Rating: 
Summary: I am delighted
Review: I am delighted to have stumbled upon a feminist novelist who can portray a woman's view without resorting to continual male-bashing. Her skill with English is a wonderful breath of air in a time when writers are churning out a semi-lierate cloud.
Rating: 
Summary: Have Time, Will Travel
Review: I am not a fan of the sci-fi genre; however, this novel has encased a multitude of thought provoking topics. Connie Ramos is a struggling Hispanic woman, who finds her life twisting from one soap opera drama to another. In her early years, Connie battles stereotypes, poverty, sexual scandals, and abuse; all of which contribute to the individual that she becomes. After Connie's family admits her to a psychiatric hospital for the second time, Connie begins to question her own sanity. By her own account, she feels that she is in perfect mental health. Until, a presence from the future contacts Connie through time travel.
Soon, Connie befriends the visitor known as Luciente, and begins visiting her world. Connie is shocked to learn of their customs, societal norms, and technology. Soon the futuristic town of Mattapoisett becomes an escape for Connie from the monotonous days of the mental ward. The more Connie visits Mattapoisett, the clearer the parallels become between the futuristic age and the dramas of Connie's life. Connie is soon enlisted as an allied fighter of Mattapoisett.
At the beginning, I was more than convinced that the main character was hallucinating the futuristic scenes. As time passed, however, I began to buy into the idea that she was truly having authentic encounters. Although I believe Connie was time traveling, she is the exception to my rule. I do not believe that such is possible, as I'm sure the general public would agree. However, I do feel that incredible insight is just as valuable and effective as having a looking glass into the future.
Part of being in the mental institution is surviving and enduring the strenuous physical and mental tests that doctors and nurses put patients through. Connie and select others are chosen to act the part of lab rats for experimental science on mental patients. Because of her `mental history,' Connie is unwillingly prepared for brain surgery and procedures that she feels are absurd.
As the story progresses, Connie finds herself as a guest to an alternate and parallel universe. The reader soon learns that it is the same force that Luciente is fighting. If Connie fails to be the heroin for Luciente's world, this new time could be the out come of human actions in the book's present setting. By realizing that she is fighting a war, much like Luciente's Mattapoisett is fighting this universe, Connie goes back to the institute to view her stay as a war between two forces.
Borrowing the not-so-proverbial phrase, it becomes a "survival of the fittest." By the end of the novel, Connie has cleared her head of the hospital haze. As she begins making choices that turn out in Luciente's favor, they find it harder and harder to connect. I believe this is because Connie is allowed into the future, before it happens, but as issues are resolved to ensure the future of Mattapoisett, the future becomes less accessible because it hasn't happened yet; following?
By the end of the story, Connie acts in an extreme form that I find is self defense. It truly becomes a war between herself and the forces of medical science and those who administer it.
In the end, Connie prevails and saves not only herself, but secures the future for years to come.
Rating:
Summary: Much overlooked masterpiece of SciFi, prose, poetry.
Review: I believe that Marge Piercy is certainly overlooked, and it sounds like, underrated. I'm 52 yrs old and I'd never heard of her until a friend's 70-something mother turned me on to "He, She, It" about 2 yrs ago. I immediately feel in love with that book.
Lately I found Woman on the Edge of Time at a thrift store. I wasn't able to put it down until I finished it. Of course it was unrealistic. Of course things were exaggerated, but that was a device she used to tell the story. She didn't let herself become overly bogged down in details. Almost anyone can do enough research to make a SciFi book sound realistic, but not everyone can write an intelligent, far-thinking, sensitive, suspenceful, and yet hopeful story. I can't believe that she developed the idea of people using "kenners" on their wrists to communicate with others. She wrote about this at a time when we hadn't even thought up personal computers or popularized cell phones. It's amazing! Now I've just gotta go out and find all of her other writings. I found a new favorite writer. And, like others have said, I don't think of her as a "feminist writer." That's the way we devalue people and their stories. Calling their work: feminist, American-American, Lesbian/Gay, etc. I'm a long-time feminist and yet when I write, I write as a writer, human being, not as I think someone who fits in my little box would want me to write. This writer is awesome. Give her her due. And certainly read "She, He, It" if you haven't already done so. It's a marvelous book.
Rating:
Summary: Woman on the Edge of Time had me on edge of my seat
Review: I could NOT put this one down from page one. "Woman on the Edge of Time" is a heartrending novel, written with exceptional skill by Marge Piercy, a celebrated American author who wrote this so-called utopian novel and was a major literary figure in the 70's. In this novel, Consuelo (Connie) has an abusive family who imprison her in a mental hospital. She is treated with incredible brutality, her life is discounted to the level of dumpster garbage. But Connie is far from insane--despite the fact she thinks she can time-travel. Connie visits Massapoisset, Massachusetts in the future via a kind of mental holographic sending-receiving abilities of a local resident there, Luciente. Life in the future is idyllic, though not perfect, and Connie develops relationships with people in the Cape Cod village. But life in the mental ward becomes increasingly dangerous. Connie has to make some difficult choices to survive. What I like best about this novel, in addition to the style which is nearly perfect, is that there are levels to the story. If you look at the events in one light, you could come to an entirely different conclusion about Connie's sanity. I absolutely recommend you read this book--and I am putting it on my "100 best American Novels" list. If you like Margaret Atwood ("Handmaid's Tale) you will likely enjoy "Woman on the Edge of Time."
Rating:
Summary: sci fi from the 70's more relevant today
Review: I discovered this book through an another customer's amazon list of great sci-fi, what a find. A woman shifts between her world and the year 2137 when people have found more environmently friendly ways to live. There are some violent & disturbing scenes in this but I felt the ending to be positive & uplifting, a reminder that we all need, in our own small ways, to keep "fighting the war". One comment about some of the other reviews, I am unable to see why this would be taken as a "feminist" book unless it's because the central character is a woman & the author also. The message in this book is about the environment first, then human priorities over economic ones. A thought-provoking view of the future.
Rating:
Summary: human utopia
Review: I forgot my dreams and Marge Piercy put them in a book. How wonderful to read about a place with compassion; one that nurtures a person's talents, a community that actively diffuses anger between members, where all people have clean air, water, food. Just imagine a place where no one dies of hunger. No racism, sexism, ageism, classism! Then juxtapose it with a minority woman of impending middle-age, low income, low education, imprisoned in a mental institution. An amazing book, pointing out the ills of our society and the possiblities inherent in human beings on this earth. A refresher course in all the good that compassion can do. Started reading the Dalai Lama's book "The Art of Happiness" and found amazing parallels.
Rating:
Summary: Woman on the Edge of Time, a good read
Review: I loved this book for its futuristic visionary images of what the world could be like if we choose it. Although I was a little disappointed with the ending, one such as that keeps you thinking about and questioning the way things are. Happy endings don't do that. In any case, it was enjoyable, full of suspense, & funny. Of course I loved it for its feminist and environmental grounding & visions....I wish there was a sequel.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant, fasure...
Review: I originally was given this book to read for a college course called "Utopia/Dystopia" and I must say I was skeptical when I started, but a fan by the time I finished. Everyone seems to refer to this work as a "Feminist" book, but I find it more Humanist than anything else. Both futures presented here are a little two dimensional, the Utopia is all squeaky clean and bright while the Dystopia is plastic evil through and through, but it's the ideas and the characters which make this novel shine. The concepts presented are very attractive and (in my opinion) very advanced for the period in which this was written (1976! Doesn't show a bit.). I'm a big fan of HG Wells and David Gerrold, and this novel fits in nicely with the former's Utopian visions and the laters complex character development. Piercy's mid 70's world is spot on; dirty, brown, and paranoid. Her treatment of the insane is both sensitive and compelling, it's hard to think of a more desperate character than poor Connie. And the ending is sweet (ohhhh so sweet!) and pleasantly vague at the same time. I'm a guy. I like guy things. But I'm also very fond of this book (I'd put it in my top ten) and the views of social equality it presents. This book will age nicely, I can see it as a classic in another few decades. Our society is on the cusp of the genetic revolution, who's side are you on?
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant, fasure...
Review: I originally was given this book to read for a college course called "Utopia/Dystopia" and I must say I was skeptical when I started, but a fan by the time I finished. Everyone seems to refer to this work as a "Feminist" book, but I find it more Humanist than anything else. Both futures presented here are a little two dimensional, the Utopia is all squeaky clean and bright while the Dystopia is plastic evil through and through, but it's the ideas and the characters which make this novel shine. The concepts presented are very attractive and (in my opinion) very advanced for the period in which this was written (1976! Doesn't show a bit.). I'm a big fan of HG Wells and David Gerrold, and this novel fits in nicely with the former's Utopian visions and the laters complex character development. Piercy's mid 70's world is spot on; dirty, brown, and paranoid. Her treatment of the insane is both sensitive and compelling, it's hard to think of a more desperate character than poor Connie. And the ending is sweet (ohhhh so sweet!) and pleasantly vague at the same time. I'm a guy. I like guy things. But I'm also very fond of this book (I'd put it in my top ten) and the views of social equality it presents. This book will age nicely, I can see it as a classic in another few decades. Our society is on the cusp of the genetic revolution, who's side are you on?
Rating: 
Summary: irritating, frustrating and unrealistic
Review: I picked up this book because of a great interest in Utopian/Dystopian literature. Unfortunately, I was very disappointed in this particular piece. While I enjoy a good deal of Piercy's poetry, I spent most of my time reading this book shaking my head and laughing at the unrealistic and awkward use of language, as well as the plot. How did Connie get into the future? It would have been nice if there had been some kind of explanation. Her very brief visit into the horrible alternative future was just as unbeleivable as the feminist utopia that we are, I assume, to see as not only desirable but as an attainable and very worthy goal. As a woman, I feel that certain elements of our biology (as well as men's) is what makes us special. To make everyone essentially the same would only destroy our uniqueness and the qualities that make us who we are. I truly feel that Piercy missed the mark on this one.
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