More Than Human by Theodore Sturgeon is a Classic

SPOILERS AHEAD

    More Than Human by Theodore Sturgeon was published in 1953 and won the 1954 International Fantasy Award and a Retro Hugo in 2004. The novel is an important science fiction classic with ideas about the future evolution of humanity through the use of marginalized characters. Theodore Sturgeon asks these questions about human evolution and gives us uncomfortable answers that are less about the future state of humanity, and more about the sad state of humanity now. 

    It is the story about how a group of misfits slowly find one another in the Midwest United States in the 1930's through the 1950's. We start by meeting a father abusively isolating his young adult daughters. The daughters aren't allowed to have friends, must dress in 19th century clothes, and can't even get dressed in front of mirrors.  One day one of the daughters while walking in the fenced in gardens behind her home, meets a young man suffering from an intellectual disability, neglected and ostracized from society. This man cannot speak but never starves because people give him food or whatever he needs. He feels some sort of connection to her and breaks into the fence to be with her. He connects with her in a way he has never connected before with anyone else. She is unfortunately, caught by her monster father. A tragedy happens. The loner in the woods is alone again.  

We follow a neglected girl in the city in an apartment building. Her father is fighting in the war in Europe; her mother resents her and has affairs in front of her. She makes friends with the lonely twin daughters of the maintenance man of the building. The girl can move things with her mind, and the twins can teleport. Their parents never notice. They bond in their loneliness. 

An old childless couple pray for years for a child. The lady finally gets pregnant and they rejoice. When the baby is born it doesn't end well for them. Their once bustling farm is neglected and sad. The father has become insane. 

Eventually, these extraordinary people, the loner in the woods, the neglected girls, and the answer to an old couple's prayers come together or "blesh" to become the next step in humanity, no longer the homo sapiens, but homo gestalt. Are they whole yet or do they need something more to become a complete person? How will they treat humanity who has been so unkind to them? 

Though the novel is full of tragedy and contains harsh criticisms of society in the 1940's-1950's, it was beautifully, poetically written. It was one of those books I read thinking I would only read for a few minutes but looked at the clock to see that over an hour had gone by. It wasn't a lecture but a story of young, abused misfits finding one another to become something new. It deserves to be a classic and I highly recommend it.