McPhee is one of the few contemporary writers whose own enthusiasm, acquisitive curiosity and delight in the minor marvels evokes a similar reader response. Here the subject is canoes, and McPhee, admiring, intimidated and bemused, pries into the craft of Henri Vaillancourt, a young man from New Hampshire, who makes his own canoes. "He carves their thwarts from hardwood and their ribs from cedar. . . . No nails, no screws, or rivets, just root lashings." Henri, like many artists, is shy, taciturn, vain, and given to occasional headlong decisions in uncertain situations. These qualities were noted by McPhee on a canoe trip (Henri's fourth) with some friends north into the Maine wilderness. "A canoe trip is a society so small and isolated that its frictions. . . can magnify to stunning size." McPhee, in his customary style—as seamless and resilient as one of Henri's canoes—reports on bits of Americana (Indians, voyageurs, loggers) sights and sounds. He observes water and winds, the antics and cries of loons, gathering fresh clams, two full-scale steam locomotives abandoned in the forest, "bits of Thoreau flying back and forth," and a muddy portage; there is also an amusing account of gathering tensions and personality clashes (punctuated by Henri's "bummer!"). McPhee displays none of the exhibitionism of the "personal" journalist, yet his fidelity to the scene never sacrifices vigor and high spirits. Another unique profile by a master craftsman.
Pub Date: Nov. 9, 1975
ISBN: 0374516936
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1975
An overly optimistic analysis of the potential for sexual liberation. Are there only two genders, male and female? No, says Rothblatt, vice-chair of the Bio-ethics Committee of the International Bar Association. Rothblatt, herself a transsexual, posits that humanity inhabits a continuum of sexual identity. The polar categorization of people into male or female is simplistic, she argues, and based more on social construct than on science. In illustrating her view of how the new paradigm of ``sexual continuism'' will gain acceptance, Rothblatt frequently relies on racial analogies, outlining, for example, how society changed to reflect racial diversity. She proposes that society will follow the same patterns of justice in order to accommodate sexual diversity. One necessary aspect of rejecting the old paradigm, according to Rothblatt, is the reconstruction of language to remove dichotomous references to male and female. She admits the difficulties with this, considering how deeply gendered our language is. Some of the suggestions are reasonable and even possible, although others are unlikely (replacing ``he'' and ``she'' with ``heesh''). A significant problem with her argument is the occasional reference to ambiguous or unknown sources of historical change. Believing that ``the course of civilization is to provide all persons with equal opportunity regardless of their birthed biology,'' Rothblatt is way too optimistic about the timing of change and its inevitability. For example, the predictions about the importance of cybersex (sex through computers) don't acknowledge class differences in access to such technology both now and in the future. Although the ideas are intriguing and some of her arguments convincing, Rothblatt relies too heavily on generalizations about people, biology, and society without reference to her sources of information and data. Written with heart and insight, the text stimulates ideas about gender, but it is lacking in concrete evidence.
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-517-59997-X
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
A fresh and welcome feminist perspective on the place and value of heterosexual sex in society. Segal (Sex Exposed: Sexuality and the Pornography Debate, not reviewed) takes a stand against writers like Andrea Dworkin who, claiming to speak for feminism, portray heterosexuality as inevitably incompatible with women's interests. Beginning with a long history of the sexual revolution of the `60s, Segal notes that, since then, straight feminists have been less vocal than their lesbian counterparts about the pleasures of sex. As Segal sees it, that silence was a defensive response to a larger social backlash against changing gender roles and the growing economic and political power of women, which caused male anxiety about threats to masculinity. Any rethinking of heterosexuality, according to Segal, must confront and reconcile images that equate active sex with male and passive with female. In fact, she writes, ``what men want, as often as not, is to be sexually passive.'' To assume that all heterosexual sex as constructed in a male-dominated society essentially affirms manhood and therefore cannot be truly pleasurable for straight women is to deny the agency and pleasure available to women. Segal believes that achieving gender equality requires ``the success of feminist goals on all fronts, with the assertion of women's sexual autonomy but one factor among many,'' as well as the ``mutual recognition of similarities and differences between women and men, rather than upon notions of their opposition.'' Born in Australia and with a great deal of knowledge of Britain, Segal's investigation offers insight into the constructions of sexuality beyond the borders of the US, giving greater weight and evidence to her claims about heterosexual pleasures. Segal's analysis begins to fill a tremendous void in the literature and will be a welcome change to depressing and damaging stereotypes that depict all men as savage sexual beings and women as unwitting victims.
Pub Date: Dec. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-520-20000-4
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Univ. of California
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1994
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