Lesbian Studies
"Strange
Sisters: The Art of Lesbian Pulp Fiction 1949-1969"
by Jaye Zimet
Do you walk alone, a twilight lover? Odd one out? Warped? Troubled? Twisted?
Jaye Zimet, a Brooklyn book designer and collector, has brought together over
200 sleazily appealing book covers from the boom years of the lesbian pulp
novel, arranging them in groups from "Positive Portraits" and more
ambitious "Cliterature" to "Psycho-Babble" and an entire
section devoted to cleavage. Although large numbers of their original readers in
the '50s and '60s were lesbians or protolesbians hoping for a glimpse of
themselves or for some tenuous connection to an almost mythical community of
"unnatural lovers," the covers of these books were clearly targeted to
a primary audience of furtive young men. Scantily clad, buxom blondes simper
under the gaze of older, "experienced" brunettes sometimes wearing
trousers or short hair but never without lipstick. To the eye of Ann Bannon and
her contemporaries, these women seemed as "straight as a pine tree."
But "despite the almost comical distance between the covers and the
contents," as Bannon concludes in her foreword, "the books found both
their intended audiences.... If there was a solitary woman on the cover,
provocatively dressed, and the title conveyed her rejection by society or her
self-loathing, it was a lesbian book."
edited by Terry Wolverton with Robert Drake
Amidst an outbreak of great new anthologies, including its companion volume of gay short fiction, "Hers 3" more than holds its own, from the nearly flawless opening story by Pat Schatz, in which a young woman rides the Tokyo subway in rush hour for the thrill of bodies pressed against her, pushed in tightly by the white-gloved conductor, to Ellen Hawley's painstakingly realistic account of the night her protagonist's niece was beaten by her boyfriend, to Carrelin Brook's dreamy but precise evocation of otherness in "The Butcher's Wife." A few well-known writers are included, such as Donna Allegra, Barbara Wilson, the art critic Catherine Lord, and Emma Donoghue (who edited the recent "Mammoth Book of Lesbian Short Stories"), but most are newer voices. Readers who haven't noticed the astonishing improvement in lesbian fiction in the past five years would do well to indulge themselves with this latest volume in the "Hers" series.
"Dear
Juliette: Letters of May Sarton to Juliette Huxley"
edited by Susan Sherman
The poet May Sarton's reputation took a nosedive after her death in 1995 and the
unflattering biography by Margot Peters that followed. The publication of her
tender, revealing letters has managed to arrest this decline. Susan Sherman, who
edited Sarton's "Selected Letters, 1916-1954," now offers insight into
Sarton's most profound and affecting romance, with Juliette Huxley, the
Swiss-born wife of the English scientist Sir Julian Huxley. May and Juliette met
in 1936, while May was involved with Julian. Their love affair culminated in one
passionate week in Paris in 1948, after which--hurt by May's angry threat that
she would tell Julian--Juliette broke off the relationship. After Julian
Huxley's death in 1976, they began to write one another again, and kept in
contact until Juliette's death. As May Sarton wrote in old age, "I have had
many lovers, many friends since I was 25 and met Juliette Huxley, but none has
so nourished the poet and the lover as she did, the incomparable one." With
drafts of introductions by May Sarton, and excerpts from a few of Juliette
Huxley's responses to Sarton.
by Laurie Essig
This engrossing and highly readable sociological study of queer life in present-day Russia will disturb readers who hoped or assumed that President Yeltsin's 1993 decriminalization of consensual sex between adults of the same sex would unlock the Iron Closet. Since 1917, homosexuality has officially existed in Russia only as a legal or medical category, either a criminal act or an illness. Russian men and women who experience same-sex desire have so internalized the various proscriptions of society and the law that they are hardly rushing to proclaim themselves gay, Essig found, let alone unfurl the rainbow flag. Many are happier viewing themselves as transsexuals-- simply born into the wrong bodies--than as violators of Russia's rigidly gendered behavioral codes, and others are too strongly nationalistic to embrace what is widely considered a Western liberation movement. Incidentally, Essig discloses both an exquisitely lyrical Russian alternative to the term "queer"--"people of the moonlight"-- and a creepy clinical designation for lesbianism--"sluggishly manifesting schizophrenia"--a phrase that (happily) has no equivalent outside the former Soviet Union.
"Tipping
the Velvet"
by Sarah Waters
The heroine of Sarah Waters's audacious first novel knows her destiny, and seems
content with it. Her place is in her father's seaside restaurant, shucking
shellfish and stirring soup, singing all the while. "Although I didn't long
believe the story told to me by Mother--that they had found me as a baby in an
oyster-shell, and a greedy customer had almost eaten me for lunch--for eighteen
years I never doubted my own oysterish sympathies, never looked far beyond my
father's kitchen for occupation, or for love." At night Nancy Astley often
ventures to the nearby music hall, and the moment she spies a new male
impersonator--still something of a curiosity in England circa 1888--her years of
innocence come to an end and a life of transformations begins. "Tipping the
Velvet" is so entertaining that, even though the book contains nearly 500
pages, readers will wish Nancy's sentimental--and hedonistic--education had
taken twice as long.
"A
Legal Guide for Lesbian and Gay Couples"
by Hayden Curry et al.
Nolo Press legal guides provide useful and accurate
information on how to manage your own affairs or, failing
this, how to hire a lawyer and negotiate the court
system. The rapid changes in gay and lesbian life in the
past 30 years have not been reflected in the legal codes of
most states, and without enforceable written agreements, gay
and lesbian people may find such crucial matters as
inheritance, legal guardianship, child custody, and support
left to the whim of a judge or state agency. As the writers
of this volume (the 10th edition of a book first published
in 1980) point out, "married couples' relationships are
defined by law," while lesbian and gay couples have the
freedom--and responsibility--to create their own legal
relationships. Agreements drawn up in advance provide
guidance for a time when all is not moonbeams and madness.
Tear-out forms and sample documents are included.
"The
Ultimate Guide to Pregnancy for Lesbians"
by Rachel Pepper
This lively and readable book provides basic pregnancy and
preconception advice for lesbians and their partners.
Concentrating on topics of special interest to lesbian
families--such as choosing an anonymous donor, drafting
agreements with known donors, and defining the nonbiological
mother's parenting role--it also suggests how and when to
inseminate, and walks the reader through a normal full-term
pregnancy and delivery. Despite its title, however, the book
cannot really substitute for a comprehensive guide to
pregnancy along the lines of "What to Expect When You're
Expecting," and the breezy section on labor will be of
little use when you feel mysterious twinges in your 39th
week (or your 29th). This would be best as a first book to
buy when considering pregnancy, or as an addition to other,
more detailed guides. (However, the section on sex during
pregnancy *does* provide lesbian-specific advice unlikely to
be found anywhere else.)
Learn more about "What
to Expect When You're Expecting":
"The
Mammoth Book of Lesbian Short Stories"
edited by Emma Donoghue
It's no secret that commercial markets for short stories
have been drying up for the past 30 years. This is said to
reflect the diminishing readership for short fiction, and,
as a result--with the occasional startling exception--book
advances are small, reviews scarce, promotion negligible.
The prophets of literary doom have more or less ignored gay
and lesbian fiction, however, where the short story
flourishes among a feisty and increasingly discerning
readership. "At the end of the 1990s," notes the editor of
the "Mammoth" collection, "the only difficulty in compiling
a collection of three decades of superb lesbian stories is
that there are so many to choose from." Perhaps the best and
widest-ranging of recent anthologies, the "Mammoth"
collection includes the work of established writers (Jane
Rule, Sara Maitland, Dorothy Allison) beside that of
novices, and corrects the usual overemphasis on American
fiction. Like the editors of "The Vintage Book of
International Lesbian Fiction," Donoghue has chosen a
thematic rather than biographical approach, including women
writers "of all persuasions." But don't try to choose
between this excellent book and the Vintage anthology, which
has a different emphasis. Buy them both and become an expert
in the lesbian short story.
We reviewed the "The
Vintage Book of International Lesbian
Fiction" in a previous edition of Amazon.com Delivers
Lesbian Studies, noting the "consistently fine quality of
the stories" and "their unusual ingenuity and playfulness
with language."
"Wilma
Loves Betty and Other Hilarious Gay & Lesbian Parodies"
edited by Julie K. Trevelyan and Scott Brassart
Your favorite TV shows, movies, and social phenomena are
approached with a queer sensibility in this anthology. Wilma
and Betty finally get it on, and although Batman and Robin
don't, it's not for lack of trying on Robin's part. Ex-gays
get their share of ridicule, but there's also some good-
natured ribbing of earnest homosexuals, including "Heather
Has a Mommy and a Daddy" and "Rejection Letter from Bedsheet
Books, Publisher of Lesbian Novels," in which the editor
chastises the applicant for giving her protagonists
unandrogynous names and creating sympathetic male characters,
then queries, "Why doesn't your heroine have a cat?" In
Jeff Black's hilarious "6,240 and Counting," Larry Kramer
lambastes gay men for not doing enough to prevent Andrew
Lloyd Webber from killing American musical theater, and
reminds his readers of what it means to be Larry Kramer:
"I was called a genius by the very people who invented the
guillotine!" The mysterious Saint delivers parodies of half
a dozen prominent gay and lesbian authors, including
"Felicity Guano" and "Edmund Wimp." While the script for the
"Chandler Comes Out" episode of "Friends" drags on far too
long, and the revelations about Nancy Drew's best friend,
George, are old hat to anyone who's read Mabel Maney's
"Nancy Clue" and "Hardly Boys" books, there are certainly
enough funny and clever bits here to bring a smile to just
about anybody's face. And, as the editors remind us,
"Parody is constitutionally protected. So nyah, nyah, nyah."
"The
Queen of Whale Cay"
by Kate Summerscale
British eccentric Marion "Joe" Carstairs (1900-1993) was a
world-class speedboat racer, heiress to the Standard Oil
fortune, ruler of her own Caribbean Island ... and a
cross-dressing lesbian. This biography places Carstairs's
adventurous life in the context of 20th-century attitudes
toward sexual deviance. During the permissive 1920s,
Carstairs was able to flaunt her taste for women in the
bohemian circles of London and Paris. She had affairs with
numerous gals, including Natalie Barney and Dolly Wilde,
Oscar's niece. When writing about Carstairs's boat races,
the press of that roaring decade regarded her as a loveable
tomboy. But as social norms shifted in the '30s, Carstairs's
lifestyle was frowned upon. So she acquired Whale Cay, an
island off the coast of Florida, turned it into her own
version of paradise, became a gentleman farmer, and had an
affair with Marlene Dietrich. Carstairs's most important and
long-term relationship, though, was with Lord Tod Wadley, a
stuffed leather doll.