Woman on the Edge of Time

Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy (Ballantine, 1976) Trapped in a mental institution in the twentieth century, Connie Ramos learns to visit the future. She’s not crazy, or she doesn’t think she is: she’s institutionalized after attacking her niece’s pimp, when her niece comes to her beaten and bloodied. That’s enough to get her labeled out of control and violent, subject to experimental brain surgery intended to make her more compliant. In her own time, she sees poverty and abuse and the violence of patriarchal control over women and children. In the future, she gets a glimpse of how people can live as equals, not only with each other but with the world. But that future, like all futures, is tenuous: her friends in the future are at war, and the front is moving closer. Connie must engineer an escape, but all the exits are watched—all but one, the one in her mind. View this post on the web, reply via email, or become a supporter.