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This has to be one of the most reactionary works I have read lately. The word feminist was associated with this book, and I was anticipating some impact along the way. However, I was massively disappointed. My bad. In the end, setting expectations aside, it never really took off. There were lots of interesting formations that seemed ready to fly splendidly but just crashed.
To be honest, the more I think about the book, my displeasure grows. I wanted to get it off my chest, especially after reading Earthlings by Sayaka Murata. It was an interesting connection as both books deal with the issue of conformity in very different ways and degrees of success.
Some parts of this book are beautifully written, with heartfelt moments here and there, and the mood is smoothly sustained. But the particularities are a mess and, beneath the surface, troubling. I understand the despair of being the last of a civilization, the tortured path each woman walked, and the years of imprisonment. But grouping and mixing the same despair with the impossibility of motherhood and being without a male partner is just crazy. Seriously? Let's just die without boyfriends? Okay, that's partially unfair, but it's really ridiculous to read that apparently women can only develop a meaningful connection with men and that relationships formed among women are just empty substitutes, both sexually and non-sexually. Apparently, gays and bisexuals don't really exist, and there's nothing to find without a heterosexual romantic/sexual relationship... nothing at all.
Just the able-bodied survive. I'm all in favor of euthanasia, and no one who wants to avoid terrible pain should be forced to endure it. But every time someone had a problem, it's better to die. Without men, there's no joy or comfort in creativity or a peaceful existence. Being alone is the worst that can happen. Yes, they do stuff around, but it's just meh. It gives the idea that the majority of these women had a dimmed intellect for unknown reasons, and yet they suffer an existential anguish that doesn't quite fit, and the simple pleasures of a simple mind are negated. I'm not expecting the heavenly utopia of some feminist SF, but just not this... poverty. I would find it equally ridiculous if it was about men instead of women.
I have to stop now because there are no more stars of rating to remove. I'm having trouble leaving just one, considering how some parts were described, like the never-spoiling-frozen-meat and how hard I laughed when the young girl recalls being told that only a penis can take your virginity away. After the laugh, part of the book's core is revealed.
Fun fact. It came to my mind the book The Memory Police by Yōko Ogawa and how it achieved what I Who Have Never Known Men couldn't regarding the mysterious circumstances surrounding the plot.
To be honest, the more I think about the book, my displeasure grows. I wanted to get it off my chest, especially after reading Earthlings by Sayaka Murata. It was an interesting connection as both books deal with the issue of conformity in very different ways and degrees of success.
Some parts of this book are beautifully written, with heartfelt moments here and there, and the mood is smoothly sustained. But the particularities are a mess and, beneath the surface, troubling. I understand the despair of being the last of a civilization, the tortured path each woman walked, and the years of imprisonment. But grouping and mixing the same despair with the impossibility of motherhood and being without a male partner is just crazy. Seriously? Let's just die without boyfriends? Okay, that's partially unfair, but it's really ridiculous to read that apparently women can only develop a meaningful connection with men and that relationships formed among women are just empty substitutes, both sexually and non-sexually. Apparently, gays and bisexuals don't really exist, and there's nothing to find without a heterosexual romantic/sexual relationship... nothing at all.
Just the able-bodied survive. I'm all in favor of euthanasia, and no one who wants to avoid terrible pain should be forced to endure it. But every time someone had a problem, it's better to die. Without men, there's no joy or comfort in creativity or a peaceful existence. Being alone is the worst that can happen. Yes, they do stuff around, but it's just meh. It gives the idea that the majority of these women had a dimmed intellect for unknown reasons, and yet they suffer an existential anguish that doesn't quite fit, and the simple pleasures of a simple mind are negated. I'm not expecting the heavenly utopia of some feminist SF, but just not this... poverty. I would find it equally ridiculous if it was about men instead of women.
I have to stop now because there are no more stars of rating to remove. I'm having trouble leaving just one, considering how some parts were described, like the never-spoiling-frozen-meat and how hard I laughed when the young girl recalls being told that only a penis can take your virginity away. After the laugh, part of the book's core is revealed.
Fun fact. It came to my mind the book The Memory Police by Yōko Ogawa and how it achieved what I Who Have Never Known Men couldn't regarding the mysterious circumstances surrounding the plot.
