Can men write women? Can women write men?

[Susannah Elf]

I know we've all had the experience of reading a book and rolling your eyes at how unlike the heroine is to every woman you've ever known. Men, substitute "heroine" and "woman" for "hero" and "man".
So what are some books where the author does do a good job portraying the opposite sex?
I'll start off.
"The Antagonist " by Lynn Coady. The narrator is a former hockey enforcer at a pivotal point in his life, which causes him to review his behavior and history.
Now, of course I am a woman, but I've read thousands of books by men, so I think that I'm able to recognize the male voice. I believed in the narrator so much that I had to look at the back photo to make sure Lynn Coady was a woman.
So - what good examples of opposite sex portrayals have you read?

[SheilaT]

1. Sometimes they can, sometimes they can't.

I just did a beta read of a YA novel, written by a man, told in first person by a young woman age 16. Every so often I could really tell it was written by a man, and I couldn't quite articulate what was wrong. I will see the author next week at a writers conference, and I want to discuss that problem with him.

When I'm writing I do write both male and female POV, and it may well be that I at least sometimes get the male POV all wrong.

[Susannah Elf]

2. Can you think of a time

when you read a book and were really impressed with the author's portrayal of a person of the opposite sex?

[SheilaT]

3. No, I can't. More often I notice that a male writer

simply doesn't get just what it's like to be a female.

[Enthusiast]

4. This is an interesting question.

I have no good answers. Too much booze last night.

I probably wouldn't recognize if a woman was inaccurately portrayed in a book. I have to say I have found a number of female characters very appealing in books written by both men and women. I mean they seem authentic.

[Susannah Elf]

5. Now that it's the morning after

How about some book titles?

[Enthusiast]

7. I can think of one from a book I read recently.

This is from All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. I loved this book. Mrs. Enthusiast loved it too.

Anthony Doerr's blind 12 year old heroine Marie-Laure was central to the story. She seemed totally real and entirely believable. Marie worked for the French Resistance against the Nazis. Working for the French Resistance would ordinarily be a challenging undertaking. But everything took on another dimension of difficulty because Marie was a blind 12 year old. But she was brilliant and courageous. My wife and I fell in love with Marie-Laure. I'm afraid my account doesn't do the character or the story justice.

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/d/anthony-doerr/all-the-light-we-cannot-see.htm

[Susannah Elf]

8. It's going on my list!

[DetlefK]

6. Watched a bad rom-com a year ago.

It was based on a book by a female author, the screenplay was written by a woman, the movie was directed by a woman and most roles were women.

I will never forget that horrible, romantic dinner scene:
The romantic dinner was at her place and she had cooked for him. After all those years of being a picky, sexy, successful business-woman, she finally found the perfect man and she doesn't take any chances. During the whole scene the guy seemed... drugged. He just sat there, barely said a word, gave her loving looks with his wonderful brown eyes and... that's it.

His job was to sit there and to look pretty.

Not kidding, I felt the strong urge to shout at him: "Dude! You are at a date! Say something! Quit staring at her and say something!"

They fall in love, but then he breaks up with her because she lied to him (she told her family that she was already married to him). He is shocked and disappointed and tells her not to come back to him until she has cleared this up.
She loves him and wnats him back and clears it up.
And then she totally forgets him and the end hints that she most likely starts a romance with the good-looking colleague that was introduced while she was in a relationship with perfect-guy because omigod-he's-so-cute-with-his-jawline-and-his-beautiful-eyes-and-we-would-totally-fit-together.




As a positive example:
"The Long War" by Stephen Baxter and Terry Pratchett, sequel to "The Long Earth"
Two female main-characters, a nun and an ex-cop, and in my opinion as a man, those were pretty realistic.

[Susannah Elf]

9. Whew!

List of films to avoid.
Have you seen "Enough Said"?
It has some of the same plot devices but is about as realistic a look at dating the second time around as I've ever seen.

[scarletwoman]

10. I've been mulling over your question since you posted it.

And I've come to the conclusion that I don't know.

I know that I've read books written by men with female characters that make me roll my eyes about how absurd or insulting they are. But I've also read books written by men with female characters who are just fine, in my opinion - especially some of the Scandinavian writers.

And as far as women authors writing male characters - how would I know? The male characters may seem perfectly reasonable to me, but I'm a woman, so I can only do the same as the female author - observe the male from outside.

However, if a male character written by a female seems to generally comport with how male writers write their male characters, then it's probably accurate enough. Same in reverse, I suppose.

[Susannah Elf]

11. Here is a male writer who writes women well:

Jonathan Franzen. I'm thinking now of the book "Freedom". The whole first part is a woman writing a letter explaining her life up to this point. I've heard people complain about her, that she's not very likeable. True, I might not enjoy spending a day with her, but I felt so sympathetic to her. And I never thought, no woman would ever do this.

[japple]

12. Reynolds Price's book, Kate Vaiden is a remarkable example of

a man writing as a woman. Also, Barbara Kingsolver's book, The Lacuna, which I dearly loved and plan to read again, was completely believable in my opinion.

[Susannah Elf]

13. I've never heard of

Kate Vaiden. Thanks for the tip.
I too loved The Lacuna. I raved about it for weeks after I finished it.

[japple]

14. The Lacuna is my favorite of all of Kingsolver's works. I loved

the way the way the story unfolded. She did a lot of research on that book. I went to a reading she did in Abingdon, VA and she was very gracious and humble. What a great evening.

ETA: Reynolds Price was from NC and taught for many years at Duke U. Ann Tyler was a student in one of the first writing classes he taught. Someone introduced me to his writing when I lived in NC and I read many of his books. His writing is beautiful.

[Susannah Elf]

15. I ordered the book from my library.

I'm first in line so I should get it next week!
Anybody who loves the Lacuna knows what they're talking about!

[japple]

16. It takes a bit of reading to get into the rhythm of Reynolds Price's writing. I struggled

with some of his work until, I just let go and then it all started flowing. One reviewer described it as "buttery." It's definitely southern writing and might require a bit of immersion.

[mantis49]

17. Wally Lamb's

She's Come Undone. I found myself wondering if this was really a woman writing under a male nom de plume, had to find out if the author really was a man!

[pamela]

18. Yes

When I read this thread title, I immediately thought "She's Come Undone" by Wally Lamb.