19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
So much more than romance, May 9, 2000
By A Customer
A friend who helped out with some of the judging tasks for thepast year's Lambda Rising Awards told me this book missed being afinalist by the narrowest of margins. I was frankly skeptical -- Ithought it was some sort of Lifetime Achievement bias. After all, Ms. Kallmaker is prolific and her work is beloved.
I shot my mouth off too much and my friend insisted I read the book. It knocked me for a loop. It had been a very long time since a book made me cry, not once, but over and over. From the first page of Rayann's inner dialogue I couldn't help but wonder what if it was me having to watch my beloved partner die by inches? What if it was me?
The emotional power of this book is raw and unvarnished and yet not mawkish or melodramatic. To balance the moving yet depressing passages in Rayann's life we are introduced to Teresa, who encounters Rayann in the midst of her grieving process -- the angry stage.
Teresa is young and untouched by the deeper conflicts of life. Life just hasn't started happening to her yet. She encounters this complete witch of a woman and for the first time realizes that life is unfair and can be unkind. Her life veers in a new direction because of the encounter.
The two meet again and two very different experiences are woven into a single story. Teresa falls in love with the suffering Rayann, but doesn't know why Rayann is suffering. Rayann is still grieving and yet has to acknowledge a sexual attraction that seems like infidelity.
Even at the end, we're not sure these two women will live happily ever after. They've both been through too much and too recently. Rayann is in the final stage of grief - acceptance. She hears her lover's voice less and less and she loves Teresa more and more. Even then she still isn't sure she will ever love anyone the way she loved her dead partner. Teresa falls in love again with the newly healing Rayann, a different person than she has known. She struggles to deal with feeling like second best.
I simply did not expect this kind of writing and moving prose in a romance novel. Watermark transcends the genre and would have deserved a Lammy nomination...
I can't recommend this book enough to women who want not just a good read with passion and humor, but also want to read with their minds and experience what Ms Kallmaker so beautifully portrays.
I still wonder, having finished the book several months ago, what if it were me?
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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent novel about lesbian life, December 12, 2001
By A Customer
Forget thinking about this book as a romance -- it isn't. It's a story of a young woman being blindsided by an older woman's grief, and an older woman grieving for her dying partner.
It's an outstanding story with only a chance at happiness by the end. The older woman is still fighting guilt every time she enjoys anything -- especially sex. The younger woman is only beginning to understand what she has never experienced. They both are too frightened to believe they have a future.
This novel floored me. And it helped me. I've been that older woman and that younger woman.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Worth Multiple Readings, August 28, 2001
By A Customer
If you want to enjoy this book, change your expectations. I read it when it first came out and was disappointed -- I wanted a nice, neat, happy romance. That is not what this book is about. There is a romance, but it ends ambiguously. The primary theme of this book is grief and moving on. It's mostly a novel, not a romance. I read the followup short story in Kallmaker's Frosting on the Cake, and that's what made me re-read this book. With the right expectation I was blown away by how powerful the prose is and how incredibly moving many of the scenes are. The characters are slices right out of life and they are as complicated and flawed and heroic as any Kallmkaer has ever done. I am so glad I re-read this book. Now all I can say is BRAVA!
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