I really wanted to like this, I tried, having several false starts, I just could not penetrate the first hundred and fifty pages (the extent of my forgiveness for a book that makes me skeptical). Maybe it's a generation gap, and if I had been born several decades earlier, when the sexes were more stratified in society and gender roles less ambiguous than they are today (or, than at least they are in California), I would have been more appreciative of its subtly. I think the remedy may be for me to find one of LeGuin's simpler works and start there. I did love the language.

This note was recorded by Adam Kennedy from page of The Left Hand of Darkness.