The Left Hand of Darkness

Written by Ursula K. Le Guin and Charlie Jane Anders

Narrated by Michael Crouch and Alyssa Bresnahan

The queen of science fiction’s trailblazing novel about a planet full of genderless beings

A groundbreaking work of science fiction, The Left Hand of Darkness tells the story of a lone human emissary’s mission to Winter, an unknown alien world whose inhabitants can choose—and change—their gender. His goal is to facilitate Winter’s inclusion in a growing intergalactic civilization. But to
do so he must bridge the gulf between his own views and those of the completely dissimilar culture that he encounters. Exploring questions of psychology, society, and human emotion in an alien world, The Left Hand of Darkness stands as a landmark achievement in the annals of science fiction.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Jun 18, 2024
• ISBN: 9798891785106

Ursula K. Le Guin

Ursula K. Le Guin (1929–2018) was awarded the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contributions to American Letters. Her body of work includes twenty-three novels, twelve volumes of short stories, eleven volumes of poetry, thirteen children’s books, five essay collections, and four works of translation. The breadth and imagination of her work earned her six Nebula Awards, seven Hugo Awards, and the Science Fiction Writers of America Grand Master Award, along with a PEN/Malamud Award and many other accolades. In 2016 she joined the short list of authors to be published in their lifetimes by the Library of America.

Reviews for The Left Hand of Darkness

[spoko_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is how speculative fiction should be written. There’s clearly an immense amount of worldbuilding behind it, but it’s employed in the service of the story. And while the story itself actually has massive, intergalactic implications, it’s told very much at the level of individual characters.

My one issue is the length of the time spent traversing the ice. Even as a fairly patient reader, I did find myself wondering just what fraction of the novel was going to be spent there. But honestly, it served to develop the story and, especially, the characters.

[jpalfrey-459036 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This novel, which won the Hugo and Nebula awards, is the story of a lone envoy to a cold planet inhabited by human beings who have been cut off from the rest of humanity for a long time. His mission is to persuade them to join voluntarily in the loose association that exists between the other inhabited worlds, and to this end he visits the two largest nations on the planet. These have contrasting styles, one being a monarchy and the other a kind of communist state. Both nations receive him well at first, then turn against him; but he finds one true friend who sees him through to the completion of his difficult, cold, and hazardous mission.

The people of Gethen, although human, have been genetically altered in one respect: they’re sexless for most of the time. For a few days each month, a Gethenian becomes either male or female, more or less at random, and will normally experience both fatherhood and motherhood in the course of his/her life.

Obviously Le Guin came up with this idea in order to talk about sexual equality. But she avoids lecturing, and merely describes with care the differences between their society and ours. The other themes of the book are the contrast between the politics of the two Gethenian nations (she makes some effort to show the good and the bad sides of each), and the contrast between the cold of Gethen and our own warmer world. There seems no particular reason for making Gethen so cold, except that it adds a distinctive atmosphere to the story, and makes life more difficult for the envoy.

The world of Gethen becomes very real as we read, the characters are well drawn, the descriptions are well written, the plot is quite strong. The book is written in a contemplative, literary style that’s rather unusual in American sf. Much of the story is about difficulty and hardship, so I find it makes rather arduous reading, and I don’t reread it often; but it is a memorable book and worth reading at least once.

[verixsilvercrow · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Le Guin weaves a world that feels real, dense, more than the book itself can contain; not the pseudo-English glens and forests of Tolkien's works but a frozen land. And it's not a masculine-dominated world either, like Tolkien's, but one with a different expression of gender altogether.

It pulled me in brilliantly, pulled me into the shoes of its characters, and the plot drove itself well, both through political intrigue and through a race against the climate.

The exploration of gender isn't perfect, and the author has expressed agreement with that theme, but it's still far more brilliant than anything else in 1969 and is absolutely worth a read.

Four and a half stars.

[atreic · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a book of two halves. The first half is the story of the alien Genly Ai, first contact on the frozen world of Gethan, as he navigates the politics of two of the main nations, Karhide and Orgoreyn. The second half is a boys-own heroes tale of escaping from a death camp and ski-ing across the North Pole. I enjoyed both, although the shift is sudden!

[gllyons-120926 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This is considered a classic, but i guess you had to be there. It is a mostly boring political drama that studiously ignores its most interesting ideas. I couldn't finish it.

[mattries37315 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A human male emissary to a planet of androgynous humans attempts to open them up to the rest of the galactic human civilizations navigates the religious, social, cultural, and political webs that cross the two largest nations of the planet. The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin is a science fiction novel that deals sex and gender that changed the genre as well as put her into the forefront of it as well.

Having heard that significance of this book as well the importance of the author to science fiction and fantasy, I felt the need to make sure I read it. Upon completing it I found it a fine narrative and an interesting worldbuilding that Le Guin created in social structures and political systems, and I personally found that the book reveals two different means for its title. However, the 55 years since the book published—at time of reading—things have changed in fiction and real life that have blunted its impact, namely another book and it’s adapted film franchise as well as certain sports controversies including one that happened while I was reading this book. Frankly this is a good read and I’m not disappointed in reading it, but unlike when it first came out its “impact” isn’t really felt to me personally.

The Left Hand of Darkness is one of Ursula K. Le Guin’s best-known works, while I felt it was good I didn’t feel the impact that is associated with one of this book’s main themes which probably affected my overall view of the book.

[bgknighton · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

On Winter humans have no fixed gender but cycle through them. Winter is an almost frozen planet so life is hard. This makes understanding between the envoy of the Ekumen and the Gethenians difficult because of our many cultural assumptions.

[grahzny · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Like many LeGuin books, it's subtle at times, a little overbearing at times, and very beautiful, personal, and touching. There's a reason this is one of her most famous books: it's thoughtful and well-done.

[jamestomasino · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This book deserves a better rating but it was absolutely ruined by a terrible narrator.

[jonbrammer-788089 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Le Guin has a berth in the science fiction hall of fame, largely on the strength of novels like Left Hand. In her introduction, she acknowledges that all science fiction is allegorical, and that hers is especially so. It's up to the reader to unravel the implications for our own world.

She does not condescend to the reader through exposition. Instead, we are dropped into the world much like the protagonist, Genry Ai, is as envoy from the interplanetary alliance Ekumen. It takes most of 300 pages to really get your bearings - there is a lot of Winter-specific terminology that is not always fully explained.

So it ends up being both a challenging and impressionist reading experience. I think all alien encounter stories are post-colonial in nature, going back to War of the Worlds. The Ekumen is a more enlightened form of first contact, sending only one envoy with a backup plan. The androgynous people on Winter are a sly commentary on the way gender influences politics and war on Earth.

[quickmind · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I can see why this won both the Hugo and the Nebula awards the year it was released. It is a masterpiece. I love how Le Guin explores how humanity can change and evolve on different worlds. When an envoy from a different planet arrives, the people seem alien, even though its only a different version of humanity being encountered. All of the Hainish novels seem to be a variation of this theme, with different maturation levels. This is a very powerful novel, but the reason I am giving it 4 stars instead of 5 is that the last act, the journey across the ice, the transformation essentially of Genly Ai to a native of Winter, wasn't as compelling as the rest of the novel. It dragged a bit for me, which I guess make sense, since it was an arduous and slow journey. But overall, this was an interesting novel that was fairly easy to read, with an interesting take on anthropology and how humanity can change. We should see everyone as human, not just based on our assumptions of what a human should be.

[jmchshannon · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS is my first experience with Ursula K. Le Guin. She is my son's favorite author, and he presented me with this particular novel for Christmas. He felt it was the one that was closest to reflecting some of my values. Now that I've finished at least one Le Guin novel, I am not sure she is the author for me.

THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS starts slowly. While the intention is for it to sound like a travel brochure, it doesn't make for the most engaging of reads. Our main narrator, Genly Ai, is self-centered, misogynistic, and pompous. As his eyes provide our only look at the perpetually frozen planet Gethen and its inhabitants, his biases have a way of sneaking into your subconscious, as do his deliberate or unintentional cultural misunderstandings.

The first half of the novel contains nothing but his commentary on Winter's population and is told in such dry language that it took all my effort to stay awake while reading. Plus, for someone who was sent to the planet as an observer and to entice the natives to join the planetary collective, Ai proves to be less observant and a lot more judgemental than he should be. Nowhere is this more apparent than in Ai's refusal to accept the ambisexuality and complete lack of gender roles that are the hallmark of Gethenians.

While THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS is somewhat of a philosophical experiment regarding gender roles' impact on society, the experiment suffers specifically because of Ai's biases affecting his observations. Ai does not attempt to understand a society without gender norms. He continues to categorize those Gethenians he meets as either female or male. And because he has such a rigid, archaic idea of female gender roles, those categorizations immediately impact how he interacts with others. We can only surmise that the Gethenians' lack of war or sex crimes is a direct result of their gender fluidity. There is not enough concrete evidence to support this hypothesis, and all Ai provides is a continued opinion that becoming war-like would promote the Gethenians to a more advanced race.

Once the story becomes less a travelogue and more an actual story, complete with action and adventure, THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS improves in readability and enjoyment. I particularly enjoyed those few chapters told through Estravan's point of view. Not only did it give me a break from Ai's one-sidedness, but those chapters also helped solidify some of the cultural differences Ai was trying to explain.

I can't say that I enjoyed THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS, but I can appreciate what Ms. Le Guin was trying to accomplish with it. In many ways, the novel feels prescient as discussions of gender fluidity and transgender continue to dominate politics today. For me, however, the novel is too philosophical, too esoteric for my tastes. I like escapist fiction, and at least half of THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS is not escapist at all. It demands your undivided attention while reading and dedicated analysis after reading. My son loves that sort of thing. I prefer to read something a lot less intellectual.

[jasonmehmel · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This was such a fantastic book. Powerfully relevant today regarding gender.

It's about an envoy to a planet where gender changes for people continuously throughout their lives. The book explores this in such a beautiful way... And by the end, when other humans like the envoy, (and us) arrive on the planet, they have been there so long that these arrivals feel alien. A profound comment about how we can normalise something new and different, given engagement and a curious mind.

[gwendydd · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is about Genry, a man sent to a planet to make first contact with a the humans there, who have evolved to be genderless except for brief periods when they are fertile and take on physical gender characteristics. The plot of the book is about Genry's attempts to convince the people of the planet to join a multi-planet alliance, and about the political machinations of different cultures as they try to figure out what to do with Genry. But the story is also about gender, and the difficulties Genry has in thinking about people without gender.

This book is both more relevant than ever, and also showing its age more than ever right now. As parts of our culture are becoming more accepting of non-binary genders, and other parts of our culture are fighting that change, it is interesting to read about a culture that is completely free of the gender binary. Genry's reaction is sometimes shockingly sexist: he sees weak people as feminine, smart people as masculine, and never really questions those assumptions.

Like a lot of sci-fi of its era, this book can be a little tedious, but there is a lot going on here. Le Guin's worldbuilding is fascinating and thorough: not only does this world have very different sexuality, but Le Guin has created political systems, mythologies, histories, and entirely different attitudes about prophecy. This isn't a particularly easy read, but it is well worth the effort.

[bodagirl · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This was definitely a more cerebral read. Even after 100 pages of basically only world building, I still was confused by some of the invented words - I would have loved a dictionary. My confusion and focus on trying to puzzle out parts of the book didn't allow my to create an emotional connection to Genly or Therem (the multiple names for this character didn't help either).

However, the playing with the idea of gender was very interesting and I appreciated the afterward Le Guin added to this particular edition.

[judygibson-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A lot of deep thought went into crafting this profound examination of the impact of sexuality on social development and expectations. Although an intriguing first-contact story, it is the examination of our human society that has the most impact.

I had read this long ago and apparently completely forgotten it. I remembered nothing except for the small detail that on this planet people had not developed flight because there were no creatures that flew, so it never occurred to them.

I may need to re-read all of Le Guin.

[mialro_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The Left Hand of Darkness takes place on the planet Winter, where everyone is genderless, except during their mating periods when one individual becomes male and one individual becomes female in order to reproduce. An Earth man goes to Winter to try to convince the planet to join the space federation of other planets, but there's a lot of cultural barriers to overcome. A very interesting look at gender and the lack thereof, from the 1970s(!!!). Lots of fascinating Tao influence as well. A classic for a reason, highly recommended.

[kslade-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Interesting science fiction about gender, etc.

[alexrichman_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Hasn't aged a day! The beauty of good sci-fi, eh? Bit too much trekking for my liking but a thought-provoking premise brilliantly realised.

[castlelass · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Left Hand of Darkness is a seminal book of science fiction, part of Le Guin’s Hainish Cycle series, but it can be read as a standalone. On the surface this book is about a solitary human envoy, a representative of a league of worlds, attempting to convince nations of an isolated planet to join its membership. Underlying this premise is a many-faceted tale involving storytelling, fear, trust, gender, isolation, politics, cultural barriers, loyalty, friendship, and communications. It employs two narrators, Genly Ai, the envoy, and Estraven, the Prime Minister of one of the nations of the planet Gethen, also known as Winter due to its icy environment. These two individuals gradually learn to understand each other despite their differences. The envoy must also confront his personal biases, which threaten his mission.

The world-building is superb. Le Guin has created a planet with a unique history, culture, ecosystem, spirituality, and mythology, and has populated it with ambisexual residents. She captures the essence of what it would be like to live on this planet. The writing is elegant and rich in detail. The author inserts myths, legends, and field notes into the narrative, which provide an anthropological framework for understanding the Gethen civilization. It is almost as if the reader is accompanying the envoy as he traverses this remote planet, learning the social structure, values, and ways of life.

The reader will have to do a bit of work to fully enjoy this novel, as it contains a good amount of unfamiliar terminology. Although the context provides enough information to eventually figure it all out, I wish it had included a glossary of terms. I found a list of seasons, months, and days of the week in the appendix, unfortunately too late to employ it. The envoy journeys to many locations on Gethen, so a map would also have been beneficial.

I can see why this book is considered a classic. It is science fiction but more oriented toward interpersonal interactions than technology, so it will appeal to readers outside the genre. The themes and concepts are just as relevant now as when it was published 50 years ago. It encourages tolerance, understanding, and acceptance of cultural differences, and provides much food for thought along the way.

[ahs7wolfy · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Classic science fiction where an emissary from the federation of human inhabited planets attempts to negotiate with representatives of another planet to join them. Although this new world is also populated with people of human origin, they have taken a different evolutionary path in order to survive in the harsh environments. The main difference being sex/gender. Apart from a few days each month they don’t have one until they pair off when one becomes female and the other male. Initial overtures from the emissary, Genly Ai, had gone well but when his main supporter to the leader of the largest community is discredited and banished Genly decides it might be more prudent to try an alternative..Things don’t go as planned there either.

Originally published in 1969 this book is classed as a seminal work of the feminist movement as it challenges the reader to examine their gender bias where even the main character predominantly thinks of the androgynous people as male. It’s a beautifully written book and the world-building is superb. Not only is this a first-contact story but it also has political intrigue at both settlements the protagonist attempts to negotiate with but there’s a real sense of adventure and camaraderie as the story progresses. An excellent read well worth its classic status.

[psalva-706031 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This was beautiful. I really loved the relationship that developed between Genly Ai and Estraven. This is one of the best sci-fi novels I've ever read.

[leslie398 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Despite how slowly I read this, I really liked it. Typically when I like a book, I devour it (sometimes staying up all night to do so!). For some reason, I couldn't do that with this novel.

Le Guin has created another world in vivid detail, as she has done in her other works. The world and people of Gethen (also known as Winter) struck me as more alien not due solely to the physical differences; perhaps because of the details such as the calendar.

"The Left Hand of Darkness" is about the reaction of a world to what is called First Contact in Star Trek terminology. Although the book deals with a world of aliens with a single Terran visiting as a envoy of the Ekumen (similar to the Federation to continue the Star Trek terms), the reactions described would not be surprising in the reverse situation of Earth being visited by an alien envoy.

[chrisriesbeck · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A classic. Things I noted from a reread after many decades. First, how much later the trek across the Ice comes in the book, and how brief and uneventful the kemmer portion of that trek is. Those are the parts you remember and discuss when talking about the book, but they're a very small element. Second, how much of the book was a dry run for the social engineering and discussion that filled The Dispossessed. Third, how male-centered the book is. The choice to use "he" for the gender-fluid inhabitants is made by the conservative narrator. It's a choice he comes to realize as misleading, but yet it persists. I wonder how this book would read if the default were "she" as in Leckie's Ancillary Mercy. Fourth, and related, how little progress was assumed in the role of women in society. There's one short scene where Genly Ai from the Ekumen, supposedly an advanced futuristic culture, is asked about women, and he's is as clueless as any character from a 50s SF pulp novel. To me this is the part that has aged badly, but it could be argued this book along with many others was part of the movement that led to changing the future.

Highly recommended of course.

[seriousgrace · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

To read the classic Left Hand of Darkness is to discover a completely different way of thinking. To understand just how advanced Le Guin's vision was in 1969 you need to consider at that time, in 1969, where society stood in regards to technology, human sexuality, and cultural constraints. When she describes electric vehicles with their super quiet hum and the gender fluid planet of Winter/Gethen, it feels very 21st century. Interestingly enough, the role of "pervert" on Gethen is assigned to what we would consider normal (assigned) gender today. I find that extremely interesting. As an aside, is it still true that Earth is freewheeling and without tact? I think so.
Mr. Ai (artificial intelligence?) is on a mission to bring an alliance between Gethen and Ekumen. The only thing I have in common with misogynist Ai in that I also like sour beer. His "friendships" are based on need and slim tolerance.
The message of Left Hand of Darkness is the tiny spark of hope despite all the darkness that surrounds us. It is worth rereading over and over again. As both authors of the foreword and afterword of the anniversary edition mention, there is something new to discover each time.

[nickduberley · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

One of the best fantasy books ever

[hefruth · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Ursula Le Guin’s 1969 book, The Left Hand of Darkness, is often lauded as the first book to address transgender ideas, but that claim is spurious.

What is accurate to say is that Le Guin created a world wherein humans, and she does clearly identify them as humans, are neither female nor male (called ambisexuality by Le Guin) until they reach a stage called kemmer. Kemmering is when the environment around the individual, including the people the individual is with at the time, stimulates the hormonal levels of the person to create either a female or a male being—there are no other forms of gender on the planet Winter where the story is set, and sex never occurs without kemmering.

Le Guin provides readers with several clues about her own personal attitudes about gender. The two main characters are purposely named. The Earthling visiting the planet in order to convince Winter to join a kind of planetary federation called the Ekumin (based on the Christian word “ecumenical,” which denotes a “universal” form of Christianity) is named Genly Ai, but many of the Winter people, who call themselves the Gethenians (like the biblical Gethesemane garden which is a place of great mental or spiritual suffering, perhaps), is every inch the “gentleman,” even if his constant state of maleness is considered a perversion on this planet (one Gethenian points out his surname is like a scream). Some people of Winter cannot pronounce “l”s, so he becomes Genry, perhaps the “general” or “generic” human.

The second primary character is Harth rem ir Estraven. Since children born to the people of Winter stay with their birth mother for a time before going to a state school, children are clearly identified by the kemmered female who bore them, which is what the “rem ir” is understood to indicate. Harth indicates the Hearth for Le Guin, and she uses the term liberally throughout the story to indicate the birthplace that is tied to the kemmered female producer of the offspring. This view of the Hearth as the focus of female power is ancient. The given name, Estraven, is also a clue for readers that this character will at some point in the story become a female, with emphasis on “estrogen” and “estrus,” which is when a female animal comes into heat. In fact, the point is made quite emphatically that, when kemmer comes upon an individual, the need for sex precludes all other needs, so that Gethenians in kemmer must have heterosexual intercourse and their bodies are driving them to do so. Only once does Le Guin mention incest in the story, but it is late in the story and her meaning is never clarified, but it stands to reason that if kemmering comes upon individuals suddenly and is affected by those around them, often stimulating others present to undergo kemmering themselves, incest would occur.

After Estraven rescues Ai from a concentration camp in the second country where the alien Ekumenical Envoy traveled, they must flee back to Estraven’s home country via a heavily glaciated route. Naturally, Le Guin has Estraven go into kemmering during this long trip, and, because Estraven’s company is constantly a male, Estraven morphs into a “soft” female, highly attractive to Ai. Previously in the book, Le Guin had made much of Estraven’s short stature, but she clearly sets up a “weak female” totally at the mercy of a “strong male” scenario, but the two resist the temptation to copulate. Clearly, Le Guin does not mean to indicate that two males alone would have felt sexual attraction to each other. It is only when Estraven morphs into the “softer” female version of himself (Le Guin constantly uses male pronouns to refer to the people of Winter, which was common in the 1960s) that sexual attraction occurs at all. Le Guin clearly means to enforce a heterosexual attraction as natural, since there is no mention whatsoever in the novel of anyone on Winter ever engaging in homosexual sex.

The most interesting part of the novel, however, is when Genly Ai visits a remote village to observe the process of prophecy handed out by the Foretellers of the Handdara by asking them to tell him if Winter will join the Ekumenical, since the one government he has been dealing with is reluctant to admit there are other worlds in the universe. Ai suspects that, if the ritual is not a sham, the prophets are using a form of mind reading, something Ai himself can do, to project into the mind of the person asking for the prophecy in order to determine what answer that person wants to hear. He is somewhat startled to learn that the ritual, which he is allowed to watch, involves the sexual excitement between a Pervert, or a Gethenian in constant kemmer so only ever one gender, and a person actually in kemmer. This sexual excitement, described as “the empathic and paraverbal forces at work, immensely powerful and confused, rising out of the perception and frustration of sex, out of an insanity that distorts time, and out of an appalling discipline of total concentration and apprehension of immediate reality,” is what powers the prophets’ ability to see into the future, but the ceremony draws Ai into it because of his own mind reading powers.

This scene is interesting because it demonstrates Le Guin’s own struggles to comprehend the dichotomous world she has created. She refers to both the Pervert and the person in kemmer as “he”s, implying a homosexual attraction, but she remains vague enough to not appear to sanction such an attraction.

Le Guin clearly thought deeply about living in our dichotomous world because Winter becomes an extreme form of it. The writer goes so far as to explain how this clearly binary perception dictates the Gethenians’ perception of time, providing us with an appendix list of the names of the days of their 13-day week, which are opposed in the second half of each 26-day month with their “un-“ or “od-“ names, so that the first day of the week is “Getheny,” and the fourtheenth day of the week is “Odgetheny.”

In the end, then, The Left Hand of Darkness is not a novel about transgendering experiences on another world, but it mirrors our world as it might have been had women not been a permanent part of it. While Le Guin might have tried to demonstrate that women are equal to men in this binary way, she unwittingly reinforces gender stereotypes and the idea that heterosexual views of life are the only “normal” ones.

[steller0707 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Brilliant!

[leo_depart · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Intriguing speculations about gender, and the complex effects of the "first contact" on a civilisation. At the same time a story about friendship, love and communication set in a hostile, late ice age environment. Fascinating descriptions of the two native religions (Handdarrata & Yomeshta) and the concept of "Shifgrethor" a way of social interaction based on "Prestige, Face, Place, the pride-relationship".

[tytania-2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book really took off in the second half. No spoilers, but Estravan and Ai bond over an arduous polar trek. All the lead-up, with the laborious exposition, inscrutable politics, and an awful stint in a labor camp, is worthwhile once this part of the story gets going. And don't let Ai's misogyny sour you early in the novel; he'll get woke.