Left Hand of Darkness - Review
The Left Hand of Darkness is so complex, as all of Le Guin's masterpieces are - on the surface it is a scifi political drama but under that thin surface, it's a tragic love story, all colored in the eyes of a stranger in a culture he can not fully grasp, cannot fully understand, even as he returns to his own "people" and find them just as strange and unfamiliar as he initially found the inhabitants of Winter.
Like with all of Le Guin's works, there is so much depth and deeper meaning going on in the story. The main character is Genly Ai, whose thinking is so binary that he has difficulty navigating a culture that finds his very state of being (fixed as male sex) to be as perverse as we generally find incest. As we journey with Genly Ai, and eventually Estraven, we see as Genly Ai slowly learning to trust and Estaven's quest to help his people leap into the future unfold. Overall, its a great epic story where, even though I personally do not like Genly Ai (he is fundamental very sexist person especially in contrast with Estraven and the agender world that is Winter), we still feel for him and his struggles and eventual grief.
The lyrical near prose writing of Le Guin lends almost to an oral-retelling quality to the book - oddly much like Estraven's retelling of their crossing of the Gobrin Ice to the villagers. Intense details give the world of Winter a depth to it that makes it clear and distinct to us - but also, Le Guin skips ahead in time in grace, letting us glimpse the important interactions and doings without lingering too long on the in between slow inaction bits that some authors do to draw out the tense peaks of plot and story.
I think a lot of people struggle with Le Guin because she doesn't write a "grabs you by the hand and drags you along for the ride" action packed story; her's is more of a gentle pull, like the tide pulling you out to sea, kinda meandering, but still purposfully, until you suddenly are docked on the other shore and almost to the end, surprised to find you are there.
In short, I enjoyed this immensely, even if I perhaps started it at the worst possible time in my life. But like with all of Le Guin's books, I'll reread this in a few years time and it will be like reading a brand new book as new nuances are revealed to me and my older self can part take in a brand new lesson.
