48 of 50 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Highly Recommended!, March 19, 2002
At long last, I finally read Kallmaker's critically acclaimed book, SUBSTITUTE FOR LOVE, and believe me, it was time well spent. This book is noteworthy and remarkable, and it very much deserved the Lammy nomination it got.
SFL is a well-plotted, intelligent, and nuanced book made all the more excellent by the way Kallmaker has woven thematic threads throughout. In addition, the story is well-written and capably edited, with memorable scenes and language. I found myself marking great passages (no, not the sex scenes! <g>) which I re-read when I finished the book.
Holly thinks she is a regular, run-of-the-mill straight woman. She has abandoned a promising math career because her long-term boyfriend, Clay, told her to, just as her overbearing aunt/foster mother has. Holly is, in actuality, an honest-to-goodness math wizard. Not only is she good at the subject, but she loves it. Instead of following her dream to be a math teacher and researcher, she works in an actuarial office so that *Clay* can be a teacher. She and Clay live rather predictably, with Clay's needs always coming first. "They had worked hard to keep everything the same from day to day, as if tomorrow would never come and niether of them would ever change."
After ten years, Holly is finally ready to crack out of her shell. For this, she is not prepared, but as Kallmaker tells us, "When dams burst, floods are inevitable." Holly's shocking realization that she is attracted to women begins a series of events that lead her to the other main character in the book, Reyna.
Unlike Holly, Reyna knows she is lost, but she is powerless to change her circumstances without harming her mother over whom her father has a chokehold. Reyna chooses to live a double life--one life that satisfies her domineering and over-reaching father, and the other life a series of one night stands carried out Friday nights after slipping away from the private detectives her father has watching her. Reyna works at her father's conservative think tank doing a job that is morally and ethically repugnant to her, but it pays her mom's medical bills and keeps her alive. She is trapped and spiraling further downward daily.
And then, Holly and Reyna meet, and sparks fly.
In addition to math/numbers analogies and themes, I loved the leitmotif of the sextant. Lost on a hike with friends, Holly is able to use a sextant and her math and mechanical skills to determine longitude and latitude in a key scene. But what she can do externally takes her much longer internally, and we are far into the book before "she accepted that even with two mirrors, the horizon, and a familiar star to navigate by, she still wouldn't know where she was." Neither Holly or Reyna know where they are, at least not until a lot of issues start getting worked out.
I liked the fact that this book was not a typical romance, nor was I able to guesstimate how it would turn out. I wanted it to have a happy ending, but right up to the end, I wasn't sure how that ending would look. It is to Kallmaker's credit that she has infused a genre book with such life, energy, and unpredictableness. Even the title has more than one meaning, with the word "substitute" working on multiple levels.
This is an example of lesbian fiction of the highest quality, well worth reading and rereading. I highly recommend it and find it to be, so far, my favorite book of 2002.
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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
No Substitute for Kallmaker, April 10, 2002
The book description above does not do justice to the actual impact and power of the plot of this book. The story line is considerably more complicated than that. Holly's coming out process, Reyna's terrible dilemma, and the roadblocks between these women seem insurmountable, and the turns of events are not so simple as that description would lead one to believe.
Kallmaker has put together a terrific plot with twists and turns one does not usually expect in a romance novel. Each character is rich and full, and the flow of the narrative is masterfully handled.
I can't say enough positive things about this book. It adds to Kallmaker's varied and increasingly complex collection of finely written books about lesbians. I also found it interesting that other talented novelists, for instance Lori L. Lake (see her review below), have also been so effusive about this book. Like Lake, Kallmaker writes stories about real life people who have real life jobs and who are not romantic fantasies. It says something very positive when Kallmaker's peers are bestowing her with such high honors. One can only hope that she gets the well-deserved Lammy award for which she has finally been nominated.
My only regret is that so few lesbian novels are made into films. This story would be an excellent addition to movies by, for, and about lesbians. Any aspiring filmmakers out there?
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18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The best Kallmaker book yet!, October 30, 2001
A beautiful read. Kallmaker writes a lush, full-bodied story, that is not only about love, but of coming of age within oneself, dealing with the worst kind of blackmail, and keeping true to who you are, no matter how awful the obstacles.
Substitute for Love is a novel full of spice, intelligence, heat and passion, and a very mature and even handling of the issue of gay civil liberties, that in no way detracts from the tale, but instead enhances the reader's perception of these issues, as well as giving us meaningful insight into the character's lives and the reasons for their actions.
There were so many twists in this novel, and such a richness of physical dialogue/attraction and passion between the two characters, that I really could not put this book down! This really is my favourite of Karin's books, it without a doubt has more to it than your average romance novel - a must read. Most definitely.
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