Dystopian Book Club: The Gate to Women’s Country

This month’s Dystopian Book Club selection is Sherri Tepper’s 1988 post-apocalyptic novel The Gate to Women’s Country. Set three hundred years after a nuclear war, it describes a society where city-states are run by women, with male warriors living in garrisons outside the towns. I can’t make the session, so I’m sharing my notes here. The book was a good counterpoint to one of the group’s previous reads, Demonic Males, a study of male violence through primatology. That book made the point that societal structures can improve or worsen violence. Tepper’s book set out, somewhat heavy-handedly, to describe a scheme for reforming society. Tepper’s writing feels clumsy and unsophisticated in places, which makes the novel feel didactic. We’re essentially given a tour of Marthatown through the eyes of Stavia, with incidents through her lifetime. The weak plot and characterisation make the book feel more like a debating point than a story, with far too much exposition. There are also some…