Men writing from a female pov, and vice versa 📚

Roald Dahl's Matilda or Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns if we are talking of well written female perspective by a male author, these two definitely make the cut.
Jhumpa Lahiri's The Lowland is a good example of the vice versa case atleast in my opinion.

I think Hilary Mantel wrote about men quite well, especially about Cromwell and the machinations at court
Frank Mcourt also with the depiction of his mother in Angela’s Ashes.
I am not a fan of male writers, but Thomas Hardy is my favourite when he writes about women.

Thomas Hardy wrote women well I think, not Dickens though.
PD James could write so well from any point of view and Kate Atkinson.

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The Brontes were published originally as Acton, Currer and Ellis Bell , because they believed that women authors were possibly looked down upon. Curious names.

I recently read Mothering Sunday by Graham Swift, written from the perspective of a female servant. Interesting, but not sure how successful it is.

Interesting article.

George Eliot had no choice. I studied her at Uni.

Her publisher insisted.

This persisted for some long time for women.

Made me wonder about Jane Austin, who of course was writing much earlier

"Jane Austen's first published novel, Sense and Sensibility (1811), appeared with the tag 'By a Lady'. Her next, Pride and Prejudice (1813), appeared with the line 'By the author of “Sense and Sensibility”'"
In fact....
" novels were all published anonymously until after her death in 1817, when John Murray published 'Persuasion' and 'Northanger Abbey' with a biographical note by Jane's brother Henry revealing the identity of its author."

So she did reveal she was a woman....... it's interesting that it was later in Victorian Times that George Eliots publisher insisted she have a man's name.

However Elizabeth Gaskell writing at the same time as George Eliot was published under her own name, tho I believe that it was "Mrs Gaskell" to add "respectability".

George Eliot lived openly with a married man and I'm guessing that had something to do with it.

What about all those female writers who 'hid' behind male pen names? I don't believe that male or female perspectives or emotions differ much at all:

www.penguin.co.uk/articles/2020/08/reclaim-her-name-womens-prize-george-eliot-middlemarch

I couldn't believe that one of my favourite songs - 'Don't Get Married Girls' sung by The Dubliners, was written by Mr. Leon Rosselson.

George Eliot?

Sidney Sheldon was an expert in writing novels with strong, intelligent, determined women as the main character. Many of his books have been televised as mini-series.

I was surprised when I discovered that A Little Life was written by a woman. As it dealt very much with male emotions, I assumed that it was written by a man.

A female who can portray a male in books is probably less common. B.A.Newland has written a series of books the first being ‘William’s Way’ she certainly does it well. Such informative and descriptive books

I love Thomas Hardy’s books. Didn’t someone once say of him ‘ he writes great books about women but, boy, does he make them pay for it’.

I’ve read a lot of books by Nick Alexander who doesn’t always write as a woman but has a really good insight into ‘how we work/think’. He’s gay, some of his books are a bit TMI for me but the majority are brilliant.

As women, I'm not sure I can evaluate the writing of a woman writing as a man effectively. Just as I'm not sure a man can effectively evaluate a man writing as a woman. Alan Bennet et al are all bloody good writers regardless of their perspective

Another vote for Roddy Doyle - brilliant writing.

Grantanow

I think it's a mistake to generalize how men or women feel. Different people feel differently depending on their personalities, circumstances, events, etc., at different times. I don't think there is a 'woman feeling' or a 'man feeling'. In fiction it's surely how well an author constructs a character for the character's 'feelings' to appear authentic to that character, not his or her sex.

I think that's definitely true sometimes, but a book like The Woman Who Walked Into Doors is about the relationship between a male and female character, and it is written from Paula's perspective. Why she loved Charlo, why she stayed with him, how she felt as a mother, and her beliefs about how a Catholic wife should behave are fundamental to the story, and Doyle does it so well. We don't really get to know Charlo's thoughts and feelings, other than how they are seen by Paula. A book telling the same story from Charlo's perspective would be a very different one.

I don't think that comes down to the fact that they are different characters, so much as that they are a man and a woman, and that does matter. It's not generalising, but I think it's fair to say that a man wouldn't think like Paula does - it's because she's a woman that she has been taught to stand by your man, that she still has sexual feelings for him, that she doesn't want her children to have a broken home and so on.

Douglas Kennedy writes so well in a female perspective I could hardly believe he was male! Willy Russell’s Shirley Valentine was a superb example.

having just read it, I would recommend Barbara Kingsolver's "Demon Copperhead". She writes so convincingly from a young male's perspective regarding addiction/ abuse in the US. Superb book.

Best book written by a man from a woman's point of view "A Thousand Splendid Suns". by Khaled Hosseni
Alan Bennett does women really well. He attributes it to growing up and listening to Northern women talking.

I think there's a big difference between script writing which requires more knowledge of speech patterns to build character and novels written in intimate first or third person which require much more empathy with a point of view.

I’m pleased to see more comments on here. Thank you.
I don’t think that I’m drawn to male or female writers either.

Young people are devils for it though. I’ve done some primary research on it myself

Meant to say, a convincing writer is just that.

And we don't have to live through things (murder for example) to imagine.

I'm afraid I never ask whether a book or play is written by a man or woman. If it's cover has an initial and surname rather than a name I have no clue and don't think I ever think about it.
Obviously if it's someone well known that's different - as we know PD James or JK Rowling. Or published by a female press of course.

I just listened to an audio book and my husband (drifting in and out of my story) assumed it was written by a man. I have no idea why. I only discovered it was written by a woman when I went to find another by the same author.

I think it's a mistake to generalize how men or women feel. Different people feel differently depending on their personalities, circumstances, events, etc., at different times. I don't think there is a 'woman feeling' or a 'man feeling'. In fiction it's surely how well an author constructs a character for the character's 'feelings' to appear authentic to that character, not his or her sex.

This is an interesting thread as I have wondered how women write as male characters. Those that do seem to do it well from my female perspective but men may feel differently.