Customer Reviews

Butch Girls Can Fix Anything

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Offutt, achieves a couple of things in this novel. One, she depicts real characters. No one here is in a beauty pageant, no one here makes an extravagant salary. Two, she manages to write a love story that is not full of steamy scenes on every page, but is still fulfilling (nothing wrong with that, but it is refreshing). I found Grace, Kelly and Lucy extremely likeable characters.

Paula writes without most of the lesbian drama. For those who know her and there area she is from, you will recognize landmarks. Though this is a first novel (and hopefully there will be more), it is well written and easy to read.

What a find this author is! I adored Kelly from the first chapter. She comes across as someone you love to call sister or friend or lover.

Grace, who is raising 9 year old Lucy, is just so strong in carrying the burdens of being a single parent in a new town she can not fail to impress the reader. You care so much for her that you want to step through the page and help. Lucy is a gem - a real pistol. She reminds me a bit of the daughter in the play/story The Goodbye Girl.

Not only is this a romance, it starts off as a character study of small town life where you get to care for the whole community before the romance even gets started.

Laugh out loud humor throughout. A really great story full of hope. Very sexy and earthy love scenes are really fabulous.

Eminently likeable characters. Far from being shallow and simplistic these women are vibrant, intelligent, and real. I found nothing about them to be caricature or stereotypical. Each character was a unique person to me and never once did I have to back track to remember who was who.

I did enjoy the brief descriptions of Kelly's profession. It is like a little glimpse of the home improvement shows where you know you will never build your own deck but love watching someone else go to it.

I cannot wait for the author's next novel - I hope it has the wonderful humor, emotion and passion as this book.

I read a friend's copy of this book because the wide divergence of opinions about it sparked my interest. When I asked her what she thought of the book, she just shrugged (how's that for a helpful/not helpful vote?). Anyway, I partly agree and partly disagree with both views. While this isn't a terrific first novel, it's by no means a dreadful disaster.

An adult/parent stymied by fourth-grade arithmetic is not a comforting thought. Some classics tell the stories of people in such predicaments. Tennessee Williams and Dorothy Allison are two of the best. However, their mature grasp of that environment pervades their stories, whereas this author is operating at the same level as her characters. Therefore the "simplistic" tag is, unfortunately, accurate, particularly in relation to the "all good" and "all bad" characterizations.

On the upside, the author does demonstrate the ability to complete a story. Most writers improve as they go along, so if she is able to get another book published, I would probably give it a try. Grace Kelly and Lucy have potential for an in-depth look, but I'd like to see her work with mature characters and more complex concepts. I have a strong feeling that she could do it.

What an absolutely wonderful first book by author Paula Offutt! I'm not a big fan of labels - butch/femme seems so definitive there's not much room for the imagination. I wasn't really sure what to expect from a book about `butch' girls, but was really impressed.

For starters, the author resists giving her `butch' characters `butch' names. She makes it okay for them to have softer names like Kelly Walker. Kelly is one of the local fix-it folks and owns Around-To-It, a handywoman service. Her business is taking off, almost to the point of being unmanageable. She is an attractive, single woman with no plans on getting attached. Her world does flip flops when she meets Grace Owens on a service call to repair Grace's leaky roof and fallen kitchen ceiling.

Grace is the single mother of Lucy. Grace works hard to make a living and make ends meet, but she barely scrapes by each month. She is a responsible and loving mother who is wary about loving just anyone because of her daughter. It's almost overwhelming for her when both she and Lucy are immediately smitten with Kelly.

A series of exciting events brings these two women together so often they both lose the battle to control their desires. As their embryonic relationship develops further, they are faced with unexpected difficulties - above and beyond learning how to give up control to someone else.

I really liked this book and hope Offutt publishes another soon. She has a rare maturity as a new novelist and could easily move onto my top 5 favorite authors list. Do yourself a favor... grab a copy today and enjoy this gem.

Not perfect, but certainly interesting. Here we have two main characters who don't look like supermodels, and I really appreciated that.

Great characters in a satisfying story...and as a retired rehab nurse, I was especially pleased to find active disabled characters included.

(I hope everyone enjoys reading my debut novel.)

From the back of the book:

Kelly Walker is known around town as the Fix-it Lady who can repair just about anything. That's true, except for hole in her life left by the death of her lover, Anna. Her fix-it business provides the perfect hideout as she resolves other people's problems instead of focusing on her own shattered life.

Grace Owens, single mother, is determined to stand on her own two feet and make a fresh start for herself and her nine-year-old daughter, Lucy. Lucy has a goal of her own: she wants to master her math homework, and that's a hard task with a mother who doesn't understand division.

The three meet under a leaky kitchen ceiling. What each has to give, the others need. They must learn when to take risks and when to trust each other. Together, can they find the tools that will allow them to fix what most needs to be rebuilt?

Granted, some working class lesbians are shallow and simplistic, but not all of us are. It bothers me that the people in this book are simple-minded caricatures and stereotypes. Every character is neatly classified in an almost childlike way as either all good or all bad. The bad people are then hammered mercilessly (apparently an acceptable response to anyone and anything not liked), while the good people are repeatedly showered with adoration.

Tortuously long descriptions of do-it-yourself projects take up huge chunks of the book. By the time I reached the eighty-five word description on page 57 of how a bunch of tools were organized in a toolbox, it was painfully obvious that the author was using the home repair gambit to pad the word count. And that turned out to be near the beginning of page after page of interminable lessons in tools and techniques.

The further I got into the story, the harder it was to continue, but I did manage to finish. With its limited vocabulary and simplistic plot, this book might appeal to "reluctant readers," so if you have a friend in that category you might suggest it to her. Speaking for myself, my book budget is very limited, and I regret spending my money on this one.