SOURCE: “Cronehood is Powerful,” in New York, October 12, 1992, pp. 74-5.

In the following review, Koenig provides a summary of The Change and Greer's unconventional ideas. Koenig concludes, “it's unlikely that many readers will march behind Greer's custom-made banner.”

No one following Germaine Greer's work would expect her to go gently into that good night—or anywhere else—but even her most devoted readers may not be prepared for the way she takes leave of her youth. “The stereotype of the snowy-haired granny beaming affectionately at her apple pie,” she says, “needs to be balanced by her dark side, with ‘tangled black hair, long fingernails, pendulous breasts, flowing tongue between terrible fangs.’”

A witch may be a daunting model for the average rider of the IRT, but Greer has plenty of others: philosopher, artist, menopausal femme fatale. In The Change, she not only upsets the applecart of received wisdom...