Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series, in the beginning, is centered around 3 main characters, Rand, Perrin & Mat. In almost every single book one or all of the three will not understand a member of the female half and will mutter something along the lines of..."I bet Perrin/Mat/Rand would understand what she's talking about, or maybe Mat/Rand/Perrin would." I find it hilarious, and I really enjoy most of the things Jordan's characters say or think about members of the opposite sex.
The main reason that I enjoy the by-play in the books is because I myself do not understand women (after all I'm not married & have no girlfriend right now), and most I've read in these books is something that I think, or have thought before. And, this by-play is in fact two-sided from both men & women's point of view. Here are some examples...
From the Fires of Heaven, 5th book, pg 650. Rand is thinking about the different girls that he likes.
"It was easy enough for her to talk of Elayne, but he could not even puzzle out Aviendha, but she seemed more relaxed than he had ever seen her. Somehow or other, that seemed the opposite of how it should be. It all seemed topsy-turvy with her. But then, Min was the only woman who had not made him feel as if he were standing on his head half the time...One day he was going to understand women. When he had the time to apply to it. He suspected a lifetime would not be enough, though."
From Lord of Chaos, 6th book, pg 451. Here a race called ogier (troll/ogre size, but kind, long-lived, and slow of action type of people) & Rand are talking about finding Rand's friend Loial who is the son of Corvil and soon to be husband of Erith. Haman is the mayor of the ogier village that Loial comes from, and they have just arrived where Rand is, walking half-way across the country searching for Loial.
"This would be a fine discussion another time," Corvil said, directing her words to Rand yet plainly meaning them for Haman, as her sidelong looks indicated, "but I want to make as far west as I can before nightfall." Haman sighed heavily. "Surely you'll stay here awhile," Rand protested. "You must be exhausted, walking all the way from Cairhien." "Women do not become exhausted," Haman said, "they only exhaust others. That is a very old saying among us." Corvil and Erith sniffed in harmony.
From a Crown of Swords, 7th book, pg 119. Gaul is an Aiel - sort of an Indian/Arab cross that come from the deserts, and who call those who live in greener lands across the mountains, wetlanders. "Women," Gaul muttered, "are stranger than drunken wetlanders."
From a Crown of Swords, pgs 160-164. Perrin finally gets to be alone with his wife, Faile, after coming back to the city thinking she might have been killed, tortured or worse when Coalvaere tried to make herself queen by colluding with Rand's abductors and usurping the throne in his absence. Berelain is a leader of another country who is trying to steal Perrin's affections.
Colavaere delighted in it. I could believe that she only took that Mayener strumpet [Berelain] as an attendant to throw the two of us together. "Faile, Berelain, come lace my gown' 'Faile, Berelain, come hold the mirror for the hairdresser.' 'Faile, Berelain, come wash my back.' So she could amuse herself waiting for us to claw one another's eyes out! That is what I have put up with! For you, you hairy-eared-----!"
His back thumped against the wall. And something snapped inside him. He had been frightened spitless for her, terrified, ready to face down Rand or the Dark One himself. And he had done nothing, had never encouraged Berelain, had done everything in his wits to chase the woman away. For which his thanks was this.
Gently he took her by the shoulders and lifted he until thos big tilted eyes were level with his. "You listen to me," he said calmly. He tried to make his voice calm, at least; it came out more of a growl in his throat. "How dare you speak to me like that? How dare you? I worried myself near to death for fear you'd been hurt. I love you, and nobody else but you. I want no other woman but you. Do you hear me? Do you?"
Crushing her to his chest, he held her, wanting to never let her go...Abruptly he realized what he was doing. She was making sounds against his chest, but no words he could recognize. He wondered that he did not hear her ribs creaking. Berating himself for an oaf he let her go, arms springing apart, but before he could apologize, her fingers clutched his beard.
"So you love me?" she said softly. Very softly. Very warmly. She was smiling too. "A woman likes to hear that said the right way." She had dropped the fan, and her free hand drew fingernails down his cheek, not far from hard enough to draw blood, but her throaty laugh held heat, and the smoldering in her eyes was as far from anger as possible. "A good thing you didn't say you never looked at another woman, or I would think you had gone blind."
He was too stunned for words, too stunned evenn to gape. Rand understood women, Mat understood women, but Perrin knew he never would....My husband," Faile breathed, "you have the courage of three men. And the sense of a child on leading strings. Why is it that as a man's courage goes up, his sense goes down?"
From a Crown of Swords, pg 178. Here Rand is talking with Davram & Deira (Faile's parents), and Dorindha, Melanie & Bael, who are Aiel. In Aiel society only women can ask men for marriage, and if two women are best friends, or near-sisters, then if the man wants to marry one, he has to marry both. Dorindha & Melanie are near-sisters and both wife to Bael.
"After you marry," Davram murmured with a smile, "you will learn you must choose very carefully what to keep from your wife." Deira glanced down at him, pursing her lips. "Wives are a great comfort," Bael laughed, "if a man does not tell them too much." Smiling Dorindha ran her fingers into his hair--and gripped for a moment as though she meant to tug his head off. Bael grunted, but not for Dorindha's fingers alone. Melanie wiped her small belt knife on her heavy skirt and sheathed it. The two women grinned at one another over his head while he rubbed at his shoulder, where a small spot of blood stained his [clothing]. Deira nodded thoughtfully; it seemed she had just gotten an idea.
