Turning on the Girls

by Cheryl Benard

Book Overview

In the wickedly amusing Turning on the Girls, Cheryl Benard proves herself to be truly an equal-opportunity satirist. It's the year 2000-something. A decade ago, the world's power was seized by women,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0374281785
• ISBN13: 9780374281786
• Release Date: January 2001
• Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux
• Length: 312 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.8" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

At last!

Benard's writing style is excellent for her subject. From the beginning she establishes an informal atmosphere as the narrator of the novel. At once she is matter-of-fact and sarcastic, drawing from both 1984 and Story of O to create a world that provokes thought just as much as it might scintillate our baser instincts. The novel begins rather slowly, acclimatizing the reader to the feminist-run version of life. The satire here is breathtaking (from laughter) as Benard pokes fun at everyone, from the ice-cold elite of the feminist regime to the pathetically paternalistic and two-dimensional counterrevolutionaries. (In portraying men in such a light, is Benard even making light of both ultra-feminist/anti-masculinist views and the male-dominated world of Orwell's 1984? The intrigue thickens.) After the orientation, the novel takes off into political intrigue, and then there is just no putting down this book. If that were not enough, the author develops the main character's story into a romancenovelesque subplot. Brava, Benard!

THIS IS THE BEST BOOK EVER WRITTEN

This book is unreal. Hysterically funny, unbelievably thought-provoking, and thouroughly amazing. It is, beneath the hilarity and wit of the characters and the suspense of the complex plot, a fantastic journey into the study of power and gender. I am a lesbian and I don't even want her world to happen! You will NOT be able to put it down for a millisecond. Benard, you are a true genius.

great comedy

What a great book. I was laughing from the opening pages and didn't stop til the wonderful ending line. I suppose as a man I should be offended that women have taken over the world and men have to be re-educated, but Benard is so evenhanded in her satire of the human species you'd have to be crazy not to love the book, and the world she imagines. Or maybe you'd write a review without actually having read the book; who knows. All I can say is I am ordering her previous book, which seems very different than this, but anyone who can make me laugh so much I'll follow anywhere.

absolutely fabulous

This is not just one of the most inventive and hilarious books I've read this year, it's one of the funniest ever. Benard has you laughing on just about every page. She takes the idea of a world in which women are charge and uses it to skewer --well, just about everybody and every idea even remotely p.c. It's the kind of book you want to call your friends to quote lines from. (And even my husband was laughing out loud when I read him parts.) Benard has just got such a great, rollicking voice, and no target is taboo. Combine that sense of humor with an appealing main character, Lisa, who is charged with the difficult task of finding new ... fantasties for women in the new world order, and her charmingly clueless sidekick, Justin (who's being reeducated in a series of nine month long courses), and you've got a very fun book that also makes you reconsider your own preconceptions -- which is what the very best fiction does: reveals the world to you in a completely fresh way. So be warned: if you don't like to have your view of the world challenged, if you can't stand the idea of sacred cows being taken down, and you can't laugh at the foibles of men and women alike, this book isn't for you. But for the rest of us, we couldn't ask for a better, more clever guide to the absurdities of gender warfare.

This was one wild ride

Women rule the world. Borderline males who can be fixed are reeducated with counseling and medication. Die hard chauvinist pigs and similar non-repairable disorders are exiled to Zone Six. A growing black market thrives with the selling of contraband consisting of the most dangerous element to society, romance novels. In the Ministry of Thought, Lisa searches for a permissible sexual fantasy so women will not regress back to the outlawed romantic urges of previous generations. To accomplish her mission, Lisa conducts research into the banned pornography of the past. With the help of her reeducated assistant Justin, they go underground, but soon find themselves in trouble in Zone Six from throwbacks of both genders. 1984, with a totally female dominated society, is the underlying foundation to this strong satirical futuristic tale. The story line hammers at everyone across the spectrum for excessiveness in personal agendas even as the plot acknowledges the recent gains by women in western society. Readers will enjoy TURNING ON THE GIRLS because the novel is humorous yet biting with no sacred icons allowed to escape the grip of the plot's teeth. Although the establishing of the setting requires patience, once the ride reaches the acme of the first incline, it is a swift no stop wild trip into social irony.Harriet Klausner