Authors who write like the opposite sex?

[Smokering]

I just started rereading Interview With the Vampire and was struck anew by how masculine Anne Rice's writing style sounds to me. And then there's Alexander McCall Smith, whose No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency stories always read to me like they were written by a woman... although that's probably more about his subject matter and perceptiveness than his writing style per se.

What do you think? Can you tell whether a man or woman wrote a book because of the writing style/content/themes? Do you know any authors who write like the opposite sex? The only other one who springs to mind is John Steinbeck, and I don't think he writes like a woman in general - just that his nuanced and respectful love song to women that is The Grapes of Wrath was all the more impressive because it was penned by a man. Which is perhaps cynical of me, as there's no reason men can't write good women characters (well, except Hemingway)...

Anyway. Thoughts?

[A&A]

Ernest Gaine does a fantastic job of writing from a woman's point of view in The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. And Tennessee Williams expertly captures the character of Stella in A Streetcar Named Desire. Those are a couple I can think of right now.

[mamatoablessing]

I really noticed this in Wally Lamb's I Know This Much is True. He did a brilliant job of writing from a woman's perspective.

[vbactivist]

S.E. Hinton, who wrote The Outsiders did a great job - most people are surprised to find out she's a woman. Right now I am reading "Gilead" by Marilyn Robinson, and I am blown away by her writing - which is told from a fathers perspective.

[AuntNi]

I've always liked the way Larry McMurtry writes women characters. When I read about Tasmin's birth and nursing her baby (in one of the Berrybender books,) it was hard to remember it was written by a man.

[3boobykins]

Originally Posted by vbactivist

S.E. Hinton, who wrote The Outsiders did a great job - most people are surprised to find out she's a woman. Right now I am reading "Gilead" by Marilyn Robinson, and I am blown away by her writing - which is told from a fathers perspective.

And Hinton was only 16 when she wrote The Outsiders.

I think Tom Perotta (I've read his Little Children and The Abstinence Teacher--love his writing!) has a great ability as a writer to switch between men's and women's points of view.

[zinemama]

Originally Posted by 3boobykins

I think Tom Perotta (I've read his Little Children and The Abstinence Teacher--love his writing!) has a great ability as a writer to switch between men's and women's points of view.

Yeah, I'll agree with you on that one. But when he got to the part in Little Children where the adulterous lovers effortlessly synchronize their toddlers' naptimes, leave them sleeping in another room and proceed to have hours of mindblowing uninterrupted sex...well, that said only one thing to me: a man wrote this. A man who doesn't know much about little children.

[3boobykins]

Originally Posted by zinemama

Yeah, I'll agree with you on that one. But when he got to the part in Little Children where the adulterous lovers effortlessly synchronize their toddlers' naptimes, leave them sleeping in another room and proceed to have hours of mindblowing uninterrupted sex...well, that said only one thing to me: a man wrote this. A man who doesn't know much about little children.

Yes, true, when it comes to that part...

[vbactivist]

Originally Posted by 3boobykins

And Hinton was only 16 when she wrote The Outsiders.

Now that is amazing!

[KaraBoo]

I thought Michael Cunningham did a great job of getting in a woman's head in The Hours.

[yogafeet]

Originally Posted by mamatoablessing

I really noticed this in Wally Lamb's I Know This Much is True. He did a brilliant job of writing from a woman's perspective.

and in She's Come Undone.