libraryofcalliope's review against another edition
3.0
This experimental novel follows the dissolution of Su and Bettina’s 20 year relationship. Su has a meticulously crafted career, she knows the rules and how to play them, but that also means hiding a large part of herself in order to do so. She struggles to even use the word gay or lesbian about herself and now she’s started going through menopause and her carefully crafted persona is falling apart leaving her with very little. She doesn’t recognise herself or her body anymore and feels betrayed by her body, betrayed that it is ageing and that she is powerless to stop it. For Su, hope comes in the form of Mamie Carter, an older woman she’s fallen in love with. But what about Bettina? Bettina is Su’s opposite in many ways. From a privileged background, she chooses not to work, meaning the only things in her life are Su and alcohol. She can feel that Su no longer loves her but cannot let go as without her she has nothing. The second half of the novel sees the pair essentially swap places, Su loses her job, forcing Bettina to get one which gives her a sense of identity and independence she’s never had before. Su becomes dependant on Bettina’s love but Bettina is realising that their relationship just doesn’t work anymore... I really liked the main plot of the novel. The experimental writing did obscure it in which places though and the “blurb” led me to expect a vastly different story (there is also a group of middle aged and older women punishing rapists, but it’s such a small part of the narrative yet is mentioned in every summary of the book). The depiction of menopause was really interestingly done as was that sections on fatness and alcoholism which underpins the narrative. A very interesting book!
zullia's review against another edition
3.0
A novel that reads like a play. Frequently impenetrable.
I just came across a 1993 article in JSTOR on how to teach this book to women's studies students. Specifically, how to deal with students' homophobia. It gives tips for how to come out to your students if you, the professor, are gay. How quaint.
There are some good moments in the book. My favorite quote describes how sometimes love itself is what kills love:
"Su had seen Bettina as very strong when they had met and was unprepared for the weakness that masked; Bettina had seen Su as fragile and soft and was not at all prepared for the strength that that became. Su's love for Bettina had been enough in the beginning to allow Bettina to admit, express, even indulge her prior secret flaws; Bettina's love for Su had nurtured the stalks that sprung easily from soft pliable earth into strong trunks. Now they faced each other, seeing the product of their love so alien to the impulse that had set it in motion." -pg 183.
I just came across a 1993 article in JSTOR on how to teach this book to women's studies students. Specifically, how to deal with students' homophobia. It gives tips for how to come out to your students if you, the professor, are gay. How quaint.
There are some good moments in the book. My favorite quote describes how sometimes love itself is what kills love:
"Su had seen Bettina as very strong when they had met and was unprepared for the weakness that masked; Bettina had seen Su as fragile and soft and was not at all prepared for the strength that that became. Su's love for Bettina had been enough in the beginning to allow Bettina to admit, express, even indulge her prior secret flaws; Bettina's love for Su had nurtured the stalks that sprung easily from soft pliable earth into strong trunks. Now they faced each other, seeing the product of their love so alien to the impulse that had set it in motion." -pg 183.
crowyhead's review against another edition
4.0
At first I didn't like this that much -- it's one of those novels where the author does deliberately experimental things with the use of language and typography, and at first that was annoying to me. But after a while I got into the plot, and started to like it a lot better. It's a good story, too, once you get into it; it's about Su, a Southern woman and book reviewer, who is a lesbian but also is very nervous about calling herself that. Feminism makes her nervous, as well. But she's going through menopause, and she's falling out of love with her current partner (Bettina) and falling in love with someone else, an older woman. And she's starting to find her anger.
Probably the part that struck me as most "true" to my own experience was a bit where she tries to come out to her mother. Her mother is angry and upset, not because Su is a lesbian, but because she's said she is. The basic idea being that most people will tolerate a lot of things as long as you don't try to talk about it. Which I've often found to be the case.
Probably the part that struck me as most "true" to my own experience was a bit where she tries to come out to her mother. Her mother is angry and upset, not because Su is a lesbian, but because she's said she is. The basic idea being that most people will tolerate a lot of things as long as you don't try to talk about it. Which I've often found to be the case.
vasha's review against another edition
3.0
As I read this, I was taken back to a period of time that I never experienced myself. I'm too young to remember the 70s. But this book is so well written, that I understand the characters' frustration. This is a loose, overflowing book, bubbling over with fury, with sexual energy. There is certainly an extreme fear of female sexuality in the society depicted, to which some of the characters attempt to respond with repression. But their outbreaks are all the wilder, and sometimes more violent, for that. Mainly, this book is funny -- very dark comedy, though! Go ahead and laugh, when things are this bad, but also this good.
kikiandarrowsfishshelf's review against another edition
4.0
This short novel is about two aging women who happen to be lovers and what happens to them and their friends.
It is an strange book because it is at once funny and touching but also slightly confusing.
So I guess it is like life.
It is an strange book because it is at once funny and touching but also slightly confusing.
So I guess it is like life.
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