Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Collection
Publication
Stockholm : Normal, 2008
Description
I know nothing. I am a tabula rasa, a blank sheet of paper, an unhatched egg. I have not yet become a woman, although I possess a woman's shape. Not a woman, no: both more and less than a real woman. Now I am a being as mythic and monstrous as Mother herself . . . ' New York has become the City of Dreadful Night where dissolute Leilah performs a dance of chaos for Evelyn. But this young Englishman's fate lies in the arid desert, where a many-breasted fertility goddess will wield her scalpel to transform him into the new Eve.
User reviews
LibraryThing member DieFledermaus
Angela Carter’s bizarre, psychosexual romp through an apocalyptic America on the brink of collapse is definitely not going to be for all audiences. As in her stories and novels, Carter takes aim at male/female/sexuality stereotypes and various genre tropes, providing odd and ironic twists.
Plenty of the storylines didn’t end the way I thought they would and sometimes I would wonder if some of the characters were stereotypes, only to find the author upending their roles. As there are multiple rapes and bizarre sexual couplings, this isn’t a book for all tastes. Carter was clearly an extremely smart person and I probably didn’t pick up on all her references or symbolism but the book was quite involving anyway. Even with all the weirdness, the best part of the book is Carter’s lushly descriptive and exuberantly purple prose.
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Evelyn, a somewhat misogynistic British man, comes over to America for a job but falls into a torrid affair with Leilah, a stripper. It ends badly and to get away from her, he decides to take a road trip across America. After his car breaks down in the desert, he’s captured by a group of religio-militant women and undergoes an operation to become the perfect woman, Eve. He continues on in a picaresque adventure, encountering characters with distorted and extreme or fluid sexuality/gender roles, who are also personifications of various aspects of America – violent individualism, Hollywood transformations, a profusion of religions, all sorts of rebirths.Plenty of the storylines didn’t end the way I thought they would and sometimes I would wonder if some of the characters were stereotypes, only to find the author upending their roles. As there are multiple rapes and bizarre sexual couplings, this isn’t a book for all tastes. Carter was clearly an extremely smart person and I probably didn’t pick up on all her references or symbolism but the book was quite involving anyway. Even with all the weirdness, the best part of the book is Carter’s lushly descriptive and exuberantly purple prose.
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LibraryThing member thorold
When you come back to it thirty years on, apocalyptic seventies gender-bending generally turns out to have been appallingly badly written. Not if it's Angela Carter. Every metaphor is spot-on, every word is doing its job: the satire is devastating, but the language is never remotely ugly.
LibraryThing member ursula
This is a weird book.
It takes place in some sort of dystopian alternate-present, where New York is at the mercy of race and gender riots, and a wall is being built around Harlem by the National Guard. The rest of the country is falling apart too, as we find out through the course of the book.
Sometimes the book reads like some kind of gruesome horror- or disaster-porn, seedy and cheap. And then sometimes it reads like a tract on feminist theory. Neither was particularly my style. If you read this, expect a lot of gender stereotyping, role reversals, rape, kidnapping and helplessness.
Recommended for: Gloria Steinem, fans of fill-in-the-blank-sploitation movies, men in women's studies classes.
Quote: "She seemed to me a born victim and, if she submitted to the beatings and the degradations with a curious, ironic laugh that no longer tinkled - for I'd beaten the wind-bells out of her, I'd done that much - then isn't irony the victim's only weapon?"
It takes place in some sort of dystopian alternate-present, where New York is at the mercy of race and gender riots, and a wall is being built around Harlem by the National Guard. The rest of the country is falling apart too, as we find out through the course of the book.
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Evelyn is a young Englishman who has come to the US for a job, but it falls through essentially immediately and he is unwilling to go back home since he has met a prostitute and fallen into a sort of twisted, drug-fueled stasis with her. Eventually he sets out from New York on his own and then things get seriously strange.Sometimes the book reads like some kind of gruesome horror- or disaster-porn, seedy and cheap. And then sometimes it reads like a tract on feminist theory. Neither was particularly my style. If you read this, expect a lot of gender stereotyping, role reversals, rape, kidnapping and helplessness.
Recommended for: Gloria Steinem, fans of fill-in-the-blank-sploitation movies, men in women's studies classes.
Quote: "She seemed to me a born victim and, if she submitted to the beatings and the degradations with a curious, ironic laugh that no longer tinkled - for I'd beaten the wind-bells out of her, I'd done that much - then isn't irony the victim's only weapon?"
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LibraryThing member Nickidemus
The Basics
America is falling apart at the seams, and amidst this is Evelyn, flown in from the UK and trying to make a go of it. He ends up in a whirlwind of drama, confronted by several extremists and psychopaths. He also ends up being made into a woman.
My Thoughts
There’s almost too much to say
It’s very strongly feminist, and while I’ve seen it said that some readers were offended that she takes a character and forces a sex change on them, Carter never acts as if this was a good thing for Evelyn or the right thing to do. More I felt she used the idea of a man becoming a woman against his will to showcase a male character facing what a victimized woman would be forced to face, turning the tables on what we so often see in fiction. I don’t believe she was trying to say that anyone should ever have a sex change forced on them. To me, this book was full of militant viewpoints wherein Evelyn/Eve was a victim to these larger schemes, and no one is painted as being right.
More than all this, I feel like this is a fantastic book about gender. Not just feminism, but all gender. Gender confusion and what it’s like to feel strange in your own body and ambiguity and androgyny and breaking out of the gender box. It’s a very complex character study, which becomes a very complex gender study.
And all of it in this gorgeous package, because it’s written exquisitely. I kept sinking into her words and not wanting to come back out. Carter was a real master of prose. So it’s a gorgeous book with a fantastic plot and a lot of depth. Everyone should read this.
Final Rating
5/5
America is falling apart at the seams, and amidst this is Evelyn, flown in from the UK and trying to make a go of it. He ends up in a whirlwind of drama, confronted by several extremists and psychopaths. He also ends up being made into a woman.
My Thoughts
There’s almost too much to say
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about this book. It’s one of the craziest things I’ve ever read, and I pride myself on reading a lot of crazy fiction. The plot is full of so many fresh turns, it was impossible to stop reading for wanting to see the next, insane thing Carter was going to do with Eve. Or to Eve, in some cases.It’s very strongly feminist, and while I’ve seen it said that some readers were offended that she takes a character and forces a sex change on them, Carter never acts as if this was a good thing for Evelyn or the right thing to do. More I felt she used the idea of a man becoming a woman against his will to showcase a male character facing what a victimized woman would be forced to face, turning the tables on what we so often see in fiction. I don’t believe she was trying to say that anyone should ever have a sex change forced on them. To me, this book was full of militant viewpoints wherein Evelyn/Eve was a victim to these larger schemes, and no one is painted as being right.
More than all this, I feel like this is a fantastic book about gender. Not just feminism, but all gender. Gender confusion and what it’s like to feel strange in your own body and ambiguity and androgyny and breaking out of the gender box. It’s a very complex character study, which becomes a very complex gender study.
And all of it in this gorgeous package, because it’s written exquisitely. I kept sinking into her words and not wanting to come back out. Carter was a real master of prose. So it’s a gorgeous book with a fantastic plot and a lot of depth. Everyone should read this.
Final Rating
5/5
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LibraryThing member baswood
Angela Carter explores sexual desire in this dystopian science fiction novel. Sex dominates this novel, painful, erotic, disgusting perhaps, but mostly controlling, it is life pushed to extremes as the veneer of civilisation dissolves, as extreme climatic conditions are tearing the world or at
Angela Carter hangs all these themes onto a solid road-movie like story; told by Evelyn. Obsessed by the film star Tristessa, he leaves London to carve out a new life for himself in New York, but his stay is soon overshadowed by a city collapsing in on itself. He is seduced by the eroticism of Leilah, a black woman of the city, but when she gets pregnant, Evelyn drives her to have an abortion. He leaves her in a mess and flees the city and his responsibilities to find himself in the desert like landscape that is sucking up America. He is captured by the women of Beulah who see him as the new Eve. He is forcibly led deep underground to the the womb-like operating room of Mother; an enormous woman who rapes Evelyn to collect his seed, which she will use to impregnate him when she has surgically changed him into a woman. Evelyn now Eve escapes before she can be impregnated, but falls into the hands of Zero a Charles Manson like figure who is worshipped by a bevy of female slaves. Eve becomes one of his slaves, but Zero is becoming increasingly obsessed by tracking down Tristessa who he accuses of robbing him of his fertility. More adventures follow and the book figuratively leads Eve back to the womb.
"Tristessa had long since joined Billie Holliday and Judy Garland in the queenly pantheon of women who expose their scars with pride, pointing to their emblematic despair just as a medieval saint points to the wounds of his martyrdom."
The book can be read on a number of levels; from an erotic science fiction dystopian romp through America or as a full scale analysis of gender confusion theory topped by matriarchal control. There are obviously layers of meaning to be picked over at the readers leisure, but although these are not always clear, the power and potency of Angela Carters writing most certainly is. Her commentary on modern society segues into a tightly controlled storyline, there are no throwaway wisecracks, just deep insightful writing that can resonate with even the most rapid reading of this novel. She does nastiness, brutality, love and eroticism, but weds this too a story that seems to pour itself into an ending that is logical and satisfying. It is a no holds barred drive across a future America that can also supply that sense of wonder that makes for good science fiction reading. Originally published in 1982, its ideas and themes might seem a little passé today, but I doubt that any contemporary writers would be able to compete with the quality of the writing. I can see some people rating this novel as five stars, but for me, who can hardly keep pace with modern trends in violence and feminist literature, I give it a cowardly four stars.
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least America apart. The male phallus is taken to extreme limits as the beautiful boy Evelyn is forcibly transformed into the new Eve. Is it punishment for his aggressive male sexuality or is it a transformation to the female that can ultimately repopulate a dying world? well of course it is not as simple as that. The key word in the title of the book is passion; sexual passion, obsession, suffering, religion and myth making are all part of the mix. Everybody suffers, mostly as a result of others sexual needs, rape is the most common form of sexual possession; Evelyn is raped once as a man and continually raped as a woman, but she can also be a mother figure, transcending the sexual chaos, whatever her role her most significant trait is passivity. Angela Carter hangs all these themes onto a solid road-movie like story; told by Evelyn. Obsessed by the film star Tristessa, he leaves London to carve out a new life for himself in New York, but his stay is soon overshadowed by a city collapsing in on itself. He is seduced by the eroticism of Leilah, a black woman of the city, but when she gets pregnant, Evelyn drives her to have an abortion. He leaves her in a mess and flees the city and his responsibilities to find himself in the desert like landscape that is sucking up America. He is captured by the women of Beulah who see him as the new Eve. He is forcibly led deep underground to the the womb-like operating room of Mother; an enormous woman who rapes Evelyn to collect his seed, which she will use to impregnate him when she has surgically changed him into a woman. Evelyn now Eve escapes before she can be impregnated, but falls into the hands of Zero a Charles Manson like figure who is worshipped by a bevy of female slaves. Eve becomes one of his slaves, but Zero is becoming increasingly obsessed by tracking down Tristessa who he accuses of robbing him of his fertility. More adventures follow and the book figuratively leads Eve back to the womb.
"Tristessa had long since joined Billie Holliday and Judy Garland in the queenly pantheon of women who expose their scars with pride, pointing to their emblematic despair just as a medieval saint points to the wounds of his martyrdom."
The book can be read on a number of levels; from an erotic science fiction dystopian romp through America or as a full scale analysis of gender confusion theory topped by matriarchal control. There are obviously layers of meaning to be picked over at the readers leisure, but although these are not always clear, the power and potency of Angela Carters writing most certainly is. Her commentary on modern society segues into a tightly controlled storyline, there are no throwaway wisecracks, just deep insightful writing that can resonate with even the most rapid reading of this novel. She does nastiness, brutality, love and eroticism, but weds this too a story that seems to pour itself into an ending that is logical and satisfying. It is a no holds barred drive across a future America that can also supply that sense of wonder that makes for good science fiction reading. Originally published in 1982, its ideas and themes might seem a little passé today, but I doubt that any contemporary writers would be able to compete with the quality of the writing. I can see some people rating this novel as five stars, but for me, who can hardly keep pace with modern trends in violence and feminist literature, I give it a cowardly four stars.
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LibraryThing member wendyrey
Interesting story where a young Englishman visits a dystopian version of the USA and is transformed into a young Englishwoman when he falls into the hands of an extraordinary feminist group. S/he then has further experiences including being captured by a misogynist man and a reclusive aging actress
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who turns out to have been a man. Intricate complex book raising issues of race and gender which covers similar ground to Woolf's Orlando. Too light on the science to be science fiction. Interesting but a bit over fantastical and between genres for me. Show Less
LibraryThing member TuesdayNovember
I really wanted to like this book. It was well-written, the story was definetly original and interesting, but something about it just fell short. Reading it was awkward, the entire thing seemed to be written just to shock. The imagery was, well, it was too much, it was unreasonable and terrifying.
Two stars for it being well-written, and half a star for effort.
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I suppose that might have been the point, to shock and terrify, but it was overdone. Two stars for it being well-written, and half a star for effort.
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LibraryThing member thioviolight
This is a novel that requires a certain mood or frame of mind to enjoy, and I wasn't immediately able to get into it. But once in, I found it very fascinating, especially somewhere midway. The story shifts from real to surreal, and I can't shrug off the feeling of being in a dream. Beautiful prose!
LibraryThing member LisaMorr
I guess you can describe this as a futuristic dystopian novel. Evelyn, an Englishman visiting New York City, gets caught up in the violent break-up of that city and escapes, driving across the country to the desert. There he is kidnapped by a militant feminist group that turns him into a woman, the
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perfect woman. Now, as Eve, she escapes that group only to be kidnapped by Zero and his band of seven wives, to become wife #8. They make a pilgrimage to the home of legendary Hollywood star Tristessa. Eve and Tristessa then escape, only to be captured by a band of young militant boys who are bound for California to fight in the civil war there. Just a little too surreal, too weird for me - I didn't enjoy it. Show Less
Subjects
Awards
The Guardian 1000 Novels Everyone Must Read (Science Fiction and Fantasy)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1977
Physical description
212 p.; 18 cm
ISBN
9789185505593