Although Godbody is an overtly didactic work of fiction, it succeeds to a great extent as a novel because Sturgeon is able to create a number of individualized characters who gain the readers' interest and sympathy. Each is given enough of a history and enough of a unique voice to seem a person rather than merely an authorial mouthpiece. As reviewers have noted, the novel is a sequence of character sketches detailing the impact of Godbody on the lives of those he touches: A good man and woman lose their sexual inhibitions and shame and gain a new sense of freedom; a lonely woman finds true community; a girl who has always thought herself unworthy and unlovable discovers her own beauty and learns that she is loved; two sexually twisted and manipulative men are able to transcend their warped perspectives and learn to love.

Briefly described, the characters...