I picked this up at fictionwise.com, where they sell ebooks for, like, 3 cents. It was free. I think ebooks are published indiscriminately because printing charges are non-existent. Therefore, standards for ebooks are relatively low.
Accordingly, John Kessel's Stories for Men is not good. It is, however, kind of good. It concerns Erno, a teenager growing up on a matriarchal moon-colony. He meets a comedian named (get this) Tyler Durden who gives him a book from good old planet Earth. The book, called Stories For Men, is an anthology of hard-livin' tales by great misogynists like Hemingway. They're about boxin' and spittin' and killin' each other. The comedian gives the book to Erno to teach him what life is really about: you know, playing chicken with tractor trailers and stuff.
Think Fight Club, why not.
For me, the most interesting thing about this book are Kessel's ideas about life in a matriarchy. If I was writing a bad paper on Hauerwas's essay, "Why Marriage is a Radical Act," I would surely reference Stories for Men. Hauerwas argues--against Bertrand Russell--that if marriage is devalued, then women would eventually require compensation for childbearing. This would lead to making the State a parent, which he thinks would end up at mandatory military service and other dystopic nightmares.
It's fascinating, sci-fi stuff, like Kessel's novel. Kessel envisions a world where men must choose between lives of leisure or the right to vote. It's not supposed to be analogous to pre-suffragist America. Instead, I think Kessel is drawing out the "what-if" of feminine leadership. It's that strain of thought that says women, being more peace-loving, would make better presidents. Meanwhile, angst-filled dudes are supposed to be making it with all the horny housewives. This fills the double role of placating/distracting the men and fulfilling the women's libidos. Seriously, this is what life will be like on the moon.
For more information about blockheaded males, read Adam Kotsko's post. For more information on how screwed up sexual politics is, visit Cap'n Pete.