The Turning
Pages: 280
What would you do if all the men in your life started turning into women? Such is the predicament faced by Reuben, a twenty-something lad from contemporary urban Australia.
Affable, likable and at least moderately handsome, Reuben is a bit miffed with life. His career has stalled, he’s mired firmly in Best Friends Country with the loins-achingly beautiful Deidre, and his best mate Morrie’s shag-happy ways are making Reuben wonder why he ever liked the womanising man-whore in the first place.
So when a terrorist group of Militant Feminists unleashes a terrible biological weapon upon the world, a weapon guaranteed to turn every single man into a woman, Reuben can’t help but feel that there may in fact be a great steaming turd in his hat. As it were.
Tempted though he may be to crawl into a box and gibber madly in blind panic, Reuben eventually reasons that there’s no sense in making a fuss. Indeed, he can actually think of an upside:
“Tits might be nice.”
While Reuben waits patiently for the aforementioned tits to eventuate, he soon finds himself amongst a rapidly diminishing male minority. With each passing day, men are vanishing from the streets to be replaced by an increasingly baffled and bemused number of new women, all of them replete with
the feelings, thoughts and behaviours of members of the fairer sex.
With the authorities searching desperately for a cure, as the male population dwindles and the female population explodes, the whole world is given to wonder: will there be a last man standing? Is there a man, just one man immune to the Femmo’s terrible weapon? And if so, what salvation may he bring?
‘The Turning’ by Mark Barwell offers a fun and surprisingly incisive view on the intricacies and idiosyncrasies of the female mind. We observe the changes wrought on the friendship of two men when one of them turns into a woman, we track the strains placed upon a boy-girl relationship as the
boy becomes a girl, and we chart entirely new territory when a newly-turned woman finds herself falling for an unsuspecting man.
The tale is seditious in tone and subversive in approach, dealing with the serious things in life – feelings, relationships, personal identity as defined by gender, and so forth – with a wicked insight and a knowing grin. Whether you’re a student of inter-gender social politics, a woman who’s always wished the men in her life could see what womanhood is all about, or a man suddenly wondering how his luck might improve if all his mates sprouted vaginas, ‘The Turning’ is a thought-provoking and compelling read. Just you see if you can put it down!
Free from: 2013-06-24 to 2013-06-25
