This was picked as the March book for the NeoGAF bookclub. I was pretty excited it got picked because I've been meaning to read something from HeinleiThis was picked as the March book for the NeoGAF bookclub. I was pretty excited it got picked because I've been meaning to read something from Heinlein for a while.
Usually, unabridged versions of books are great because I, as a reader, get the authentic story that the writer is trying to tell. In the case of Stranger in a Strange Land, I was pretty sick of the story Heinlein was trying to tell. Maybe I should have picked up the abridged edition.
The premise is good. The only known human who has grown up on Mars gets picked up and brought back to Earth. He's human in physical form, but Martian in mind and soul.
The story that I wanted to read was a coming of age story of a man learning what it's like to become human with some discussion about nature vs. nurture thrown in.
The story that's in the book is a long-winded, repetitive, poorly-disguised argument for free love in a patriarcal society.
Some specific problems I had with the story was the implication that there's a rightness and a wrongness to most things, as if there aren't shades of gray or different perspectives. According to this book, homosexuals have "wrongness" to them.
Then there's Heinlein's whole thing about how women's bodies can only be appreciated through the eyes of men. Really. He dedicates a few pages to this alone.
I can probably go on and on about the things I didn't like about this book, but I'll just leave it at this: no more Heinlein for me....more
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