep you close to the book until a bitter-sweet end. Connie, a poor Hispanic woman becomes the essential link to control how the future turns out. What she chooses will make one world live on and kill off the other.
Connie is held against her will in a mental institute under false charges. Her rights are not given to her and she is held without trial. These are the first steps of many that lead into the war of the futures.
Connie can time travel with the help of a woman of the future named Luciente. Luciente's world is one like a hippy commune. People study what they want and relax most of the days. Machines are there but are well hidden and do most of the manual labor. There is a constant war being fought but not very clear until the end.
Later in the novel Connie time travels to another world in the future. This world is the other crossroad of her decisions. She meets up with a woman there by the name of Guildina. Guildina is a contract hooker. This is a one of the many weird twists of the novel. Here is where Connie sees what she must do to preserve those who live in the world of Luciente.
Connie while in the mental institute is made to undergo a series of surgeries that she doesn't want or need but due to the false testimony she has no choice. The war in the present is gearing up and the final decisions are made to see what the future will bring to us. Will we become a world of machines or hippy lifestyles?
Connie fights at first without violence then later changes to a lethal fight that no one knows about except those of Luciente's world and herself. Connie becomes the hero of mattiposette. But a bigger question still lingers in the end. Is Connie a murderer or is she fighting a war or is she just acting in self defence?
After she "wins the war", why can she not talk to Luciente anymore? Could she have been used or was this whole series of events a figment in the insane mind? Just a few of the many twists you will see as you read Woman on the Edge of Time.
Rating: - Deptictions of Devine Intervision
Leonard W. Caver Jr.
February 11, 2005
Lynn Hamilton
English 1102
Woman on The Edge of Time is a science fiction novel which navigates it audience through a mind boggling tunnel of mental twist and turns. The main character of the book, Connie Ramos, is a young Latina woman who has the ability to be contacted by individuals in her future. In Connie's "world" she treated horribly. She was molested by her older brother when she was a child, which may be a direct reflection of her multiple failing attempts to stay married. Her only daughter was taken from her because she could not afford to take care of her. She lived through immense poverty and in turn was a struggling member of her society. The novel depicts Connie's credibility as a woman, mother, and wife as one that was in shambles through their descriptions her past actions. After returning to the mental institution, for the second time, Connie begins to make contact from an individual who claims to be from the future. The ironic part about it all is that the only reason that she was in the asylum for a second time was because her closest family member Dolly, her niece, told authorities that she beat her up. Little did the police know was that Connie's niece was a prostitute who really just got beat up by her pimp.
Connie begins to travel to the "future" with her appointed guide, Luciente. In this futuristic world Connie is exposed to a completely human created utopia. I wouldn't even go as far as to say a utopia; I would say a half way decent attempt at equality. I would not want to live in Luciente's world because the freedoms that they enjoy all come at a price. Their entire society is revolved around thought, and not action. In her future world Connie is exposed to life where the "old meets the new". Old in the since that everyone lives in villages, grow their own food, and use non polluting forms of transportation to get around. Luciente's world is also "new" because they create children; there are few rules, and robots to a lot of the manual work that humans used to do. Luciente's world is also at war with an army of cyborg's and robots for the balance of the world. Connie is eventually told that the reason that they have allowed her to come to the future was because she was the deciding factor of their future war. I do believe that she was truly time traveling in her mind. When she time traveled she went into deep trances which would last for a couple hours. The ironic thing about it all was the time traveling only took place in her head; her physical body remained in her room at the mental hospital. While imprisoned in a New York mental facility, Connie is hand selected by famous doctors to be apart of a new medical breakthrough in science. In the novel, the major breakthrough has human mind control. This would eventually foreshadow the war against humans and cyborgs (mechanically advanced humans).
Rating: - Have Time, Will Travel
I am not a fan of the sci-fi genre; however, this novel has encased a multitude of thought provoking topics. Connie Ramos is a struggling Hispanic woman, who finds her life twisting from one soap opera drama to another. In her early years, Connie battles stereotypes, poverty, sexual scandals, and abuse; all of which contribute to the individual that she becomes. After Connie's family admits her to a psychiatric hospital for the second time, Connie becomes concerned for her own sanity. By her own account, she feels that she is in perfect mental health. Until, a presence from the future contacts Connie through time travel.
Soon, Connie befriends the visitor known as Luciente, and begins visiting her world. Connie is shocked to learn of their customs, societal norms, and technology. Soon the futuristic town of Mattapoisett becomes an escape for Connie from the monotonous days of the mental ward. The more Connie visits Mattapoisett, the clearer the parallels become between the futuristic age and the dramas of Connie's life. Connie is soon enlisted as an allied fighter of Mattapoisett.
At the beginning, I was more than convinced that the main character was hallucinating the futuristic scenes. As time passed, however, I began to buy into the idea that she was truly having authentic encounters. Although I believe Connie was time traveling, she is the exception to my rule. I do not believe that such is possible, as I'm sure the general public would agree. However, I do feel that incredible insight is just as valuable and effective as having a looking glass into the future.
Part of being in the mental institution is surviving and enduring the strenuous physical and mental tests that doctors and nurses put patients through. Connie and select others are chosen to act the part of lab rats for experimental science on mental patients. Because of her `mental history,' Connie is unwillingly prepared for brain surgery and procedures that she feels are absurd.
As the story progresses, Connie finds herself as a guest to an alternate and parallel universe. The reader soon learns that it is the same force that Luciente is fighting. If Connie fails to be the heroin for Luciente's world, this new time could be the out come of human actions in the book's present setting. By realizing that she is fighting a war, much like Luciente's Mattapoisett is fighting this universe, Connie goes back to the institute to view her stay as a war between two forces.
Borrowing the not-so-proverbial phrase, it becomes a "survival of the fittest." By the end of the novel, Connie has cleared her head of the hospital haze. As she begins making choices that turn out in Luciente's favor, they find it harder and harder to connect. I believe this is because Connie is allowed into the future, before it happens, but as issues are resolved to ensure the future of Mattapoisett, the future becomes less accessible because it hasn't happened yet; following?
By the end of the story, Connie acts in an extreme form that I find is self defense. It truly becomes a war between herself and the forces of medical science and those who administer it.
In the end, Connie prevails and saves not only herself, but secures the future for years to come.
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