by J E Levy
Always interesting to read a different perspective and someone suggested this book: practically all the stories did not have a happy ending -- maybe no-one lives happily ever after from a lesbian setting? Most of the stories were written from a cynical mid-30s white American female point of view and while it reflected a very American ego-centric point of view, I was a bit dismayed to see that it was the protagonist versus the-rest-of-the-world in most of the stories. I actually liked the first couple of stories about heterosexual relationships bottoming up but then remembered my Loneliness blog (http://gtobserver.blogspot.com/2013/08/loneliness.html) and thought how sad the women/people were to not have supporting networks - it seems rather cold-- the one lone person toughing it out in the world -- most of the families mentioned seemed dysfunctional. There was a funny- in a sad sort of way - story about an American-Korean woman realising her nutty mom had a better sex life than she!
So after the first couple of dysfunctional heterosexual relationships there was mild surprise when half-way through a story you realised it was a lesbian relationship being described. My main beef would be that Life seems like unremitting misery... there were a few educated jabs at contemporary America and a fairly heavy dash of philosophical musings but on the whole I rather got the impression Love was something to be avoided and later remembered the line from Max Ehrmann's poem, so loved in Guyana - Desiderata: 'neither be cynical about Love, for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is as perennial as the grass'...
Always interesting to read a different perspective and someone suggested this book: practically all the stories did not have a happy ending -- maybe no-one lives happily ever after from a lesbian setting? Most of the stories were written from a cynical mid-30s white American female point of view and while it reflected a very American ego-centric point of view, I was a bit dismayed to see that it was the protagonist versus the-rest-of-the-world in most of the stories. I actually liked the first couple of stories about heterosexual relationships bottoming up but then remembered my Loneliness blog (http://gtobserver.blogspot.com/2013/08/loneliness.html) and thought how sad the women/people were to not have supporting networks - it seems rather cold-- the one lone person toughing it out in the world -- most of the families mentioned seemed dysfunctional. There was a funny- in a sad sort of way - story about an American-Korean woman realising her nutty mom had a better sex life than she!
So after the first couple of dysfunctional heterosexual relationships there was mild surprise when half-way through a story you realised it was a lesbian relationship being described. My main beef would be that Life seems like unremitting misery... there were a few educated jabs at contemporary America and a fairly heavy dash of philosophical musings but on the whole I rather got the impression Love was something to be avoided and later remembered the line from Max Ehrmann's poem, so loved in Guyana - Desiderata: 'neither be cynical about Love, for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is as perennial as the grass'...
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