Nin Andrews

Set on a magical island where men are the second sex, story-driven prose poems upset gender-roles, tangling myths and logic.

Why God Is a Woman

Why God Is a Woman is a collection of poems written about a magical island where women rule and men are the second sex. It is also the story of a boy who, exiled from the island because he could not abide by its sexist laws, looks back with both nostalgia and bitterness and wonders: Why does God have to be a woman? Celebrated prose poet Nin Andrews creates a world both fantastic and familiar where all the myths, logic, and institutions support the dominance of women. Nin Andrews's books include The Book of Orgasms and Sleeping with Houdini.

What started out as an interesting premise turned into a bit of a muddled mess. Maybe it was the changing themes from poem to poem, but the mention of a magician turned into nohthing, and the mention of hopelessness in life turned into nothing. It just seemed like, other than blatant gender role concepts, not much as discussed. The halo poem in particular was a letdown, as it simply mentioned the downfalls of a halo, and not much of whether it affected her position in society as a masculine woman.

The writing in the individual poems was great and I did enjoy them. Just not so sure about it being sold as the idea of a gender bent society that's been fully fleshed out to reality.

Why God Is a Woman

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