I loved [b:Woman on the Edge of Time|772888|Woman on the Edge of Time|Marge Piercy|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1480498743l/772888._SY75_.jpg|838570] so had high expectations of 'He, She, and It' (Oxford comma added for my own sake). I did not find it quite as memorably powerful, because [b:Woman on the Edge of Time|772888|Woman on the Edge of Time|Marge Piercy|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1480498743l/772888._SY75_.jpg|838570] contrasts contemporary, utopian, and dystopian visions so brilliantly. Nonetheless, 'He, She, and It' is fascinating and thoughtful sci-fi. It is largely set mid-21st century, when megacorporations have taken over and ruined the planet. Wealthier and luckier people live either under protective domes for corporate workers or more precarious wraps sheltering rare independent settlements; most of the population survives in chaotic slums, unpleasantly named the Glop. In a more conventional cyberpunk novel, the plot would be split between corporate domes and the slums. As Piercy is a distinctively thoughtful writer, she centres her story on a small independent Jewish community named Tikva. Shira, the protagonist, loses custody of her son and leaves her corporate job, returning to live with her grandmother in Tikva. There she meets long-lost family, her first love, and a unique cyborg called Yod. The focus of the book is on Shira's relationships, in particular with Yod. Despite the novel's title, though, gender isn't given much consideration.

In parallel to Shira's narrative, her grandmother tells the story of the golem of Prague. Yod is a 21st century golem, built to protect Tikva, a 21st century Jewish ghetto. The independence of the settlement is continually threatened by corporations, who frequently resort to murder for espionage purposes. As this is a cyberpunk-ish world, people can get their brains fried while jacked into the mainframe. But that is incidental to the exploration of personhood, both of Joseph the golem and Yod the cyborg. A complex web of familial, romantic, and community relationships is carefully developed around them both. I particularly appreciated the thoughtful consideration of duty and morality as applied to Joseph and Yod. Both were created to protect a community from deadly violence, with the implicit sanction to use deadly violence themselves. As they learn and develop, golem and cyborg become more inclined to independent thought. They become frustrated by those who treat them purely as tools and drawn to those who treat them as people. Despite the incremental pace, which allows the characters and their relationships to flower, 'He, She, and It' is very neatly structured. The denouement of Yod and Shira's story isn't unexpected, yet has no less impact for that. I found it very involving and enjoyed the absence any clear ethical conclusions. It felt like an ongoing discussion between the interesting cast of characters, as there are never going to be definitive answers to the questions it raises. ( )

Read this on a lark because I am halfway through writing my own human/robot love story and wanted to see how this classic work tackled it. Normally reading fiction similar to what you're writing is a terrible idea, but my story is well enough established that I decided to indulge my curiosity.

I enjoyed the B-plot of this novel, in which one of the characters retells the story of the Golem of Prague. The main narrative lost my interest about halfway through.

Before I picked up the title, I came across controversy about whether literary writers like Piercy, Atwood, etc. write "real" SF/F. I wrestled with this question for a while before setting it aside as irrelevant. There's plenty of successful genre fiction written for a general or literary audience. Piercy's cyberpumk-inspired world isn't very original, but I don't think original worldbuilding makes or breaks a story. She infodumps on every other page, but some genre writers do that all the time (especially in cyberpunk!)

So the reason I didn't care for this book isn't because it's bad science fiction (it might be, but whatever). It's because the characters stopped surprising me and the central ideas of the book didn't take me anywhere I hadn't been before. ( )

As usual, Marge Piercy is full of interesting ideas. In this book she explores our relationship to technology, as individuals, as.communities and as a society. Her primary question concerns the notion of humanity. What does it mean to be human? What are the essential attributes? What does it mean when acknowledged human beings don't have those qualities, vut cyborgs do? What are the benefits and risks of merging the biological with the technological? Great questions for our current moment. Unfortunately Piercy ' s writing falls far short of the expectations set by her framing of her subject. It's sentimental, trite, even juvenile at many times, making it hard to get through and distracting the reader from the interesting problems Piercy ' s presented us. ( )

Piercy is a masterful writer. ( )

Beautiful. I won't say much here, as I'm teaching this book in the fall. But this is a beautiful, challenging, and memorable read.

So many aspects of this book fascinate me, it would have been hard for me not to like it. There was religion, science fiction, apocalyptic fiction and themes of starting over, golems; just an endless array. There is no small irony (or pun?) in saying that what struck me as most moving was the humanity at the center of this book.

I really don't want to go on about this one, in part because I want to savor my feelings about this book for a while, but mainly because I've been taking expansive notes on this text as I read, and to start would be to not stop any time soon. So, I'll pick up the next book and head to bed, but I won't soon forget this one. Highly, highly recommended. ( )

Loved it, and fun to see how much of the future is now. The parallel story of the Golem is very well done. ( )

You know those books that you really didn't like...but you can't really put your finger on why so you waver back and forth between 2 and 3 stars? Yeah, this is one of those. This book tells the parallel stories of a golem and a cyborg, both created to protect a Jewish community and both of whom fall in love with human women. The conceit is fascinating...but the execution just lacks something. This book is very much of its time in terms of acid rain and plastic surgery being a primary concern of the characters, which makes it feels like late 20th Century people just ported forward in time rather than a society that truly evolved over the 100ish years that have allegedly passed. Ultimately, it wasn't a bad read, but I don't think I'm in a rush to read another by Ms. Piercy. ( )

Marge Piercy tells a number of stories in He, She, and It, and none of them particularly well. All at once, you are reading a techno-futurist utopian science fiction novel, a love story between a woman and a cyborg which touches on existential questions about what it means to be human and machine, a story of the struggles faced by Jewish people throughout time, a meditation on growing older, criticism of masculinity and a celebration of femininity, the bonding of women between generations, and more that I'm not mentioning. Not only are all these themes presented at the fore of the book, but Piercy tries to make a poignant statement about all of them.

The result is what you might expect - she has little meaningful insight into any of them. Spread thin, her thoughts on what separates cyborgs from humans can be summed up in a handful of cliched examples from Shira, the book's hyper-sensitive, self-pitying protagonist. Cyborgs are just machines? Well, humans in the future have lots of implants, Q.E.D. Her interpretation of gender is even blander and less interesting, with most of her characters acting out tiresome stock roles - the wise, matronly ur-mother Malkah as the summary of all things good female, the unfeeling father-figure Avram as the summary of the distant, violent, cold masculine, and a menagerie of women who are all equally amazing, wise, scrappy, and so forth.

Piercy's characters are perhaps the weakest part of the book. All of them are superheroes, to the point where they glide through a post-apocalypic wasteland with little trouble beyond their own emotional issues. Shira, Malkah, and Avram are all considered geniuses. Gadi, the feminine (and therefore suspect) ex-lover, is perfectly equipped to guide the characters through the slums that populate much of the world. Nili and Riva are both savvy fighters, the latter of whom has evaded death numerous times, including later in the book, after which we're treated to an explanation as confusing as it is improbable. And to top it all off, there's a cyborg that is a super fighter and can navigate this world's internet with mastery. In other words, there are very few real impediments to these characters beyond their own tedious hand-wringing, which is what we're treated to for most of the book. ( )

A strong 3.5. I think the pacing and character development could have used some work, but I loved the overlapping stories of the 1600s 'cyborg' and Yod in the book's present. I was raised Christian and know woefully little about Judaism and Jewish culture, so this book was deeply enriching in its glimpse into the depth and breadth of Jewish intellectual/mystical scholarship and historical practice. ( )

One of my top 5 Scifi books of all time. ( )

https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2974689.html

We are in the near future (to 1993); the Middle East has been destroyed in a war, global warming and pollution run rampant, and corporations control all aspects of life for those who accept the security of living in their communities. Our protagonist, Shira Shipman, flees a nasty divorce in one of the corporate burgs to a Jewish free town, to link up with her robot-building mentor; meanwhile a parallel narrative recounts the story of the Golem of Prague. I generally really hate stories with cute robots, and the android here is not just cute but sexy. But it's far from being the entire point of the story, which involves identity in several different ways, and also is based in really effective world-building and characterisation of the various relationships. Apparently Arthur C. Clarke himself was rather pleased that it won his award, though it is pretty far from Clarke's own style. ( )

While Marge Piercy is one of the writers I tend to look for, the inconsistent writing quality of this book has made me decide to give it away rather than keep. I really enjoyed the serialized tale of Joseph the Golem, which was interspersed throughout the book. The male characters are mostly caricatures to make Piercy's point about human relationships & what makes us human, with side theme of political power struggle & worker's rights. Any other people mentioned tend to be even more undeveloped & are just names thrown in to show there might be a community around Shira & Malkah.
Shira makes a big point of missing her son, but we never see her really interacting with him meaningfully. It's hard to get a sense of what Shira does in her work, for example how can she just be called on to finish the cyberdefenses Malkah & Avram have devised. There are frequent comments about how rare fresh produce is, yet it is eaten all the time in Tikva--why isn't produce one of their profitable exports, rather than cyberdefenses? etc etc inconsistencies. ( )

Loved this book right from page one. Definitely a slow read, but packed full of things. Corporate power, ecological disaster, nature of humanity, feminism. Lots of philosophy and political material.

There are two parallel story lines, one in Prague, the 1600, and one in a near-future dystopia. As you switch back and forth between the stories, they reflect upon each other. Especially lending itself to contrast is the role of women in both times, the relative value of human life, methods of government. A constant is both storylines take place within a Jewish community providing some continuity.

Really well written well thought out book. Not as easy or quick a read as some SF dystopia, but tons of food for thought.
( )

This is probably my all-time favorite novel. It has some of every genre I like - romance, scifi, historical, thriller, Jewish, feminist, & cyborgs - yet brings them all together in one fantastic, satisfying whole. This is one of the few books I read because I heard a review of it on the radio. ( )

I'm so excited to read this, from the author of Woman on the Edge of Time.

This was so good. I can't wait to read more by Piercy. ( )

One of my favorite sci-fi type books. Very well written and literary. Love, love, love this book. ( )

Set in the near future, the effect of climate change has led to famine, disease and a brief nuclear war in the Middle East. The world is living with the consequences — divided into haves, in the protected corporate domes; and have-nots, in the wastelands known as the Glop; and the few surviving freetowns. Shira was brought up in Tikva, one of those freetowns, a Jewish settlement set up after the troubles. Returning home she finds that the town is under threat. Interspersed with her story is that of the ghetto of Prague in the 1600's, Rabbi Judah Loew and the golem he created to protect the Jews. This story is told by Shira's grandmother, Malkah, to a cyborg created to help protect Tikva.

The parallels between the stories - the role of a creator and his (or her) responsibility to the thing created; the importance of self, within family and community; the world and how we live and the consequences of our choices - combine in a way that makes you think. Marge Piercy has created a vision of the future that is plausible and reminds us that history can be repeated. I found this a compellingly interesting read; a wonderful story. ( )

Awesome, awesome book set in the future. At it's heart, it is a love story, but also is a commentary on society, a study of faith and how faith separates & joins people, and a moral tale. I cried at the end and then wanted to read again. Very powerful. ( )

http://storyjunkie.livejournal.com/64063.html

Set in an alternative future, in which the world was devastated by plague and famine, He, She and It directly concerns the status of personhood, as an individual, within a community, and the use of people as tools and pawns of corporations, each other, and at what moral cost. If Terminator: Salvation were a better-done narrative, actually staring the hard questions in the face, it would have been a worthy sub-genre sibling of this book. ( )

When Shira's ex-husband wins custody of her son, she retreats from the corporation community where her life is dictated by the rules, and returns to her childhood home, the 'free' town of Tikva. There she discovers Yod, the cyborg who will change her world. Meanwhile, her grandmother Malkah is telling Yod a tale of the 16th century, where their ancestors freedom is just as threatened as it is now.

This novel combines the future and the past, much as Doomsday Book did so successfully. Earth is suffering in the mid 21st century, with high temperatures, radiation and danger. There are three different 'areas' within this world, the protected enclaves of the corporation where life is dictated by rules and regulations, but food is available and the people within this are protected.
The 'Glop' is the other end, a gang ruled slum with poverty, starvation and death.

I really felt that all three 'scenes' in the future were well realised and entirely believable, as were the characters, the motivations and the events that unfold. The backstory of the historical tale is just as enthralling, and show that whilst technology may advance and the world may change, human nature and desires are less likely to change.

There was a lot about the protection of the Jewish faith as well, and whilst it was slightly distracting at first as I don't know much about this religion and felt I was missing a lot, as the facts were revealed I forgot noticing details I wasn't sure about.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The way the stories played out, the progression of characters both 'man made' and human was exceptionally well written. This is one I will definitely reread and really analyses what makes us human, where the line is and how far we are willing to go in the protection of our freedoms.

In one line: The past seems to be repeating as a 'free town' in the future is under threat from the big corporations that rule most of the world. ( )

Well-done slightly dystopic scifi novel with a definite Jewish flavor. In this post-ecodisaster world of the future, billions have died from famine, plagues, and a nuclear war in the Middle East. The remaining population now lives either in corporate enclaves, or out in the “Glop,” “the jammed fetid slum where most people live.” Some free towns remain, however, like the Jewish community of Tikvah, in the northeast of the former U.S.

Parallel chapters juxtapose events in the futuristic Tikvah with the real Jewish ghetto of Prague in the late 1500’s, at the time of the famous Rabbi Judah Loew. Brilliant scientists in Tikvah construct a cyborg, Yod (a mixture of biological and machine parts), to protect them from the pirates and assassins of the enclaves and the Glop, just as Rabbi Loew supposedly constructed a golem (or man of clay) to protect the ghetto from the antisemites beyond its walls. Rabbi Loew was a follower of Kabbala, which ascribes mystical powers to letters, numbers, and words. He creates his golem with words, just as we create our truths by naming them. Rabbi Loew’s story is told by Malkah, one of the scientists who creates Yod. Her granddaughter Shira used to be in love with Gadi, son of Avram, the other creator of Yod. Together all of the them struggle with the need for connection. And together all of them explore the nature of the fluidity of reality by virtue of simulations, cyberspace, religion, socialization, desire, and myth, trying to discern which is “true” and even what truth is. A thought-provoking book on many levels.

(JAF) ( )

http://talesofarampaginglibrarian.blogspot.com/2007/09/deserted-us-reviled-us-tr... ( )

Piercy does that thing she does so well, weaving multiple story lines together. ( )

Science fiction love story, kind of like bicintanial man, but in a much darker setting. ( )

I've read this book at twice, I can believe this future as a possibility for us all. ( )