Customer Reviews

Substitute for Love

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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?

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.

I have never reviewed a book before, but this book, oh my gosh, this book is just so out of this world amazing I had to. Speaking as a mathematician just coming out, this book leaves me speechless. I cried I was so happy and so sad during parts. I became the characters; this book is so real. If I had to give away all my books but one (heaven forbid) this would be the one I keep. I almost threw this book out the window in the first couple chapters, the book wretched such emotion for me, but thank my lucky stars I didn't. You have to read this book. You just have to.

I am a fantasy and science fiction fan first, and I love all of Karin Kallmaker's books written as Laura Adams. Her most recent romance novel has made me a romance fan as well.

Other reviews have said plenty about how NOT romance formula this novel is. Let me be the first to talk about the secondary characters. Not once but over and over again Kallmaker introduces a character who is crucial to the plot. This person may have only a few pages throughout the entire novel, but their character is still COMPLETELY set out. Some writers might have had an "ex-gay" man simply there for ridicule, but Kallmaker made me actually feel compassion for this tortured man.

There's a private detective who hides a hero under layers of indifference and empty styrofoam coffee cups. And Audra -- something as simple as the amount of dust on the handle to her liquor cabinet told me volumes about who she is and how hard a situation had to be for her to need a drink to get through it. That artful nuance of characterization warned me I had to brace myself for the next revelation in Holly's search to understand her past. Even so, it left me stunned and deeply moved.

I haven't read a lot of lesbian romance novels, but those I have don't even come close to the level of skill displayed in the creation of this wrenching, realistic and intensely entertaining book. It's so well-written that even I am starting to bristle when my friends sneer at "romance trash."

This ain't trash -- it's pure treasure.

I've read Kallmaker before and this is one of her best. The love story was believable. The way the characters discover themselves in each other seems magical. Kallmaker touches on two important lesbian issues - coming out and being accepted. All this and math lessons to boot!

I couldn't put this book down and read it in one sitting! You will be rooting for these two women, who are drawn to each other at a chance meeting in a bar. They soon realize they are meant to be together but circumstances keep them apart. This is only the second book I have read by Karin Kallmaker and I can't wait to read more. Each character is fighting an inner battle to become who she really longs to be. Work, family and society
pressures keep separating Holly and Reyan. I had to keep reading
to see how this turned out. This is one book I will read over and over again. You won't be disappointed.

I loved watching Holly grow into herself, leaving her controlling relationship with a man and realizing her attraction to women, experiencing her first kiss and the awakening of real passion for the first time. I couldn't wait for Holly and Reyna to finally come together. I too am realizing my growing attraction exclusively to women, and this was my first Lesbian read. I recommend this book to anyone going through similar internal struggles; Holly realizing an attraction for women and Reyna's struggles with her parents, to please one in order to protect another, while sublimating her own desires. I look forward to more Kallmaker and more stories of growth and love.

Love at first sight is just in the movies. It's not real, right? I read this book over two nights -- it's LONG! -- and by the end I not only believed that love can happen at first sight, I believe that thinking sacrificing love today is okay because there will always be tomorrow is a horrible waste. When Holly found Audra I was in tears, when she finally, finally meets Reyna I was holding my breath. Chapter 11 --the entire chapter! -- of this book is worth the price alone because the erotic explosion between Holly and Reyna is Kallmaker at her top sensual form. What an emotionally challenging, draining, fulfilling and dramatic novel this was. Brava! Brava! Brava!

MJ Lowe's review says a lot of what I would say also say -- Karin Kallmaker's latest novel is simply wonderful. It defies the romance formula on many levels and yet delivers a wrenching, emotional story. There's no shortage of plot, or sketchiness in characterization and a number of authors could take a lesson from this book.

For example, Holly never tells us, "Clay works on his search for Nirvana while I do all the work." Instead, Kallmaker shows us Clay home early from work, he's meditating when Holly gets home hours later. She puts away groceries, does dishes, waters plants, blames herself for not getting to the mending, then he saunters out of his study and starts bugging her for food. That's characterization. That's showing, not telling. And that's just a *fraction* of the excellent storytelling in this book.

271 pages, in a type 1 or 2 points smaller than Naiad's usual -- it's a tome. The pacing is wonderful for the length. The construction of the plotline is another rule breaker -- the two main characters don't actually meet until nearly three-quarters of the way through the book. To keep our interest we're given a couple of very brief flash "fowards" to show exactly what will happen when they do finally see each other in a bar. At that point my heart was pounding nonstop. Do yourself a favor and don't read the last quarter of the book when you're sleepy... or alone! Kallmaker fans know what I'm talking about.

There are a number of downers in this book -- another romance formula rule breaker. Homophobia, "ex-gay" ministries, even a memo detailing why homosexuals should not be allowed to get married. And every one of them is countered in a realistic, uplifting way that both puts homophobes in the spotlight instead of shadows and models (without a hint of preachiness) a way for those of us who live the real world to not just cope, but to be happy in the face of ignorance and hate. I think that Kallmaker would say that being happy inspite of them is the best revenge.

I'm going to wait a week and read this book again. As much as a found to love the first time I know I'm going to find more the second. I'll read Chapter 11 twice. Kallmaker fans know what I'm talking about.