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PublishedPenguin, October 2025 |
ISBN9780141999746 |
FormatSoftcover, 160 pages |
Dimensions19.8cm × 12.9cm × 1.5cm |
Imaginative, brilliant and daring- Hilton Als's now-classic meditation on gender, race and personal identity in America
What are the forces that shape us? In The Women, Hilton Als explores-with breath taking originality-the role of sexual and racial identity in marginalized lives. With a blend of fact and fiction, Als brings to vivid life a number of extraordinary characters, including- his mother, a singular woman whose West Indian heritage and determination inspired her son to write; Malcolm X's mother, whose mixed-race background and eventual descent into madness contributed to her son's burgeoning misogyny and fear; brilliant, Harvard-educated Dorothy Dean, who deeply empathized with white gay men; and Owen Dodson, teacher and poet, who played an important role in the author's development as a gay man, and thinker.
Combining memoir, cultural history, social theory and storytelling, The Women is a profoundly innovative work which has inspired a generation of writers. Here, Als submits both racial and sexual stereotypes to scrutiny, showing 'no mercy but every tenderness'. The results are exhilarating. The Women is that rarest of books- a memorable work of self-investigation that creates a form of all its own.
