one of the most thought-provoking books I've read this month The End of Men by Christina Sweeney-Baird 1 star rounded up to 2

[Karin]

I hate to give a book with some good writing in it only 2 stars in some ways because it had me going and I wanted to read it. However, it fell short in enough ways that I don't feel comfortable rounding it up to 3 stars. I read this from start to finish with a one day break but no other books in between so I could stay in the flow of this book.

The premise is in the blurb--a virus that affects only men, which is quite interesting, and she wrote this prior to Covid-19. The story is told, properly in this instance, from multiple viewpoints, and I do like the fact that at least one of those women is not very pleasant, has a huge ego, etc, since women aren't all good, folks. (view spoiler)[while I love what she did for Canada by charging for the vaccine, I think she ought to have given more to UT than to herself--but I was curious about why she made the only lesbian-from-before-the-plague be such an egocentric bitch? Obviously there are egocentric bitches who are also lesbian, trans, queer, straight and so-on-and-so-forth (I am sure to miss someone if I try to list all groups right now since I need to wrap this up and came back to edit this spoiler) BUT it was so accurate to have it be at UT, which has one of the top medical research schools in the world. It's so nice to have a non-Canadian author recognize that! kudos for this location! (hide spoiler)]

The first part is the better part and it was very believable that the MD who figured out the basics almost right away was ignored. Sweeney-Baird has some believable elements in how things happen, what the responses are, etc. I loved the chapter on Irina in Russia--so very believable! However, there were some things I think she missed that would have really helped this book be better for me. Most of them belong in spoilers, some more than others.

It is very true that it changed life for everyone, and not just from the fear of dying, the deaths and the grieving. Sweeney-Baird did a fabulous job covering grief and guilt, etc, and showing how this could fracture a friendship, etc. Also, I loved the articles by the American journalist--including them with the POV chapters was a great touch.

However, there are a few factors I really think should have been included or that I found questionable, but I am including only about five of them.
(view spoiler)[
1. While she covered a change in the number of lesbian relationships as some women--but not all, and thanks for including that since it is so very true--she completely ignored plural marriages which would probably go on the rise. I would guess that many would encourage these to produce more children far more easily than only by using sperm donors.

2. While she had a great scene where a man finds life uncomfortable by being approached so often every day by women who want to get together with him--also believable--she ignored the fact that some men would happily bed many women.

3. She accurately covered a war where rape wasn't a factor since it was fought by women against a communist army composed mostly of men who kept dying off. However, rape would still continue even with only 10 percent of men alive. She so beautifully showed several very flawed men who were immune, but this would still happen--just a lot less.

4. It was evident from many things covered later on in the book that Sweeney-Baird is well-read in contemporary feminist writings which helped this in a number of ways, but it also hindered a few things as far as getting a good balance. Many people like to cheat--I would wager that since about 50 percent of men and women cheat, it would be safe to assume that 50 percent of the surviving men who survived would be happy to
a. cheat
b. have side families
c. etc
since this happens today and has for a very long time.

5. The solution of one of the nordic countries to have mothers form co-ops and teach take a few months off to care for the children is probably something that arises from the fact that Sweeney-Baird not only doesn't have children, but that she isn't nearly as well-read in child development, etc as in feminism or she'd realize that that would be far harder on the children than having one caretaker for them during the work days. This is a documented problem in child care facilities where staff changes or children change caregivers as they age out of each group.

BUT, I loved the fact that she had a country that delivered babies by C-Section and kept them separated until a vaccine was found--this is realistic, although it would be very hard on the babies to be cared for only by people in hazmat suits. I'd have liked that psychiatrist to have encouraged the mother we saw her talking with to hold and sing to her baby, etc, when she went to visit him wearing the hazmat suit.

There are other things that really ticked me off about this book, but this is getting really long for me and I don't have enough time to really vent on this. (hide spoiler)]

Basically, this is a 1 star read that got an extra star for the overall strong writing, most of the character development and the skill Sweeney-Baird has in creating different voices for anything in first person.