Sandra Newman on The Men: ‘There is no way to write without it being criminal’ – iNews

Sandra Newman has made her name writing apocalyptic fiction. For her latest novel, she delves into a sub-genre of fantasy where all the men die or disappear, leaving the women to create a utopian society.

Im always surprised most people have not heard of this basic premise, which dominated feminist science-fiction for a long time, she says of The Men, her eighth book, and fifth novel.

The action starts when everyone with a Y chromosome vanishes in a flash. Chaos ensues: planes drop out of the sky, patients are abandoned mid-operation, and even foetuses vanish from wombs but slowly, the women left behind get to grips with their new reality. The plot focuses on Jane Pearson, who as a teenager was groomed by an older man into having sex with underage boys.

The book is very much a response to a conversation that has been going on about the shortcomings of feminism, and white feminism and the degree to which women have been complicit in the crimes of men, says Newman, 56, when we meet in the rented London flat in which she is staying with her husband.

Newman, who lives in New York and was longlisted for the Womens Prize for her third novel, The Country of Ice Cream Star, wrote The Men as the pandemic unfolded. The kind of sad utopia [that emerges] is based on aspects of pandemic society in Manhattan that were strangely utopian, the fact that streets were suddenly free from cars and everyone was living outside and talking to each other.

With everyone with a Y chromosome disappearing, those remaining include cis women and trans men, which leaves the novel open to criticism for its focus on biology.

I personally have no opinion about whether there are any essential biological qualities of the sexes. I dont think we really know, says the author, but you cant pretend theres no social conditioning. Thats very real.

Despite the title, Newman wanted to explore what constitutes a perfect society rather than to interrogate the qualities of gender.

I was constantly trying to have a realistic contemporary representation of gender without having it turn into a book that was entirely about transphobia, and it turned out to be really remarkably difficult to do that, she says. In a world with only one biological sex, trans people become much more important and potentially treated even worse than they are now.

Newman feels like a novelist for ever on the cusp of a commercial hit. Could The Men be The One? Its topical and I think the premise theoretically could be commercial, but its also problematic and too morally ambiguous to be really commercial.

One challenge for Newman is that however fantastic the narratives she conjures are, it is hard to overshadow her own life story, detailed in her 2010 memoir Changeling. Skirting over events feels wrong such as her adoptive mother taking her own life when Newman was 13, being raped, working as a prostitute, or her birth father hiring a private detective to find her before dropping her again a few years later but so does dwelling on them, given her current views on autobiography.

I feel guilty about every form of memoir Ive ever written, she says. She has vowed to avoid any more personal essays: Female writers are encouraged to write about themselves more than men. And I really wonder about it.

Given her penchant for dystopia, it is apt that she is next tackling a contemporary retelling of Nineteen Eighty-Four, reimagining the story from the perspective of Winston Smiths lover Julia. There is a lot of political material that is relevant to the present day and the different meaning of double-think.

She would like to attempt a more realistic novel, but is wary of creeping back towards autobiography. I feel culpable for my version of my life, and thats an experience that comes out of writing memoir and having people be angry or hurt by it, she says. Maybe you cant write from someone elses perspective without getting something wrong, but you cant even write from your own perspective without getting something so wrong that you hurt someone. I think there is no way to write without it being criminal.

YOUR WISH IS MY COMMAND By Deena Mohamed

Shes Egyptian and its a really amazing science-fantasy graphic novel set in a world where you can buy wishes.

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My ex-husband bought it for me.

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Sandra Newman on The Men: 'There is no way to write without it being criminal' - iNews