Beautiful Journey by Kenna White

Beautiful Journey by Kenna White

Bella Books, 2008

Overview: World War two is in full swing and Kit Anderson has moved from her Kansas hometown to England to fly as part of the Women's Air Transport Auxiliary. Though she is fearless in the air, braving enemy fire and severe weather, can she find the courage to face her feelings for feisty British school teacher Emily Mills?

My Reaction: I wanted this book to be good, but unfortunately it just wasn't. While I appreciated the history lesson - I would be interested to read more about the Air Transport Auxiliary - the story and characters were one dimensional and even the the action sequences lacked any sense of excitement. Most notable, perhaps, was the quite inventive use of vagina metaphors during a couple of laugh-out-loud sex scenes. "Honey path?" Is that a thing? 

On top of the questionable writing, the ending was just silly; a classic romance trope in which the one of the heroine's friends dies, making her realize she doesn't want to lose her relationship, but with a bizarre sequence involving spanking. If you like WWII history or airplanes, this books has some fun detail to offer, but if you just want a romance, I'd skip it.

Note: For more information about female pilots in WWII, try this list of recommended books from the British Air Transport Auxiliary website. The site is run by former ATA pilots - I definitely recommend checking it out!

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
Riverhead Books, 2002

Overview: Orphan Sue Trinder agrees, at the urging of the woman who raised her, to pose as a servant in order to cheat the heiress Maud Lilly out of her inheritance, but finds herself increasingly attracted to her victim.

My Reaction: If you like a book that keeps you guessing what will happen next, I have good news for you: Fingersmith has enough plot twists to make Dickens proud. As The Bookwhisperer can attest, our apartment was often filled with my outraged exclamations or squeaks of surprise as I slowly made my way through this most excellent novel. I say slowly for a reason, though, since it's not easy going. Perhaps I am particularly sensitive, but I often had difficulty getting past the excess of human suffering and unfairness of the world that Sue and Maud inhabit and had to put the book down to recover for a while. We had planned to do a "Sarah Waters Week" last week, but I couldn't get through my contribution in time - we'll have to make it a two week celebration, which is what this talented author deserves anyway.

Despite the sometimes overwhelming plot, I can't help but recommend this book for its beautiful writing and strong sense of place that is present in all of Waters' other work.

Affinity by Sarah Waters

Affinity by Sarah Waters

Riverhead Books, 2000.

Overview: Affinity is a story told through the diaries of  two Victorian women: Margaret Prior, who becomes a "Lady Visitor" at the women's "gaol" at Millbank Prison in Chelsea, and Selina Dawes, a young spirit medium who is one of its prisoners. Two major plotlines unfurl and inform each other, as we wait with bated breath to see where Margaret's clear attraction toward Selina will lead, as well as to discover who--or what--committed the crime for which Selina is imprisoned.

My reaction: This one was a real treat! It was much different in tone than The Night Watch since it was set about 70 years earlier, but it was just as compelling. Waters delicately balances the major story arcs, and finishes with such a stunning ending that I had to sit on it for hours before writing this review. Like The Night Watch, Affinity comes to life as much through historical detail as it does from its complex and enigmatic protagonists. While trying to slog through Foucault's Surveiller et Punir (Discipline and Punish) in a college French class was quite a challenge, I finally reaped the reward here; Millbank has some essential elements of a Panopticon with its main watch tower and radial floor plan, and disciplinary habits designed to create "docile bodies." Waters' descriptions of prison architecture and routines made me feel claustrophobic, and seemed to be an appropriate background for the stories of two women who were constrained by their circumstances. In particular, Margaret's simultaneous revulsion and attraction to prison life made sense given her station as a well-bred lady in Victorian England. She is not free to love whom she will, or even to be very independent. As she is a spinster (her word, not mine!), her mother insists that her place is in the home with her; it is ironic that the greatest freedom Margaret is allowed is to go to a prison of her choosing. 

This is an amazing story to follow, and while it was often a devastating (though beautiful) read, the upside is that it made me feel so lucky to be living in the 21st century!! 

The Last Nude by Ellis Avery

The Last Nude by Ellis Avery

Riverhead Books, 2012.

Overview: Like Thrity Umrigar's The World We Found that was reviewed here two weeks ago and Carol Anshaw's Carry the One, reviewed last week, The Last Nude is up for a Lambda Literary Award in the Lesbian General Fiction category this year. Its nomination is certainly well-deserved, as it is an amazing novelization of  Tamara de Lempicka, a Polish expat who became a successful Parisian Art Deco painter in 1920s and '30s. The model for some of her best work, Rafaela, was also rumored to be her lover, and it is this much admired but mysterious woman that Avery chooses to be the main voice of her novel. Interestingly enough, de Lempicka's daughter's biography, Passion by Design: The Art and Times of Tamara de Lempicka, claims that Rafaela said, "When I am alone at night, I get crazy. I go out into the street and look for men. I cannot live without a man." Without reading it (I found this quote on a number of blogs, but it was cited on http://www.artistas-americanos.com/biography/lempicaen.html), I don't know whether this is just her daughter trying to deny her mother's bisexuality, but I can assure you that Rafaela is not longing for a man in Avery's novel!

My reaction: This is a fantastic read. It's got all the passion of a romance, but the writing brings the characters and time period to life. The little research I did into de Lempicka's life after finishing the novel was consistent with Avery's account, so I would recommend saving your Googles for later to avoid a spoiler or two! I loved doing that research, though, and looking at the paintings that Avery described with the fictionalized backstory in mind. I was especially drawn to the complexities of the relationship of  this painter/nude model. That is, Tamara is paying Rafaela well, but the intense desire on both of their parts and a spoken agreement makes it clear that she is not paying for the sex. On the other hand, she gets all the pleasure of painting her, and being rewarded both socially and monetarily for doing so, while Rafaela suffers a combination of both pain and desire during her long posing sessions. That power dynamic could get a little icky to me at times, but it definitely kept things interesting! 

The Night Watch by Sarah Waters

The Night Watch by Sarah Waters

Riverhead Books, 2006.

Overview: Sarah Waters (author of Tipping the Velvet, reviewed and recommended here by the Lesbrarian) begins The Night Watch in 1947, in a London still reeling from World War II. The reader is introduced to queer women who drove the ambulances and re-housed families whose homes were destroyed in air raids, a sensitive young man who feels lucky to be working in a factory after a undeserved prison term, and his sister who suffers through an unfortunate affair, and watches their stories unfold in reverse chronological order, ending in 1941.

My reaction:  I really cannot say enough good things about this one! While it is fiction, Night Watch felt incredibly real--I was not surprised to find a bibliography of sources in the back. Heart-rending romance (which I am such a sucker for) abounds, but as much as I ached for the characters, the tragedy of Waters' London kept me reading as well. As you can guess, it's not a happy story generally, but there are moments of beauty, heroism, and all-too-familiar human frailty that filled me up even as I felt crushed by sadness.

On a more technical note, the reverse chronology was a brilliant authorial decision. I was actually so blown away by it that I started reading the book again almost as soon as I had finished it. (I admit that that was partially because I started it at work, and thought I might have missed details--which I had.) By finding out the unhappy "present" of the characters, and then going exclusively backwards in time, we learn exactly how they got there, instead of freeing them from their current circumstances. Like I said, it's not happy, but it's beautifully done. The little intersections of storylines that are thus unearthed throughout the book are enchanting; those chance encounters between characters who are relative strangers to one another before and after serve to turn London and its inhabitants into a sort of living tapestry.

One caveat: as you might guess from the time period it is set in, this novel has some pretty graphic descriptions of gore. Some of them really shook me, and while that is a credit to Waters' amazing writing, I figured it was worth a mention.

HIGHLY recommended.

Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters

Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters

Riverhead Books, 1999

Overview: When Nancy Astley, an oyster-seller’s daughter, falls in love with male impersonator Kitty Butler, she is swept away from her dull ocean side life into the excitement and bustle of the late 19^th Century London music hall circuit. After her growing romance with Kitty goes south, Nancy finds her way through numerous London subcultures, from the wealthy ladies of the Sapphic underground to working-class socialists and suffragettes. Waters’ depictions of late Victorian era London provide the richly detailed historical backdrop for Nancy’s story of self-discovery and redemption.

My reaction: If you have heard of any of the books we've reviewed so far, it’s probably this one, since it seems to be on just about every “Best of Lesbian Fiction” list compiled in the last ten years. That said, there is a reason for all the hype: it’s a damn good book. The period detail is gorgeous, the writing polished, the story compelling and sexy and the characters real and complex. Nancy herself goes through numerous transformations and I found myself reading obsessively to drink up every last detail. Her story is not all smooth sailing, but the ups and downs made me want to read more, just to find out if she ends up happy. As The Bookwhisperer can attest, I kept exclaiming over various plot points and had to exert an excruciating amount of effort not to give anything important away. To stop myself from giving up any number of delicious and intriguing details, I will keep this review short. Suffice to say, if you like Victorian lesbians in snazzy suits, this is the book for you. And even if you don’t think that’s your thing (I certainly didn’t), it just might be after reading this book.