Joanna Timeline and Summary

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Joanna Timeline and Summary

  • Joanna introduces herself and explains that, at the moment when Janet Evason appeared on Broadway in Jeannine's world, she (Joanna) was sitting in a cocktail party in Manhattan, having just turned into a female man.
  • Joanna sits in a Manhattan cocktail lounge, where she's gone to watch a live interview with Janet be broadcast on television. While there, she meets Jeannine.
  • For about a month, Joanna eats up all the news stories she can get about Janet's visit to Earth. For some reason, Jeannine keeps appearing in her apartment and waking her up at night.
  • As Joanna stands on Broadway to watch a parade being given in honor of Janet, Janet herself pulls up in a limousine and invites her in.
  • Janet takes Jeannine and Joanna on a little joyride, where they end up meeting the Wildings in Anytown, U.S.A.
  • Joanna and Janet begin living together in a hotel suite.
  • Joanna takes Janet to a party on Riverside Drive, where the Host assaults them. Joanna cowers (she's not entirely corporeal at this point) while Janet breaks his arm.
  • When Janet decides to move in with the Wildings in Anytown, U.S.A., Joanna goes along. She lives in the house as an incorporeal spirit, and takes on the role of Janet's cranky conscience.
  • Joanna runs away screaming when Janet and Laura Rose Wilding go to bed together. It's not just the age difference that bothers her (though that's certainly part of it), but the thought of what two women might do together in bed.
  • Briefly, Joanna finds herself in Jeannine's version of Earth. They ride the subway and go shopping, meet up with Janet, then find themselves suddenly on Whileaway.
  • On Whileaway, Joanna lives with Janet's family, and gets to know Janet's wife, Vittoria. She also spends time with a young Whileawayan child who makes up a long, allegorical story about her.
  • Joanna finds herself back in Jeannine's version of Earth, where she takes on the role of cranky conscience once again. As Jeannine visits her family in the Poconos, Joanna appears as the inner voice that chastises her for being so weak and pathetic.
  • Back in her own world, Joanna lives in her apartment with Janet and Jeannine. One afternoon, while Janet tells Laura about a woman she killed on Whileaway, Joanna fantasizes about what it would be like to make love to that woman.
  • One evening, as Joanna, Janet, and Jeannine sit up talking, the three of them suddenly find themselves "somewhere else" (7.5.26).
  • In Womanland, Joanna and the other two J's are greeted by Jael. Jael reveals that all of this reality-shifting has been her doing, and she tells her alter-egos about the war between women and men in her world.
  • Joanna accompanies Jael (along with the other two J's) through the underground cities of Womanland and up to the Manland surface. At a Manland recreation center, Jael meets her contact, who brings all four women (and the omniscient narrator, too) to the quarters of a Manland Boss with whom Jael intends to do business.
  • Along with Janet and Jeannine, Joanna watches as Jael assassinates the Manland Boss.
  • Joanna goes with Jael (and the other two J's) to Jael's home in Vermont. There, Jael requests the other women's support in the war against men.
  • Back in her own world, Joanna meets Janet, Jeannine, and Jael for a Thanksgiving dinner at Schrafft's. When their meal is finished, the women part ways, and Joanna bids farewell to The Female Man.