World without Women by Day Keene and Leonard Pruyn. Fawcett Gold Medal (1960), 176 pp.
Prominent Los Angeles lawyer Reed Renner and his beautiful wife Connie have just returned from a long stay on a remote island in the Pacific. They hoped that the enforced intimacy would put the spark back in their marriage. Now they realize that divorce is the only answer. They dock their boat and head home but can’t help feeling that something is amiss. Reed checks in with his partner, Matt Healy, and learns the startling truth. Nearly all of the world’s women have died of a mysterious illness. The few who survived are under military guard.
This situation has several downsides. Men are lonely and depressed. Pornography and homosexuality are on the rise. The remaining women cannot move about. And, since even non-stop baby-making won’t be enough to adequately stock upcoming generations, civilization is doomed. Readers might expect the book to deal with these issues and offer some hope for the future of the human race. But the authors have no solutions to the problem they’ve created. Instead, they turn to Reed and Connie’s marriage for a note of cheer. She can’t leave the house; he has no prospects elsewhere; so there’s a good chance they’ll get back together. That’s right: Civilization is ending and readers are supposed to care about somebody’s marital troubles. It’s all pretty silly.
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