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From: ecl@mtgzy.att.com (Evelyn C Leeper +1 908 957 2070)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews,soc.culture.jewish
Subject: HE, SHE, AND IT by Marge Piercy
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Date: 5 Nov 92 02:01:09 GMT
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                      HE, SHE, AND IT by Marge Piercy
                     A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper
		      Copyright 1992 Evelyn C. Leeper

     HE, SHE, AND IT is about so many different things I don't know where to
start.  It's about determinism and free will, about ecology and electronic
networks, about Jewish mysticism and advanced genetics, about freedom and
slavery, and (ultimately) about what it means to be human.

     That's a lot to pack into one book.  Piercy does it by concentrating on
what is important to her plot and her goal.  Not for her the long
descriptive passages so characteristic of a lot of "cyberpunk" writing
(though Piercy acknowledges her debt to cyberpunk).  Her characters don't
luxuriate in the Net--they get in, do their task, and get out.

     HE, SHE, AND IT is really two parallel stories.  One is the story of
Shira Shipman, living in a future world almost destroyed by pollution and
other ecological abuse, controlled by multi-national corporations, and
almost universally connected by the Net.  After losing custody of her son in
her divorce, she leaves the multi that she worked for/lived in and returns
to Tikva, the independent Jewish community where she was raised.  But it is
not the safe haven she expected; a scientist has built a cyborg to defend
the community, a cyborg so advanced that its existence precipitates the very
attack by the multi it was built to defend against, who wants the
technology.

     The other story is that of the 16th Century Golem of Prague, told by
Shira's grandmother Malkah to Yod (the cyborg) as a parallel to the reasons
for Yod's creation and the results of that creation.  The two stories are
inter-leaved--one or two chapters in Shira's world, then a chapter of Riva's
story-telling, then back to Shira's world, and so on.  At first, this is a
bit jarring, but the reader rapidly comes to realize how effectively this
highlights the relevance of this 16th Century legend, even--or perhaps
especially--in the world of today and tomorrow.

     In spite of her lack of science fiction credentials (or maybe because
of it), Piercy has written an extremely competent and readable science
fiction novel.  Avoiding many of the snares that often catch mainstream
writers on their first forays into science fiction, Piercy gives us a work
that engages our interest, involves us in its characters, and at the same
time illuminates the fact that the "foolish" myths and superstitions of the
past may not be so foolish after all, and may teach us a lot about the human
condition.  Readers familiar with the golem legend will find it treated here
with as much accuracy as one can expect for a legend, but readers unfamiliar
with it will not be lost either, because Piercy does not assume prior
knowledge of the legend in her telling.  Highly recommended!

%A      Marge Piercy
%T      He, She, and It
%I      Knopf
%C      New York
%D      1991
%G      ISBN 0-679-40408-2
%O      hardback, US$22.00
%P      444 pp.

Evelyn C. Leeper   |   +1 908 957 2070   |   att!mtgzy!ecl or ecl@mtgzy.att.com