A/K/A: A Novel [Hardcover]

Ruthann Robson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 15, 1997

An intricate and daring novel centered on the identities that two women create for themselves. Margaret Smyth is an escort for women who assumes different names and identities for each of her clients while struggling to finish law school to ensure your future. BJ, a soap opera actress under the name Jill Willis, has a melodramatic personal life that rivals that of the charater she plays on television. Initially strangers, as their identities begin to unravel, these two women are drawn--to each other and to salvation.

Editorial Reviews

From Kirkus Reviews

An occasionally bizarre tale from Robson (Another Mother, 1995, etc.), this about two lesbians who have assumed so many personal and professional disguises that they've forgotten who they really are. Margaret Smyth and BJ meet each other outside a professor's office but, blinded by defensiveness and fear, find it difficult to explore the sparks of sympathy between them. Margaret is on the verge of getting her law degree; by doing so, she hopes to transcend a traumatic past in foster homes, forget the early death of her lover, Dominique, and escape a complicated secret life as a lesbian prostitute. In that still on-going life, she assumes a different persona for each of her clients, managing to become whatever is required of her. For the unhappily married Ann-Marie, she provides sexual fulfillment; for unattractive Patty, she's a bleached-blond, big-breasted ``gorgeous'' date her mean-spirited cousin can lust after at his wedding; she's also a cover for disturbed Jeanine, a heterosexual woman molested as a child who now masquerades as a lesbian to keep her job with a gay organization. BJ's story is somewhat more conventional: She's a soap opera star who has many lesbian viewers but whose attempt to out herself in a fan magazine has been suppressed by the editors. BJ lives with her lover, Lenore, with whom she's raised Lenore's son, Malcolm. But Lenore, whose father married three women named Lenore and gave the name to all of his daughters, has her own serious grapplings with identity, actually suffering from bouts of insanity; when Malcolm's sperm donor shows up, Lenore runs off with him, leaving BJ worried about whether she'll be able to keep custody of Malcolm. Both BJ and Margaret yearn for solidity and connection, but their outward differences keep them apart through much of the story, even as their lives inch closer to crisis. A potentially intriguing meditation on lesbian identity, but episodic and too gratuitously weird to have much impact. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Review

"Ruthann Robson's new novel is a tightly crafted experiment in psychological narrative...It proceeds like a champion chess game---tentatively and with total precision...We learn about each player in flawless, highly aesthetic prose. Robson's literary language is economical and vivid, full of sensual pleasures." --Lambda Book Report

"The author points a compelling picture of two very rich characters who lives are destined to collide...[The story] builds to an exciting peak and by the end the reader is hooked" --Library Journal

"Read a/k/a/ slowly, savor the deftness with which Robson writes, and let her text work like 'a kiss on the shoulder' that 'unfolds into a bite.'" --Lesbian Review of Books

"Slowly tantalizingly, this well-crafted novel weaves the threads of these women's lives together, divulging a bit more background here, a chance encounter there...fascinating"
--Booklist

"Robson weaves intrigue, mystery and romance into a compelling tale." --Publishers Weekly

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; 1st edition (August 15, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312154690
• ISBN-13: 978-0312154691
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,011,771 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Wonderfully intriguing reading, October 21, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: A/K/A: A Novel (Paperback)

I have to disagree with Ms. Snyder and say that this book was one of the most subtly witty and genuinely intelligent lesbian novels I've read in ages. (I also have to say that amazon.com's comparison of this book to, say, Karen X. Tulchinsky's "Love Ruins Everything" is totally off-base; the only similarity is the fact that both books have lesbian characters!) The fast-moving plot's twists as it wove around two fascinating protagonists kept me turning the pages almost too quickly--I didn't want the book to end. All in all, the novel was quirky, imaginative, and full of the kind of dark humor that appeals directly to readers like me. I look forward to Robson's future works, which I'm betting will be more masterpieces of literary fiction.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Keep trying, July 18, 2000

By 

Jennifer E (New Jersey) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A/K/A: A Novel (Paperback)

Cora, I understand your sentiment exactly- when is anyone going to write any lesbian fiction I can really relate to? This was better than most, but that isn't really saying anything - hence only two stars. Besides a highly implausible story, the two main characters were just not appealing in any way. None of the supporting characters were interesting and most were generally annoying. The death of one supporting character is completely unnecessary and depressing. A whole book about peoples' sad lives followed by a ridiculous ending out of a bad Hollywood movie - take a pass on this one.

Completely frivolous note -> despite the late 90s publishing date, the author obviously had been writing for some time considering the descriptions of hideously 80s clothes. :)

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An intelligent, original tour de force, August 26, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: A/K/A: A Novel (Hardcover)

As compelling and suspenseful as a thriller novel, a/k/a lays bare the lives of two arresting women from vastly different worlds on an inexorable trajectory toward each other. A tour de force of originality, complexity and edgy intelligence