Four Ways to Forgiveness

Ursula Le Guin's writing is something to savour, always. I love her ability to so subtly create entire worlds and people that are so true, so flawed, so beautiful. There was a need to pause, to meditate after each novella, I was both impatient and hesitant to begin the next one.

These are stories of freedom and liberation, of slavery of body and mind.

Why wasn't this one of my five stars' books? Writing about atrocities and cruelty is extremely difficult, and there is fine balance to maintain - how much do you tell, how much do you imply, how do you get your message across... I felt the balance wasn't always perfect, in this case.

I cannot say that this is Le Guin's best book--that honor still goes to [The Left Hand of Darkness], I think--but this is quite possibly her most beautifully written and most emotionally affecting book. That I can say.

Set on neighboring planets, Werel and Yeowe, this collection of four novellas is a study of relationships: between a man and a woman, between men and women, between enslavers and enslaved, between natives and foreigners. As we read these stories--which, at their cores, are all love stories--we learn the history of a civilization that mirrors our own in uncomfortable ways. Le Guin has structured this book perfectly, beginning with a slow and subtle introduction to this society and gradually building to an emotional show more crescendo.

The first two novellas could be paired with each other, as could the last two. In each of the first two stories, an unlikely relationship forms between a man and a woman. Thrown together by circumstance, they move past their initial assumptions and prejudices, and first see, then come to love, the other. The first story, Betrayals, is quiet, reminiscent, and almost elegiac in its tone, told from the point of view of an older woman in self-exile who believes that her life is essentially over when she rediscovers love. Only a bit of Yeowe's turbulent history is revealed; once a planet of slaves, there was a long and violent revolutionary war, and the planet's inhabitants dispelled their enslavers back to Werel and won their independence. In the second story, Forgiveness Day, more is revealed about these two planets' societies, particularly the strict separation of men and women and general oppression of women on Werel. An envoy from the federation of planets called the Ekumen, a young woman, arrives on Werel and shocks her bodyguard, a former soldier, with her behavior. But when they are kidnapped together, they come to know each other as people and, eventually, to accept each other on equal terms.

The second two novellas are also a pair, more closely related. A Man of the People tells the story of another Ekumen envoy, providing a rare glimpse of life on Hain, where he is from, and how historians are trained. Once he arrives on Yeowe, he becomes aware of the societal oppression of women and is drawn into the women's liberation movement, which he subtly affects as he can from his position as an influential outsider. The final story, "A Woman's Liberation," is the most powerful and emotionally wrenching of the four. Le Guin reveals without flinching the brutal history of these two planets, as experienced by one woman, who is first a slave, then liberated, then enslaved again as a "use woman," a sexual slave, then escapes to Yeowe, where she thinks she will be free. There she finds a still total oppression of women, and she eventually joins the underground liberation movement, where she meets the Hainish envoy. As their love grows, she is able to let go of her past, to forgive herself and her people for their history. She is able to fully become who she is meant to be, to help bring about true liberation and document the history so the past won't be repeated. And she is able to love, as an equal. This was such a powerful, moving piece of writing that I can't do it justice in describing it.

For those longtime fans of Le Guin's science fiction, this collection has an added bonus: a supplemental brief history of Hain, a tantalizing society that we have before only glimpsed in her work, and the history of the Ekumen. This is a book I am sure I will return to again and again, the product of a great (and underappreciated) writer at the height of her abilities. show less

a very enjoyable read about a civilization just coming out of a long and oppressive culture of slavery and repression. Le Guin writes a story that takes American slave narratives, the history of woman's repression and manages to turn it into something that captures all the tragedy of being a slave but does not reference any society, past or present.

UK LeGuin is just a wonderful writer. This collection of four linked novellas about a society in which slavery is just coming to an end demonstrates why she is so highly respected. Lean, supple prose, complex societies revealed through realistic characters making hard choices. One of the things I respect enormously about her work is that she is often able to create fictions that work as fictions - that have the elements of story - and still somehow convey some of the complexity of lived experience, which is generally too messy and open ended to fit in story.

Four Ways to Forgiveness contains four novella set on the planet Werel and its colony planet, Yoewe. Werel has a violent and oppressive history and although having become technologically quite advance, the practice of slavery is still the basis of their society.

The first story is set on Yeowe following their War of Liberation and features an old woman and her relationship with a former Chief of the revolution. This story seems mostly to serve as exposition and a commentary on how elders are treated in the burgeoning free era.

Next, we follow an Ekumenical sub-envoy and her struggles with the extremely misogynistic practices in place on Werel. She is trying to bring enlightenment and is treated alternately like a man and a precocious show more child, but just wants to be seen as an independent woman. This is difficult for the Werelians to deal with.

The third story begins on Hain, which is nice because of all the talk so far in this series of the Hainish and the Ekumen having originated there, none of the action has ever been set there. It is interesting to note that there are still some “backwards” and “rural” areas of Hain. It is not the enlightened utopia I had come to think of judging by its description and the characters in other books who are from there. The narrator of this tale begins life in a rural area and grows to be an Envoy to Werel. His early life and training period are quite interesting and his adventures on Werel serve to tie some threads together from the first two stories.

This Envoy will also appear in our fourth story, which is presented as a memoir of a woman who is born in slavery on Werel, but because of some very fortunate events is able to participate in a Werelian slave-revolt, learn to read, write and teach, and finally end up on Yeowe helping to continue the revolution and enlightenment there.

The themes throughout are, of course, forgiveness, as well as how two people from different walks of life can find love together. Each of these stories features a set of very unlikely lovers, often of different planets of origin, who find common ground. This could be applied as a metaphor for mixed-race relations here in America (or even on Planet Earth). The other main theme is feminism. The revolution on Yeowe originated in the women’s camp, but after liberation, women are still treated as property, often with less power than they had as slaves. The message seems to be that many men need to have someone to oppress in order to feel powerful, even if they have been oppressed themselves and know how that feels. Of course, as the society grows and becomes more “civilized” the genders need to be treated more equally. This is also a comment on Earthly societal norms.

LeGuin has long been a pioneer of feminist science fiction. She is adept at spinning an engaging tale that stands alone on its own merit, as well as presenting an underlying message that is almost sneaky in the way it inhabits the readers mind and (hopefully!) transforms the reader’s attitudes on the subject. show less

Four nice short(er) stories connect via the worldbuilding, and what a worldbuilding it is. Slavery, feminism and so on. The book is filled with amazing moments, speeches, and thoughts. I think Le Guin is probably the best at this kind of writing, the characters are a bit blank, but that's good, because then they can reflect the worlds (and yes it's important that it's plural) around them, which are essentially experiments in antropology and culture.

**Four Ways to Forgiveness** is part of *Ursula K. Le Guin*'s Hainish Cycle, and gives us a bit of a backstory on the Hainish themselves, how the Ekumen was founded, and how worlds may come to join the Ekumen. The story is told in four parts, a character apiece. The characters do interact, but they form their own narratives. From the perspective of a slave, a military slave owner, an envoy, and a historian, we gain a perspective on the world of Werel, and the rebellion of the slaves against their owners. I was very impressed with the discussion of slavery, dependence, culture, misogyny, and revolution from the different perspectives. It's not easy reading though – Le Guin doesn't shy away from depicting all the horrible parts of show more oppression and slavery. Despite that, the stories were touching and hopeful and noticeably written to work well together. show less