Wanderground

by Sally Miller Gearhart

Book Overview

"In a world where girls can no longer wear pants, only skirts and hose; women's Sunday softball is discontinued; shorter rest periods on the job exist so that women can't socialize; and a ten o'clock curfew is created for increasing the protection for women - an exodus begins. This monumental move separates men and women, such that many women flee to the hills for freedom, while men remain in the cities." "Leading us through the women's shared stories...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0932870554
• ISBN13: 9780932870551
• Release Date: January 1984
• Publisher: Alyson Books
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Wanderground: Stories of Hill Women

If someone had directed me towards this book 22 years ago, I would be a different person! I first read it 'round about 1993 or 1994. Now, everytime I get really discouraged w/ world events, I buy this book (copies I've loaned out over the years have (indeed!) never found their way back home), and walk away with hope in my heart. In my growing up (the 1970's & '80s), science fantasy was Star Trek and Star Wars...interesting, and thought provoking--with scantily clad womyn. I felt science fantasy was very male dominated with no room for me (female). But THIS book changed all of that. It is truly a vision of womyn taking stock of what society has to offer and, out of sheer desperation and the need for survival saying, "OK; if I cannot change this w/o being killed by it, I will leave it, & start anew". In this new society, the emphasis is on 'Power With' rather than 'Power Over' which is what most of us have grown accustomed to. I encourage EVERY PERSON to pick up this book, find a quiet sunlit corner, perhaps a favourite cup of tea, and plunge in! If you don't like it, well, that is a possibility. But I have not yet met one person who did not walk away w/ a somewhat changed vision of our world as it is, and our world as it could be. Donella-Elizabeth

A Masterpiece

This book is a treasure; strangely powerful and yet gentle, it touches on the issue of gender vs. behavior even as it weaves the story of women without men. Described by some as a utopian world, the story points up the struggle to be constantly vigilant against our own worst human nature. This is a masterpiece.

If you only read one book, this should be it

I read this book for the first time in 1980. It became the standard by which I have judged other feminist/lesbian books. The concept is uniquely wonderful.It is a must read for any woman identified female who enjoys fiction about women.

A classic feminist novel

It began as protections for women, but soon the lives of women became more and more controlled, and anyone who protested either disappeared or had a sudden change of heart. Women left the cities for the wilderness to live their lives as they chose, but sometimes they were hunted, captured, raped, or killed. Now, years later, women's culture in the wilderness blossoms in balance with nature, and they've developed amazing abilities of flight and telepathy. The threat from the governing men of the cities seems to be growing, and the women struggle to decide their path as the gentles (those men dedicated to nonviolence, especially against women) contact them to assist. But can the gentles be trusted, even though they're men? "Wanderground" is a classic utopian story of interconnected tales, as well as a potent novel about the power of women as a group. With a force equal to such feminist classics as "The Handmaid's Tale" and "Woman on the Edge of Time", "Wanderground" inspires us to envision a world lived in harmony with each other and with the world, and shows us the possibilities of reward in such an environment.

The Potential of Women

A co-worker loaned me her copy of Wanderground over a year ago. After reading a chapter or two it was layed aside. Apparently I wasn't ready to read it at that point in my life. Last month I found the book's purple and lavender cover winking at me from a pile of books. This time I was ready. I devored the stories. I found Wanderground to be a fascinating vision of what women could be. Although there is a great deal of underlying justified anger in many of the stories, the loving environment in which the characters enfold themselves and each other demonstrate the potential for women that our cultural myths deny them. Sally Gearhart touches not only on what women could be, but predates Danial Quinn's "Ismael" by twenty years in calling attention to western culture's wasteful and destructive use of the earth's resourses. I found the respect for life, plant and animal, to be very compelling. It is too easy to forget in our pre-packaged shrink-wrapped consumer lives where our food comes from -- that a spirit was deprived of its host so that we may continue to live, for now. For me, the most moving chapter was the last one, where an elderly woman and her goat prepare to pass on. I found myself in tears at the end of the book. Thank you Sally, for sharing your vision. -- Pat Henderson