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From Corsets to Camping: A Lens of Fine Lesbian Fiction

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I posted on my blog recently that I've been thinking alot lately about queer stories and the lack thereof and how that's frustrating. Sure, Anne of Green Gables probably turned me gay, but can you imagine how much GAYER I could have been if there had been a queer equivalent in my childhood? Say Rebecca of Beaver Mountain? I recently went through a period of having "nothing to read" because I couldn't bring myself to crack the spine on yet another story about (god bless you all) straight people.

Don't get me wrong. I love straight people. My parents are straight. But Sweet Lavendar Lord, I was in need of some LESBIAN BOOKS. The other thing I was in need of was a source of GOOD lesbian books (even more rare).

I got some great reading suggestions and thought that now would be the perfect time to start a Fine Lesbian Fiction lens. I'm reviewing books as I read (or re-read) them - if you have any suggestions, please feel free to share!

P.S. I also have a lens on fine, and not so fine, lesbian movies. 

WARNING: Some of these reviews may contain spoilers. I don't want to ruin these books for you, gentle readers - but I may warn you if horror and tragedy await our various lesbonic heroines. Because I am fucking sick of stories where one of the lesbians dies.

  

Sarah Waters

Still my favourite

It took me awhile to understand why I loved the Sarah Waters so damn much. Sure, the writing is great, the settings interesting, the characters compelling, but WHY did they make me swoon so completely? WHY?? Well, I think it's because I grew up wanting Anne of Green Gables to be gay. And in the world of Sarah Waters, IT COULD HAPPEN.
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Emma Donoghue

Warning: Not all of her books contain lesbians.

I'm a big fan of the Emma Donoghue. I have yet to read Hood, but have read a few of her other novels and short stories. A word to the wise - her book Slammerkin might look all hot and corset-y on the cover, but it contains no lesbians. I'm not saying it wasn't a great read, because it was. But I sure was disappointed when the main character failed to get it on with any of the other ladies in the book. Did I expect that because Donoghue is a lesbian, all of her books would be about lesbians? YES. Yes, I did.
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Susan Smith

Finally, some camping! Well, a cabin on a lake . . .

When I posted a plea for lesbian books on my blog, an author of fine lesbian books responded. And thus I was introduced to two great books by Susan Smith, published by Bold Strokes Books. She promised "lots of sex, paganism, drag and such". Oh, ladies - she delivered. I think my favourite thing about these two books is how they brought me back to my own lurve at first sight experience. Everything was so hot! Everything was so dramatic! Hearts were a-flutter, loins were a-quiver! Everything was so raw and real and tingling with possibility. Re-living that through Rosalind and Taryn's story was highly - HIGHLY - enjoyable.
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Diana Souhami

Okay, these aren't actually fiction. But they READ like fiction.

I devoured these lesbiographies one after another a couple of years ago. Intrigues, affairs, glamour, wit, dyke drama and high art - and all of it ACTUALLY HAPPENED. Fascinating portraits of some of the most notorious lesbians of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
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Jeannette Winterson

Bold.

I've only read three of Jeannette Winterson's books and I have to say, I love the WAY she writes. The language is so gorgeous, so poetic and striking that it makes me want to lick things. But I also have to say that, to me, the actual STORIES from book to book seem . . . like the same damn story. It's kind of like this one Sarah McLachlan CD I have - to me, the whole CD just sounds like one long song. I really ENJOY the one long song. But . . . okay, I can see you've cracked my ingenious simile.
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Kathleen Oliver

Okay, this is a play, not a book. But still a great story. That RHYMES.

I saw this play in Toronto when Necessary Angel produced it. And then, I saw it again. And then my friend who saw it twice with me bought it for me for my birthday so that I could relive the rhyming couplet, gender-bending lesbonic fun for myself. I recently discovered that Kathleen Oliver is the cousin of a friend of mine. I'd ask to be introduced, but then I'd probably dork out if we actually met. Best stay a fan from afar, methinks.
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Ann-Marie MacDonald

Witty wordplay! Sexy innuendo! Cross-dressing! And . . . despair.

I was a huge fan of Ann-Marie MacDonald's first play and I heard her read the "sexy bits" of Fall On Your Knees at a Nightwood Theatre event before it even came out. When you read the actual book, though, the sexy bits - they're a long time coming. And then horrible things happen afterwards.
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Fannie Flagg

I'm a little in love with Idgie

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe may have been the first lesbian book I ever read. I was about 15. I reread it recently and marvelled at what an amazing series of funny, insightful, human stories it is (not just the Ruth/Idgie parts, although those are my favourite). The movie's alright, but the book - seriously. Must be read.

I really enjoyed Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man as well, but you know - no lesbians.
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Marnie Woodrow

Mmmm-HMMMMM

My friend Mira introduced me to Marnie Woodrow (in book form, not the actual Marnie Woodrow) when she gave me In the Spice House for my birthday. I reciprocated when I gave her Spelling Mississippi for HER birthday. And then she lent me Spelling Mississippi and I still have it. HA ha!
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Susan Holbrook

Probably thought I was stalking her.

My parents gave me Susan Holbrook's Misled for Solstice one year, after they heard one of her poems recited at Loud n' Queer. I decidedafter reading the book, that she should probably be my girlfriend. I jokingly mentioned this to my dad, who somehow got me her e-mail address so that I could frighten her with fan mail. I know, I know - COOLEST DAD EVER. Sadly, Susan Holbrook did not pick up on my psychic "be my girlfriend!" vibe - clearly her loss - but we WILL be reading one of her poems at our big gay wedding.
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Rita Mae Brown

I love that my parents had this book

Fried Green Tomatoes was my first lesbian book, but Rubyfruit Jungle was the first explicitly lesbonic book I ever read. I bet a lot of young lesbos had to sneak out of the house to read books like this. I, on the other hand, picked this off my parents' bookshelf one afternoon. And was shocked! SHOCKED!!
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Elana Dykewomon

Pssst - I think she might be gay

I hesitated to recommend this book at first because **spoiler alert** some graphic, horrific things happen in it. Unfortunately, these things are also historically accurate. But it's such an incredible story and such an amazing, detailed, educational, vivid piece of historical fiction, I couldn't bear to leave it off my list. I can't ever read it again but I'm glad that I did. Just have some Kleenex nearby.
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Monica Nolan

Lesbian Pulp Fiction at its best

I got this book to read on my honeymoon. It was everything a beach read should be - sexy, funny and with a little mystery to keep you turning the pages. Hot and hilarious - huzzah!
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Bill Richardson

Honourary Lesbian?

In Waiting for Gertrude, all the great artists buried in Paris' Pere Lachaise Cemetary (Maria Callas, Sarah Bernhardt, Oscar Wilde, Jim Morrison) have been reincarnated . . . as cats. And the feline Alice B. Toklas is doing everything in her power to bring about the return of her beloved Gertrude. I gave this book to my girlfriend on our first date - and moved in with her days later. Coincidence? I think not.
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Creampuff

Rose is a playwright, freelance writer and blogger who is pretty sure Anne of Green Gables turned her gay. She blogs about pie, her big gay wedding and... more »

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