Fiction_L Archives Female author with male protagonist. Dates: 4/24/02,3:55 PM  through  4/30/02,3:06 PM  (16 postings) Search for: Select one or more indexes to search: 2008-current     2006-2007     1996-2005    (Matches from each index will be displayed separately in the results page.) Return to April 2002 thread menu   |   Fiction_L Archives Menu

FROM: Dorothy Vance <dvance@cmrls.lib.ms.us>
REC'D: 4/24/02, 3:55 PM

I have a male patron looking for female authors whose protagonist is
male (says he wants a different perspective on things!). I've shown him
P. D. James, J. A. Jance, but he is not wanting mysteries. He also does
not want romance. Does anyone have any ideas.

I've also told him about Maeve Binchy, who doesn't exactly fit, but she
does write about different types of relationships.

Thanks in advance!
Dorothy Vance
Central Mississippi Regional Library System

FROM: jessica emily jones <jejones4@students.uiuc.edu>
REC'D: 4/24/02, 4:05 PM

Anne McCaffrey may be a good choice. She often has well developed male
character. The MasterHarper of Pern, Dragondrums, Renegades of Pern and
the White Dragon are
a few of her titles that have a male main character. Men like F'lar,
F'nor and others faeture prominently in her other Pern books. The Doona
books also have a male lead, Todd Reeve, who is based on McCaffrey's son,
Todd. Good Luck!

Jessica Moyer
Graduate Student in Library and Information Science
University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign

On Wed, 24 Apr 2002, Dorothy Vance wrote:

> I have a male patron looking for female authors whose protagonist is
> male (says he wants a different perspective on things!). I've shown him
> P. D. James, J. A. Jance, but he is not wanting mysteries. He also does
> not want romance. Does anyone have any ideas.
>
> I've also told him about Maeve Binchy, who doesn't exactly fit, but she
> does write about different types of relationships.
>
> Thanks in advance!
> Dorothy Vance
> Central Mississippi Regional Library System
>
>
>
> ......................................................................
> Need to subscribe, unsubscribe, search the archives?
> Everything Fiction_L: http://www.webrary.org/rs/flmenu.html
>

FROM: "Keri James" <kjames@oppl.org>
REC'D: 4/24/02, 4:27 PM

I would suggest Larry's Party and Happenstance by Carol Shields.

Keri James
Oak Park Public Library

Dorothy Vance wrote:

> I have a male patron looking for female authors whose protagonist is
> male (says he wants a different perspective on things!). I've shown him
> P. D. James, J. A. Jance, but he is not wanting mysteries. He also does
> not want romance. Does anyone have any ideas.
>
> I've also told him about Maeve Binchy, who doesn't exactly fit, but she
> does write about different types of relationships.
>
> Thanks in advance!
> Dorothy Vance
> Central Mississippi Regional Library System
>
> ......................................................................
> Need to subscribe, unsubscribe, search the archives?
> Everything Fiction_L: http://www.webrary.org/rs/flmenu.html

FROM: "Cannon, Heather" <hcannon@uillinois.edu>
REC'D: 4/24/02, 4:27 PM

Found through google:

http://www.ahram.org.eg/weekly/2000/512/cu4.htm
"Born in Beirut, forced out of the country by the civil war, Hoda Barakat
has published three novels -- Hajar Al-Dahik (The Stones of Laughter) and
Ahl Al-Hawa (Lovers) as well as the present winner Harith Al-Miyah
(Ploughing Water, 1998-9) -- and one collection of short stories, Za'irat
(Visitors). With the exception of the latter, all her works were written in
France, are set in war-torn Beirut and are told from the viewpoint of a male
protagonist. At the centre of her work lies almost always a paradox, an
essential contradiction. Indeed, her unique brand of psychological thriller
seems to thrive on just this kind of binary opposition: female author and
male protagonist, European life and Lebanese fictional world. She probes
themes of social-historical and individual disorientation and dispossession,
rousing the reader to a convolutedly remembered impression of space and time
-- immediate but never present. Barakat focuses on marginal characters,
giving voice to an otherwise dumb predicament. Owing to her astounding
command over language and the inventive games she constantly plays with it,
Barakat's books are relevant on both the historical and technical levels."

OH! and this... http://www.webrary.org/rs/flbklists/Authors.html

Books Written by Male Authors with Female Protagonists and Books by Women
Authors with a Male Protagonists

Female Authors with Male Protagonist

Larry's Party - Carol Shields
Cold Sassy Tree - Olive Ann Burns
Patchwork Planet - Anne Tyler
The Short History of a Prince - Jane Hamilton
Not Wanted on the Voyage - Timothy Findley


http://www.ncte.org/pdfs/members-only/ej/0883-jan99/EJ0883Seeing.PDF
"Seeing through the Lenses of Gender: Beyond Male/Female Polarization"
Discusses examples.

Heather Cannon
Academic Hourly
Illinois Virtual Campus
510 Devonshire Dr.
Champaign, IL 61824
Phone: 217-244-9531
Fax: 217-333-5581
WWW: http://www.ivc.illinois.edu

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Dorothy Vance [mailto:dvance@cmrls.lib.ms.us]
> Sent: Wednesday, April 24, 2002 4:01 PM
> To: Fiction_L
> Subject: Female author with male protagonist.
>
>
> I have a male patron looking for female authors whose protagonist is
> male (says he wants a different perspective on things!).
> I've shown him
> P. D. James, J. A. Jance, but he is not wanting mysteries.
> He also does
> not want romance. Does anyone have any ideas.
>
> I've also told him about Maeve Binchy, who doesn't exactly
> fit, but she
> does write about different types of relationships.
>
> Thanks in advance!
> Dorothy Vance
> Central Mississippi Regional Library System
>
>
>
> ......................................................................
> Need to subscribe, unsubscribe, search the archives?
> Everything Fiction_L: http://www.webrary.org/rs/flmenu.html
>

FROM: Kathy Mitchum <kdm@ckls.org>
REC'D: 4/24/02, 5:31 PM

In the science fiction field, two other good female authors that use male
protagonists are Lois McMaster Bujold and C. J. Cherryh.

I enjoy both alot, although they have very different styles.


>> I have a male patron looking for female authors whose protagonist is
>> male (says he wants a different perspective on things!).  I've shown him
>> P. D. James, J. A. Jance, but he is not wanting mysteries.  He also does
>> not want romance.  Does anyone have any ideas.

Kathy Mitchum
ILL/Ref/Rural Serv/Tech Serv, Dept. Head
Central Kansas Library System
1409 Williams
Great Bend, KS 67530

(620-792-4865) phone
(620-792-5495) fax

kdm@ckls.org

FROM: "christine jeffords" <sevenstars39@hotmail.com>
REC'D: 4/24/02, 9:03 PM

Most of Dorothy Johnson's Western short stories have a male lead. Jane
Barry's "Maximilian's Gold" has one, and her "Time in the Sun" alternates
between males and a female. Amelia Bean's "Fancher Train" and "The Feud"
are mostly from a male POV.

_________________________________________________________________
Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: http://messenger.msn.com

FROM: Bsbgc@aol.com
REC'D: 4/25/02, 3:56 AM

Mary Jo Putney has wonderful heroes in her historicals. and there are many
other examples in romance and its sub genres.


Binnie Syril Braunstein
Romance novelist/former librarian

FROM: "Linda Lundquist" <LDLUND@prodigy.net>
REC'D: 4/25/02, 10:17 AM

Dorothy,

Even though this is a Young Adult novel, the female
author gets in the mind of her male protagonist in a
way your patron may find interesting. The book
is "America," by E. R. Frank. Here's the Booklist
review:

*Starred Review* Gr. 10-12. "This is what I think. You
can know who you're mad at but still know you're bad
and ought to be dead." America is a survivor of sexual
abuse. A mixed-race teenager born to a crack-addicted
mother, he was rejected as a baby by adoptive white
parents "after he started turning his color." His
childhood swings between years lost within an
incompetent system and a home that's at first loving
and then abusive. America tells his own story in
chapters that alternate between the "then" of his past
and the "now" of the hospital where he has landed
after years of institutionalized care and, finally, a
suicide attempt. Raging and honest, America's voice is
straight off the street: a favorite response is
that's "pussy"; his confused, surreal nightmares swirl
with "tits and dicks." Frank, the author of the much-
acclaimed Life Is Funny (2000), exposes with
compassion, clarity, and deeply unsettling detail the
profound shame and horror of abuse as well as the
erratic nature of a medical system that tries to
reclaim the victims. She also creates an extraordinary
character in America who, with the help of his doctor,
confronts the deepest betrayals and, finally, lets
himself be found. A piercing, unforgettable novel.

HTH,

Linda Lundquist
Bartlett Public Library
ldlund@prodigy.net

--- Original Message ---
>Subject: Female author with male protagonist.
>From: "Dorothy Vance" <dvance@cmrls.lib.ms.us>
>Date: Wed, 24 Apr 2002 16:01:23 -0500
>
>I have a male patron looking for female authors whose
protagonist is
>male (says he wants a different perspective on
things!). I've shown him
>P. D. James, J. A. Jance, but he is not wanting
mysteries. He also does
>not want romance. Does anyone have any ideas.
>
>I've also told him about Maeve Binchy, who doesn't
exactly fit, but she
>does write about different types of relationships.
>
>Thanks in advance!
>Dorothy Vance
>Central Mississippi Regional Library System
>

FROM: "Evansdale Public Library" <eplib@forbin.net>
REC'D: 4/25/02, 11:41 AM

I found this as I was looking around for stuff of my own...apparently
they had done a discussion on this back in 1999. Here is the list that
Fiction-L came up with at that time although the majority have male
authors with female protagonists, there are a few women authors with
male protagonists and some darn fine reading!

http://www.webrary.org/rs/flbklists/Authors.html

-----Original Message-----
From: Fiction_L@maillist.webrary.org
[mailto:Fiction_L@maillist.webrary.org] On Behalf Of Dorothy Vance
Sent: Wednesday, April 24, 2002 4:01 PM
To: Fiction_L
Subject: Female author with male protagonist.

I have a male patron looking for female authors whose protagonist is
male (says he wants a different perspective on things!). I've shown him
P. D. James, J. A. Jance, but he is not wanting mysteries. He also does
not want romance. Does anyone have any ideas.

I've also told him about Maeve Binchy, who doesn't exactly fit, but she
does write about different types of relationships.

Thanks in advance!
Dorothy Vance
Central Mississippi Regional Library System

FROM: "Cannon, Heather" <hcannon@uillinois.edu>
REC'D: 4/25/02, 11:41 AM

IF YA novels are ok, there's the classic The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton.

An entirely male group of protagonists written about by a teenage girl.

- Heather.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Linda Lundquist [mailto:LDLUND@prodigy.net]
> Sent: Thursday, April 25, 2002 11:05 AM
> To: Fiction_L
> Subject: Re: Female author with male protagonist.
>
>
> Dorothy,
>
> Even though this is a Young Adult novel....

FROM: Meg Justus <mjustus@pcl.lib.wa.us>
REC'D: 4/25/02, 2:08 PM

The usual suspects (again):

LM Bujold's Vorkosigan series (at least after the first two books, which
have a female protagonist).

The later books in Elizabeth Peters' Amelia Peabody books are at least
partly told from the POV of her son -- I think Manuscript H (Ramses' POV)
starts with Seeing a Large Cat.

Meg Justus
Pierce County Library
WA

FROM: Kathy Mitchum <kdm@ckls.org>
REC'D: 4/25/02, 3:34 PM

Reading the note below about the "Frankenstein" thread reminded me....

Mary Doria Russell's Sparrow fits the criteria for female author/male
protagonists quite well and it extremely thought provoking. Although it is
"science fiction" it should appeal to those that enjoy "literate fiction" as
well.

At 08:52 AM 4/25/2002 -0400, you wrote:
>Joan -
>
>I have been absolutely blown away by a recent reading of Mary Doria
>Russell's _Children of God_, concerning very human vices and virtues as
>they wrestle with racial conflict in another civilization. I have not yet
>read her related _Sparrow_, but stylistically and structurally the former
>is a masterwork.
>
>Good luck keeping the high-minded focus in the forefront ...
>
>Aaron
>Clermont County Public Library, Ohio

Kathy Mitchum
ILL/Ref/Rural Serv/Tech Serv, Dept. Head
Central Kansas Library System
1409 Williams
Great Bend, KS 67530

(620-792-4865) phone
(620-792-5495) fax

kdm@ckls.org

FROM: Annette Weiss <weissann@metronet.lib.mi.us>
REC'D: 4/25/02, 4:50 PM

Josephine Hart's Damage. I couldn't get over that a female created this
male character.

Annette

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So let me get this straight: You want information about why reference
librarians always answer a question with another question, right?

Annette Weiss Phone: (248) 553-0300
Adult Services Librarian Fax: (248) 553-3228
E-Mail: weissann@metronet.lib.mi.us
Farmington Community Library
32737 W. 12 Mile Rd.
Farmington Hills, MI 48334
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

FROM: mboyden@carmel.lib.in.us (Mary Boyden)
REC'D: 4/25/02, 5:44 PM

Connie Willis' "To Say Nothing of the Dog" also has a male protagonist. It's SF time travel with literary references.

Mary Boyden
Readers' Advisory Librarian
Carmel Clay Public Library

FROM: "Jeannine Cook" <jdcook@co.douglas.or.us>
REC'D: 4/25/02, 6:59 PM

Sharon Kay Penman's medieval historical novels all have male protagonists.
Excellent reads all.
--
Jeannine Cook
Adult Services Librarian

Douglas County Library
1409 NE Diamond Lake Blvd.
Roseburg OR 97470
jdcook@co.douglas.or.us
phone: (541)440-6013
fax: (541)440-6011

FROM: Dorothy Vance <dvance@cmrls.lib.ms.us>
REC'D: 4/30/02, 3:06 PM

Thanks to everyone for your help. I've given him quite a list to start
with!
Dorothy Vance
Central MS Regional Library System

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