Left Hand of Darkness --by Ursula K. LeGuin

 Fiction / Science Fiction / High Literature

330 pages

3 stars

 

 

First off, if you enjoy what I call ‘high literature’—words over plot—this is the book for you! I love the idea, the concept, of her story, more than adequately described in 50-plus years of reviews, but I could not enjoy it. I would not have finished it had the book group I’m joining not chosen it for the next meeting.

 

Ms. LeGuin is, as my sister has told me many times, one of the all-time greats, her writing is technically perfect. I don’t want perfection, I want story. When I read fiction, I want escape. I want to get between the pages of the book and go adventuring with the characters. I want to cry with them, laugh with them, starve with them, swim with them. Unfortunately, for me, she puts a psychic distance between her characters and me. She wants me to sit and watch through a glass window. I can do that with the television set.

 

There were a couple of places where she slipped up, and I actually began to feel an emotional tug to a couple of the characters, but she caught herself, corrected course, and again forced me to sit still and be quiet, when I really wanted to stay with the characters.

 

I have read a few of her novels, and gone back for more through the years, but always the same. The characters are allowed to go play, I must sit primly on the sofa and watch through the window. She is consistent.

 

Her short stories; however, are a delight. In them, I’m invited to play.