Margaret and I

by Kate Wilhelm

First paperback edition.
Cover Artist: Jennifer Eachus

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Speculative Fiction

214 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1972

About the author

Kate Wilhelm’s first short story, “The Pint-Sized Genie” was published in Fantastic Stories in 1956. Her first novel, MORE BITTER THAN DEATH, a mystery, was published in 1963. Over the span of her career, her writing has crossed over the genres of science fiction, speculative fiction, fantasy and magical realism, psychological suspense, mimetic, comic, and family sagas, a multimedia stage production, and radio plays. She returned to writing mysteries in 1990 with the acclaimed Charlie Meiklejohn and Constance Leidl Mysteries and the Barbara Holloway series of legal thrillers.

Wilhelm’s works have been adapted for television and movies in numerous countries; her novels and stories have been translated to more than a dozen languages. She has contributed to Quark, Orbit,  Magazine of Fantasy and ScienceFiction, Locus, Amazing Stories, Asimov’s Science Fiction, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine,  Fantastic, Omni, Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Redbook, and Cosmopolitan.

Kate Wilhelm is the widow of acclaimed science fiction author and editor, Damon Knight (1922-2002), with whom she founded the Clarion Writers’ Workshop and the Milford Writers’ Conference, described in her 2005 non-fiction work, STORYTELLER. They lectured together at universities across three continents; Kate has continued to offer interviews, talks, and monthly workshops.

Kate Wilhelm has received two Hugo awards, three Nebulas, as well as Jupiter, Locus, Spotted Owl, Prix Apollo, Kristen Lohman awards, among others. She was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2003. In 2009, Kate was the recipient of one of the first Solstice Awards presented by the Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA) in recognition of her contributions to the field of science fiction. 

Kate’s highly popular Barbara Holloway mysteries, set in Eugene, Oregon, opened with Death Qualified in 1990. Mirror, Mirror, released in 2017, is the series’ 14th novel.

Reviews

[Jason Bleckly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is the essence of New Wave SF popular in the 60s and 70s. And this is one of its drawbacks. It’s takes a few pages to comes to grips with the telling of this story. The title character is Margaret and I. They are one character, but also two. Margaret is the body and a distinct character. I is Margaret’s subconscious, and a separate distinct character. When Margaret does something it is her moving her body, when I does something, it is Margarets subconscious moving her body. The POV isn’t the protagonist, but the protagonists sub-conscious which the protagonist wants little to do with. As you can imagine pronouns, actions, dialogue, and thoughts have a certain level of confusion attached to them. But if you stick with it, it becomes easier to follow, It’s just a bit disconcerting at the start.

This is a book of layers. On the top most superficial layer it’s a book about a woman trapped in an unfulling marriage. The next layer is psychological due to the dissociation of the protagonist’s conscious and subconscious minds as separate characters. Is she going insane? An idea Margaret considers, but I dismisses. The next layer is self-actualisation through great sex. There is a lot of detailed graphic sex. Margaret and I are trying to wed body and soul through a decent orgasm. They final layer is connecting to the universal hive mind where all time and space are accessible through the quatum physics. Knowing the Mind of God as Paul Davies would have it. I can see how a lot of people would DNF this book long before reaching the deeper layers. It’s a very, very, slow burn.

What makes this book readable is the protagonist of Margaret and I. Kate is a superlative creator of characters. All the characters are real and believable, but also a product of society in the late 60s. The men are cringingly misogynistic. Not all of them, but it’s the norm for the period. And the women put up with it. Again, because that was the norm for the period. So, reading it today you need to bear in mind when it was written. It’s an accurate reflection of those times.

To give you an idea how much I enjoyed this book I read the second half of it in one sitting, in one night, staying up way later than I should have. When I got to the end of a chapter it was a case of, just one more chapter and I’ll turn the light off. Then the end of the book arrived…

[Joachim Boaz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full review: https://sciencefictionruminations.com...

Nominated for the 1972 Nebula Award for Best Novel

"Margaret and I (1971) is a profoundly unsettling and hallucinatory exploration of a woman’s sexual and emotional self-realization. Or, to use the Jungian terms deployed by Wilhelm in her preliminary quotation, the novel charts the [..]"

[Drew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Craft? Thy name is Kate Wilhelm. Another amazing read her flow, word choices, and stream of consciousness is just superb. This reminds me of her novella collection, The Abyss. This came just after and it further perfects the idea. Well done!

[Cassandra · Rating 2 out of 5]

If only I knew!

No, no, I do know what I thought. The sex scenes were quite effective in distracting me, which is not such a bad thing. But really, this was not science fiction at all, it is a quasi-mystical book about sexual awakening and divided vs. united consciousness and other things about which I have some interest. It had a very interesting conceit, that Margaret and her subconscious are separated, two personalities in one body almost, and a lot of the book was the growing to unity between them, so that the subconscious thought of Margaret as herself rather than an annoying person she had to push around, and so that Margaret became her entire self. But the book did not sing, nor fly, it just did, and it did well enough that I wanted to finish it, but it was not enough to make it a good book. It did make me wish to sit down with Wilhelm and talk to her about it -- but, well, the book is from 1971. I will read more of hers, at least.

[Marianne · Rating 2 out of 5]

An intriguing book detailing the story of a woman and her inner, separate self, how they interact and merge, and her discovery of her sexuality... several times. The writing moves quickly, and the interweaving of thoughts versus action is interesting, but ultimately I found the ending to be not very satisfying, though I'm unable to put my finger on why, though I'm glad to have read the book.

I have found other books by this same author to be more compelling, and I'm happy that she explores unusual things to write about.

[Alien · Rating 1 out of 5]

Die Frau eines wohlhabenden Politikers zieht sich in ein Strandhaus zurück. Ihr Unterbewusstsein ist eine eigene Persönlichkeit, die sie zu beeinflussen sucht.

Nach 2/3 abgebrochen, da immer noch nicht klar wird, worauf das eigentlich rausläuft. Weiss es die Autorin selber? Enttäuschend