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Rating:  - 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. Jeannine is a librarian in a world where the Great Depression has never ended. Joanna is living in the 1970s in a world much like our own. Janet is from a lesbian utopia called Whileaway, where only women exist. The fourth woman is from a future where the men and women are literally warring with each other. Russ uses these women to express and explore notions of gender, sexuality, politics, and human rights in a unique style incorporating a quirky (and somewhat dated) sense of humor. While it may not have the immediacy of "The Handmaid's Tale" or "Woman on the Edge of Time", "The Female Man" stands alongside such feminist works such as "Les Guérillères", where it challenges how a story is told and gives the reader a refreshing view of what the fantasy/sci fi genre can be.
Rating:  - The Postmodern Woman
Joanna Russ is a postmodernist. A postmodernist might say, "Truth is what people agree on," or "Truth is what works," or "there is no Truth, only lots of little 'truths". Postmodernists tend to reject the idealized view of Truth inherited from the ancients and replace it with a dynamic, changing truth bounded by time, space, and perspective. Rather than seeking for the unchanging ideal, postmodernists tend to celebrate the dynamic diversity of life.
Examples of postmodern thinking:
1. A commitment to plurality of perspectives, meanings, methods, values - everything.
2. A search for and appreciation of double meanings and alternative interpretations, many of them ironic and unintended.
3. A critique or distrust of Big Stories meant to explain everything. This includes grand theories of science, and myths in our religions, nations, cultures, and professions that serve to explain why things are the way they are.
4. An acknowledgment that-because there is a plurality of perspectives and ways of knowing-there are also multiple truths.
The Female Man is an excellent example of postmodern narrative.
Rating: - 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. The book is written as a sort of collage of fragments which follow four women from alternate Earths. One of these worlds is an earth where human males have not existed for centuries, and women have developed an all-female culture. Another world is very much like late 20th century Earth, except that World War II never occured. As the book opens, one of Russ' characters makes the weird journey between parallel Earths.
Interspersed throughout the story are tract-like explorations of femeinist doctrine. The best of these is a satire on the way in which women authors and their work are degraded and dismissed (perhaps Russ was cleverly anticipating her own critics, and blasting them beforehand).
I don't think the execution of the book fully lives up to its marvelous premise. Sometimes it's shrill and obscure. Still, at its best "The Female Man" is witty, intelligent, and biting. And Russ' explanation of alternate universes and time travel is coherent and compelling. Overall, a thought-provoking book that is definitely not just for science fiction fans.
Rating:  - 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. But it's not a novel; it's a collection of vignettes, screeds, slogans and observations. In this book you'll find not a hint of plot, and only the bare bones of characters. There's no excitement, no tension, and no resolution. It's not a story.
I can put aside the dated feel of the text and the expressions, and even the fact that it's only trying to point out problems rather than provide solutions. What I can't dodge is the sheer pointlessness of the narrative. While it is (barely) creative in a science-fictional sense (although its SFnal ideas are simple and cliche today), it has no interest in entertaining. None at all.
This book might be required reading for someone, but clearly I'm not that someone. It neither entertained me nor edified me. If you're expecting anything ground-breaking or entertaining in this book, I suggest you look elsewhere instead.
Rating: - Don't bother
I didn't care for it. The constant shifts in perspective were disorienting. It mocked & criticized, without even suggesting solutions. I think some of the metaphor was too subtle for me (why is Whileaway surrounded and protected by giant talking gnats? I just don't get it) and that turned me off. The only "masculine" traits the author seemed to recognize were short temper and heartless & vicious violence. The only character close to likeable and human is Janet, but even she comes across as flat and dispassionate. Some parts were funny, but I don't think I'd recommend it to anyone.
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