Rogers (Solo, 1996, etc.) demonstrates again her editorial skills with these 21 previously unpublished lesbian stories arranged mainly—we're told—according to their narrative experimentation. But just how experimental these tales really are is another question—most of them simply adopt traditional storytelling modes as a means for narrating slightly extraordinary events and experiences. Ruthann Robson, in ``Choices,'' does use a tricky structure to tell three stories at the same time, all about degrees of suffering. Jeanne Winer's ``The Trip We Took Last February,'' on the other hand, features some lesbian heroics as a visit to Mexico leads to adventure for a woman who fears taking risks. ``Mainstreet,'' Linda Smukler's stunning, almost unpunctuated analysis of one butch dyke's affection for barbers, is the collection's standout, but ``Close Calls,'' Wickie Stamps's piece about a dangerous flirtation between a ``Birkenstock'' lesbian and the imprisoned murderer she's drawn to, pushes the fictional envelop. In ``Me and Cleo,'' Gwendolyn Bikis provides, with her portrait of New York City homegirls, the kind of verbal electricity the rest of the collection lacks. ZÇlie Pollon's ``Mykonos,'' a brief, jagged story, takes on the issue of lesbian rape, while Kathryn Kingsbury, in ``Wicked Stepsisters,'' delivers an updated retelling of the Cinderella legend from the perspective of a smitten stepsister. Desire and its consequences among nature buffs are nicely handled by Karen Cook in ``Birding in Utah,'' and Rhomylly B. Forbes's ``When You Wish Upon the Moon'' actually casts an aspect of nature as a character. The married or heterosexual woman in love with another woman is a recurrent issue well presented in Emily Fox's ``The House of My Child.'' ``Wild Parrots Squalling Somewhere'' is Sharon Lim-Hing's exotic take on love in the wilds, while nutty postmodern narration is covered by Anna Livia in ``Lightning Dances Over the Prairie Like Lust at a Nightclub.'' Not all hits, then, but still a strong new survey of the increasingly lively scene of lesbian short fiction.
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-312-14755-4
Page Count: 288
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
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