The Men by Sandra Newman

​The idea behind this novel isn’t exactly novel – the world has been de-manned before fictionally. Y The Last Man comes to mind immediately, for one thing. So the novelty here is in the spin. Wherein YTLM did the arguably misogynistic thing of telling the story of a man-free world from the perspective of the last man alive, The Men is a women’s story, a story of women surviving in a suddenly and strikingly changed world.
Then again, a. I never found YTLM misogynistic, I found it poignant and fascinating and very clever and b. I like a large sprawling take on dystopia that informs of all the ways society changes and this novel tells a much more contained story.
The Men is essentially several separate narrative strands of different women that eventually weaves itself into one, and that one is mainly a tale of Jane Pearson, a wife and a mother, who finds herself alone and adrift and that drift takes her right back to her ex, once an infamous political voice and now a potent political power.
In the past, Jane and her ex have both been victims of the system. Jane is now forever associated with a sex abuse scandal and her ex is officially a cop killer. That alone allows the novel to pontificate the societal evils elaborately and thoroughly, covering the justice system, racism, gender, sexuality, the court of public opinion, etc.
Their relationship is fraught and complicated and only gets more so as the time progresses.
And all the while, there’s a strange footage that everyone’s watching that show the disappeared men going on about their business…adding a strangely surreal element to the already somewhat surreal proceedings.
All in all, it’s a very strange book. The narrative is dense and light on dialogue, but it has a very nice flow to it. There’s a hypnotic quality there even, it’s immensely readable in all its strangeness. And it’s positively laden with morals and messages that are strategically targeted to the modern woke audiences. It’s an interesting and an intriguing novel, but it leaves something to be desired. In no small way, due to that cheat of an ending. Not sure what to make of that twist, can’t discuss it – it would give too much away, but it kind of cheapens the novel and distracts and detracts from its overall poignancy. Or at least, it did for me.
Either way, interesting enough of a read to be worth your time, especially for the gender-based dystopian fans out there. Thanks Netgalley.