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Girls Will Be Girls
 
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Girls Will Be Girls [Paperback]

Lesléa Newman (Author)
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)


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Book Description

January 15, 2000
The Babka Sisters

Sit down, shah, you ready? You got your tin can going there, you want to make a test, make sure my voice is good, everything is working all right? OK, so now I'm gonna tell you a story, a story I never told nobody. Why I'm telling you, a stranger, I don't even know, but all right, eppes, it's time.

Once upon a time, a long, long time ago, around the Stone Age it was, takeh, I was a young maidl, and quite a looker I was too. I know what you're thinking, you look at me now and what do you see? A fat old lady wrinkled like a prune danish with hair like cotton candy. But, nu, I had quite a shape in those days, my hair I wore in a braid down my back thick as a man's arm, my skin was smooth as a baby's tuchus. You don't believe me, but you wait, mamela. Gravity ain't got no favorites; it catches up to everyone, eppes, someday even you.

So my childhood ain't nothing to talk about. An ordinary girl I was, I went to school, I came home, I helped my mother with the housework. Sure, five children she had, four boys and me, so who else is gonna help her? I had friends, too, boys and girls, no one special, there was a group of us that stuck together, to the movies we went, and to get a nosh at the diner, dancing once in a while, you know we did all the things young people do.

And then, when I was 16, a new girl moved into the neighborhood, and that girl, I had such a feeling for, I just couldn't take my eyes from her. You know the expression "love at first sight," sure, who doesn't, well of course that's what it was, but what did I know, we was two girls; girls don't fall in love with girls, who ever heard of such a thing? I just knew I wanted to be her friend, help her out, you know, show her around. It could be overwhelming, such a place, to a person who first walks in and don't know from it, eppes, it takes a while to get used to, it was a very big school.

Look, here's a picture of her, my Evie. You see, here we are both in the last row. That's our class picture from 11th grade, we was both tall girls; now I'm all stooped over like an old turtle, but back then my spine was straight as a Shabbos candle, from my


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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The 11 short stories and one novella in Girls Will Be Girls may satisfy, for the moment, Leslea Newman's large, enthusiastic readership, who will relish her arch humor in stories like "Eggs McMenopause," in which a woman of a certain age decides that the only way she can grasp the fact of her many shed eggs is by buying several hundred chicken eggs at the grocery store, a few dozen at a time, and distributing them around her small apartment. In the titular novella, Newman turns her attention to infidelity, hovering between the comic and the tragic as she describes the breakdown of a long and stable (read: static and dull) relationship between Gwen, a therapist, and her artist girlfriend, Didi, who "couldn't have asked for a more considerate lover. No, what she wanted was a less considerate lover.... A lover who didn't care if her teeth were brushed or if she was going to rip Didi's dress or ruin her brand new manicure." What happens when Gwen's handsome new client gets a look at Didi comes as no surprise, but Gwen's quirky revenge will keep the pages turning. --Regina Marler

From Publishers Weekly

Newman explores diverse relationships in the lives of contemporary women, focusing primarily on lesbian perspectives. The 11 stories and one novella included in this collection share a chatty and informal prose quality and often heavy-handed humor. In tales alternately tragic and comic, lesbian life takes myriad forms. In one story a woman mourns the loss of the son she co-parented with her lover (the child's biological mother), when the two women sever their love relationship. In other, jauntier tales, a lesbian in her 50s muses on menopause, and enacts a symbolic and erotic celebration of the change of life; an older Jewish woman recounts her girlhood passion for a female classmate, and many lesbians exchange witty if clich?d banter in bars, therapist's offices, bedrooms and backyards. The title novella, in which three characters involved in a love triangle offer their perspectives best demonstrates Newman's sensitive ear for inner dialogue. The stories featuring Jewish characters are peppered with Yiddish phrasing, and Newman offers a glossary of these terms at the end of the book. Weaker narratives rely too heavily on this cultural dialect or on prevailing social assumptions that lead to stereotyped characterizations: the teens are petulant and grouchy, mothers are overbearing, fathers are detached and uncaring, lesbians fall into butch/femme categories and parents of adult gay children are closed minded and vicious. With the amount of lesbian "in" references, the author writes for a specific audience, and although her work here doesn't break any new ground, gay readers may find Newman (Heather Has Two Mommies) especially refreshing as one of the few writers investigating topics such as lesbian parenting. Regional author tour. (Jan.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 248 pages
  • Publisher: Alyson Books; 1st edition (January 15, 2000)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1555835376
  • ISBN-13: 978-1555835378
  • Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #195,342 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Lesléa Newman is the author of 64 books for readers of all ages including the middle grade novel, HACHIKO WAITS, the poetry collection, STILL LIFE WITH BUDDY, the short story collection, A LETTER TO HARVEY MILK, and the children's books A SWEET PASSOVER, THE BOY WHO CRIED FABULOUS, THE BEST CAT IN THE WORLD, DONOVAN'S BIG DAY, and HEATHER HAS TWO MOMMIES. Her literary awards include poetry fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Massachusetts Artists Foundation. Nine of her books have been Lambda Literary Award finalists. A past poet laureate of Northampton, Massachusetts, she is a faculty member of Spalding University's brief-residency MFA in Writing program.

 

Customer Reviews

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Average Customer Review
5.0 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars You'll never think of eggs the same way again....., May 7, 2000
This review is from: Girls Will Be Girls (Paperback)
I've read this book twice, and loaned it out to a girlfriend and she read it twice also! It is amazing to me that Leslea Newman can authentically speak in so many different voices about so many different issues. She tackles old age, menopause, lesbian bed death, infidelity, love...and there are some great sex scenes, although I don't know about all those raw eggs....
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars I'll read it again!, May 6, 2000
This review is from: Girls Will Be Girls (Paperback)
Having read Leslea Newman's "Out of the Closet and Nothing to Wear", I was expecting this book to also be fluffy and fun. On the contrary, it was a well-written selection of short stories of excellent quality. I've already read the book twice and will read it again. She touches on many issues: Jewishness, old age, lesbian bed death, anger, family, tradition, and lots and lots of love. It is amazing that one woman can deftly tell the stories of so many different women.
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A pinch of laughter, a dash of love, ....., November 29, 2001
By A Customer
This review is from: Girls Will Be Girls (Paperback)
Can't say enough about this book. The stories in this collaboration of short stories will leave you wanting more, so make sure you have another one of the authors books handy. there are so many aspects of lesbian life being paid tribute to in this book. The jewish woman were the funniest story, and then there were stories that will make you cry, ones that will make you think, ones that will make you hate characters, and love them at the some time. An awesome collection. Everyone should own this book.
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