Customer Reviews

Godspeed: A Novel

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Wow! What a GREAT book!! I was hooked from the first line of Breedlove's Acknowledgements & loved that she included her mother's comment there.
For 30+ yrs, I've read a lot of lesbian fiction. I'm soooo tired of thinly plotted mysteries and tooooo many flower-labia, sunset and beaches coming-out romances. Unlike all of them, this story gets into the nitty gritty of a real sort of urban lesbian life, one more complicated than "am I or aren't I?", "will she or won't she" and "will she, with me?" storylines.
Reminds me a bit of 'A Crystal Diary : a novel' by Frankie Hucklenbroich, in that it's written (style & content)from inside the head of the protagonist, whether she's high at the time or not.
Gives it that sense of NOW, and keeps it real.
Like her musicianship with the band Tribe 8, Breedlove pumps it out with this book!

Godspeed was recommended to me by a friend, and when I first picked it up I found I couldn't put it down until it was finished - literally - about 24 hours later. It's a gritty and beautifully rendered novel and one of the best I've read in years (as I work in a bookstore that's a statement not to be taken lightly). It's certainly by far the best lesbian/drug/roadtrip and/or band novel I've read hands down. And be honest; that's what you really want to read about. In an effort to waste no more of your time let me just say: buy this book!

Pretty damn good book. One of the best 80s San Francisco bike messenger junkie sex-fiend punk rock and roll novels ever written.

Not much more can be said. I read this book in 24 hrs. Tried to put it down, but kept snatching it back up. Only thing I would want different is an additional 50-100 pages at the end instead of the cramped 10 or so that wrap the story up. I can't wait for the further adventures of Jim!

Breedlove's first novel is filled with raw, gritty, and honest prose that captures your attention from page one. "Godspeed" is the most genuine read that I've gotten my hands on in years! Breedlove succeeds, with her first book, where other newcomers have fallen short in the literary world by painting an edgy, but sincere picture of love, sex, drugs, music, and standing outside the "norm". Outstanding job. If you haven't already picked up this book, do so now.

Lynn Breedlove did the impossible: created a character who is the butch, speed-loving version of me (I am femme and opiate-loving...but had Jim (protagonist)'s exact experiences) The relationship between Jim, Ally (Jim's love) and speed (Jim's other love) was so beautifully and wrenchingly rendered, it will strike a chord in anyone who has ever been in a relationship with both a beautiful girl (or boy, i guess) and a beautiful-feeling drug. The tangles with dyke-hating morons were perfectly depicted, the scenes of going on tours with a band were as well...This book spoke to my own experiences so accurately, but the ending scarred me, the only thing I didn't really get. Given Jim's drug experiences, wouldn't one have thought that she'd be a bit more sympathetic to Ally? Or maybe the idea was that an 'uptown girl' trying to get on the wagon and a 'downtown girl' just beginning her h honeymoon can't mix. In any event, I was enthralled. A must read. P.S. Before reading this book, I thought I was the only one who ever used the term "h goggles". Perhaps it is a regional bay area thing?

I am so glad I ignored a review in "JANE" magazine which trivalized this important book. I am of an older generation but did my share of running. Breedlove's book brought me an understanding of a unique kind of alienation and a special kind of girl.
Now when I pass the punks on the street or see the warpaint and body decoration, I know a little bit more of the why.
She was not afraid to describe the lost and the brutal side
or the strange beauty of the street.

Lynn Breedlove is an amazing author. I was sucked in from the first page and never stopped turning. I wanted it to go on and on. It is better than speed. It is all the adrenaline without having to live through the addiction yourself. It is a facinating read. It is fierce and wise. It is a view into gender bending and genre bending. Whether the world she writes about is familiar or completely foreign you will be mesmerized at every turn in this book. Godspeed rocks!

Breedlove's writing is so pure and clear that the story stays with you like an experience. Nothing in this book is boring because nothing is fake, fluffed-up or exaggerated. It's honest, gritty, and absolutely grips you from the start. It's hard not to see part of yourself in Jim... that's the wildest part, no matter how far you are from that crazy addict lifestyle, you're going to relate to Jim on a very deep level. There's no one in the world I wouldn't recommend this book to. It's purely awesome.

I read this hardass punk book from the safety of my living room, on my nice, comfortable couch, with my feet on my roommate's expensive coffee table. But I was completely transported into the world of needles and bikes--I did not want this book to ever end. This is a superb book by a gifted writer, in a catagory--lesbian fiction--that has often left me wondering if we could do better. Yay.