Book Review: THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS (Hainish Cycle # 4) by Ursula K. Le Guin

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

"Alone, I cannot change your world. But I can be changed by it."

Thus spoke Genly, a man from Earth, sent as a diplomatic representative to the planet Gethen. But not all its inhabitants believe that the Terran comes in peace, and he finds himself running for his life in an Arctic world where he cannot distinguish friend from foe, nor male from female.

Sounds sci-fi-ey enough, but the book does not "read" like sci fi.

You know how, when you open a few epic books (usually mythology ones with heroes and gods) and you start hearing an epic narrative voice like Morgan Freeman's in your head? This book was like that.

This was my first Le Guin, and let me preface this by saying that I have EVERY intention of looking for her other works and reading them!! (Please don't kill me, Le Guin fans LOL)

That being said... I didn't enjoy the book as much as I expected I would. This expectation comes from hearing about her from friends, and also from the number of awards her books got (this particular volume garnering both the Hugo and the Nebula in 1970!!?).

As a wordsmith, she is no doubt a master (a mistress?! This newfound gendered word sensitivity is proof of a hangover from the book!).

With sentences like: "It was all golden, all benign: that week of walking."
and
"We creep infinitesimally northward through the dirty chaos of a world in the process of making itself."
plus
"What I was given was the thing you can't earn, and can't keep, and often don't even recognize at the time; I mean joy."

DO YOU SEE WHAT I MEAN? Le Guin's sentences are miniature masterpieces.

There were so many times I'd stop to reread particular phrases because their artistry demanded it of me, but if one does this too often (as I did), I found myself unable to get into the spirit of the story. If books are objects I'd gotten used to diving into as if they were pools of water, this book was a beautiful impressionist painting: I looked and admired at individual strokes of the brush, at the expense of appreciating the whole. But I could only approach and admire from a distance.

Another factor that prevented me from identifying with the main characters is, I think, the fact that Le Guin set her novel in a world where humanoids are androgynous. Physically, they remain gender-neutral until they enter a period called "kemmer," which is similar to animals being in heat. So you have kings who become pregnant, and friends turning into lovers then going back to being friend zoned, which can be quite confusing for this Terran reader.

I suppose it's hard to throw away a lifetime's identification as female. This book does make me reflect on how much of our identity is tied up with our gender. Le Guin also ruminates on how "masculine" traits drive humanity into acts of aggression, like war.

As a love story, it left me unmoved. Again, perhaps it is because of the reader's own sexual orientation.

I do look forward to reading her other works! There is much to learn from Le Guin's craftsmanship.

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