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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A neglected classic, February 27, 2000
This review is from: A Crystal Diary (Paperback)
This book received great reviews in the lesbian press, but it was seriously under-promoted and never got the reader attention that it so justly deserved. After reading the manuscript, I was invited by the publisher to write a blurb for the book. Unfortunately, the blurb was never used, but I want to reiterate it here: A CRYSTAL DIARY is poignant and true and written from the gut. It's about working class lesbian hurt, anger, and alienation--and about lesbian strength, the will to survive, and noble courage. I've long admired Frankie Hucklenbroich's work, and in this novel it comes to brilliant and fabulous fruitiion.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good. REALLY good! I borrowed it, read it, and bought my own, June 12, 1997
By A Customer
This review is from: A Crystal Diary (Paperback)
I've read many, many lesbian books. From pulps to advanced theory, from `Nightwood' to `The Bar Stories: a novel, after all'. I'd never have bothered with this one (who wants to read the story of a lowlife street butch in the 50's to the 70's?), except that some of my friends had read it, and were passionately debating it. So I borrowed it to see what all the fuss was, and I read it. And I had to have my own copy! I'm a lesbian feminist, and a great deal of the book rankles my feminism, until I remind myself that the only politics Nicky and her ilk knew was the politics of survival. Nicky is complex and well-drawn. She is a sharp observer of those around her. She's not an admirable character in many ways, but she's understandable, oddly likeable, and has a sharp sense of humor that's directed as much at herself as at anyone or anything else (there are some truly hilarious moments in the book), and she is passionately honest about the ways her particular lesbian subculture worked. She's gallant, kind, cunning, cruel, and not afraid to show us that under all her posturing, what she wants most and fears most is love. She's very unforgettable, and I can't recall a lesbian book that's stirred me more to anger, distaste, laughter, sadness, and a deeper understanding of what the women who came before us were, and why. I understand that this is an autobiographical first novel. If so, my hat's off to Frankie Hucklenbroich for a stunning job, and i will be watching with interest for her future work
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Hucklenbroich's first novel, June 18, 1997
By A Customer
This review is from: A Crystal Diary (Paperback)
This novel, Hucklenbroich's first, is another in a long line of well written
works chosen to see the light of print by Firebrand Books. Not that a
publisher makes a work worth reading, but this publisher has a history of
selecting authors who have talent. A CRYSTAL DIARY is part of that tradition.
The fact that Hucklenbroich's other works, poetry and short fiction, have
been included in anthologies edited by Lillian Faderman and by Joan Nestle
provides those in need of endorsements with substantial ones. While the
subject matter is not always what some lesbians might find politically
correct, the novel is very well written and gives an excellent sense of place
and time. These characters are not so much politically incorrect as they are
simply products of their time and culture, and the author gives us an
excellent sense of who and why each is as she is. Coming out in St. Louis, or
almost anywhere else in the 1950's, and coming of age in a California caught
in the cyclones of drug cultures and the open sexuality of the 60's and 70's,
informs the self definitions of Hucklenbroich's baby butches and the women
they fall in love and lust with. These are real people whom the author draws
with believable accuracy and style. Regardless of your political views or
definitions of what and who is attractive, you'll find this book engaging
simply because it is thoughtfully written and heartfelt. If you have access
to America Online, watch for an announcement about a live online interview
with Hucklenbroich in late July, 1997. Go to keyword: LAMBDA RISING. If you
miss the interview, a text of it will be archived at that keyword for later
download.
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