From Publishers Weekly
Addressing seemingly all the permutations of lesbian/straight relationships and identity (the friendship between gay and straight women, straight women who pass as gay women, bisexual women, sexual relations with lesbians who eventually become straight), poet and essayist Daly's collection is certainly wide-ranging, but it's also rather formless. Many of the pieces are confessional, but readers (or readers likely to buy this book) will find that the guilt, the disapproval, not to mention the mechanics, sound familiar. Some writing is jargon-filled ("culturally I am woman-identified"; "I told Becky it was a little hard for me to be nonreductive") or just bad ("maybe she's desirous in general currently and I'm receptive to desirousness."). There is some good writing: notably Lisa Palac's delightful, bemused description of sexual experimentation through the personals and Guinevere Turner's touching account of a chance encounter with a woman who shared her childhood in a commune. Two straight women, perhaps because they are outsiders among outsiders, give very clear readings of social and political complications: Ann Powers discusses the muddled issue of straight women committed to queer politics, while Daphne Merkin is painfully honest in her opinion that male homosexuality has a greater validity than lesbianism: "When I think of two women together, I think of it as the default position... I have no doubt that somewhere in this assessment floats a sadder, more insidious piece of reality, having to do with the way women continue to be perceived by society at large and how we in turn assess one another."
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Essays, short stories, and interviews representing a broad diversity of views and voices make up this energizing and enjoyable book that provokes thought, laughter, and tears. Editor Daly sorts the contents into six categories: "Best Friends," "Romantic Love," "Curiosity, Desire, and Sex," "Passing and Solidarity," "Blurred Boundaries; or, Which One Is the Lesbian?" and "Visibility, Community, and Our Separate Spheres." Outstanding specific pieces include an interview with Robin Morgan and Gloria Steinem on their "friendship beyond sisterhood" ; Harriet Brown's account of a growing spiritual sisterhood with a sibling; Carla Trujillo's stunning account of losing a former lover and longtime friend because of the woman's marriage to a threatened, inflexible man; Susie Bright on the curious allure of straight women (who may turn out to be not so straight, after all); a meditation on conceptual lesbianism by Dorothy Allison that includes wonderfully witty notes on "political" and "spiritual" lesbianism; a delightful commentary on sharing a bathroom by Louise Rafkin and Barbara Selfridge; and a riveting Grace Paley story on communication between women.
Whitney Scott
