BFP Book Club

[dark_crystal]

Originally Posted by VintageFemme

Sunday the 19th, drop by and post your thoughts on the first three chapters and hopefully we'll spark some fancy conversation.

Having read this once before, it is hard for me to limit my thoughts to the first three chapters. Most of what has struck me about this book is what my recollection of it says about my own journey-- i would have read it for the first time in 1991. It was still the second wave. Butch-femme dynamics were deprecated, Stone Butch Blues was two years away, and nobody was out yet except Martina-- in fact, i would also have read Sudden Death/Rubyfruit/Six of One that same year.

Late 80s-early 90s lesbian fiction had a respectability agenda going on, to which i was very susceptible. That climate plus this book really contributed to feelings of invisibility for me.

Reading it now, 25 years later, with words like genderqueer and transmasculine available, is very different. I almost feel like it is not a lesbian novel-- that Stephen is a straight man and Mary is a straight woman-- not a femme, erased.

Anyway, for thoughts on the first three chapters, here is what i have: I don’t have a good recollection of what the character of the father eventually does with the understanding he clearly has. I feel hopeful but I am also expecting disappointment, and I am not sure he is doing his child any favors by indulging his own wish for a son without simultaneously equipping Stephen with the skills and knowledge, resilience, etc. that she is going to need survive the danger he implicitly encourages her to court.