Mute Women

May 2018
A Borrowed Man - Gene Wolfe – Tor, 2015
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I think it is safe to say that Gene Wolfe does not like author interviews. He comes across as affable enough in the ones that I have read, but given that this is a book where the main character is an enslaved clone of a genre author who is required to explain what his original was thinking to any reader who is interested, it is fairly clear what he really thinks. I imagine that he is also bored of his reputation as a subtle, deceptive writer. It would explain why, unlike any other book of his that I have read, there appears to be no clever subtext whatsoever in the plot, which is a near-future murder mystery with science fiction trimmings. "Go ahead, try and find a deep meaning in this one!", he seems to be saying. Unfortunately, the straightforwardness makes it rather uninteresting and throws his one great weakness as a writer - his inability to create female characters with a plausible interior life - into painful relief.
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