A Woman like That Lesbian and Bisexual Writers Tell Their Coming out Stories by Larkin, Joan -Ed. ; Al, Et - 2000

New York U. S. A.: Harpercollins - Perennial. As New 2000. Softcover. Marfree, litely toned 1st softcov w/ 31 B&W photos; no names, not marked-in, underscored, clearance or discard. Mails from NYC usually within 12 hours. ; 8 x 5.3 x 0.9 inches; 326 pages; \nOnline Rev: Although A Woman Like That is full of brave and often wrenching coming-out stories, with the expected emphasis on overcoming social and familial pressure (more than one of these writers describes involuntary stays in mental hospitals) , the combined effect of these wonderful memoirs is more erotic than political--and more funny than erotic. In "Picture This, " Cecilia Tan describes her suburban mother snapping up copies of Penthouse to send to friends and relatives because it contained Tan's first nationally published fiction. In "What Comes First, " Holly Hughes refers in passing to a gay-bashing incident at her college cafeteria--someone threw a fruit cocktail at her--and goes on to recount her difficulty at attracting a lesbian lover. "It had been so easy with men, " she recalls, "All you had to do was bend over at the bowling alley and something would happen. " Judith Katz remembers a game called "Tom and Tom" that she used to play with two little boys on her street: "Tom and Tom ... Were human cartoon characters who ran around together and got their genitalia caught up in all kinds of elastic knots and snags. " For some, Desert Hearts; for others, Road Runner. --Regina Marler \nKirkus Reviews: \nA diverse and lively anthology of popular lesbian and bisexual authors writing about the multifaceted phenomenon of coming out. The paradoxical central beauty and flaw of this anthology is the construct of "coming out" itself. Larkin (ed. , Gay and Lesbian Poetry in Our Time, not reviewed, etc. ) acknowledges in her introduction that coming out can refer to anything from a first embrace to a political statement. The most successful essays tell an actual story. Karla Jay's "First Love" at summer camp stands out as particularly hilarious and poignant. Heather Lewis's blunt, devastating story spans her first experiences with women as a 12-year-old and her father's sadistic attempts to have her "cured. " Cheryl Boyce Taylor captures the open, innocent sensuality she and her childhood girlfriends shared juxtaposed against isolation and threats of violence that pepper her adult lesbian life. Some writers gloss over or shirk the actual moment of coming out to write more generally about lesbian identity—the stuff of standard gay/lesbian anthology fare. A few essays lack cohesion; several authors submitted stories in a stilted, amateurish, journal-entry format that detracts from their evocative material. The book as a whole may have arrived 15 years too late, when coming out is less the cutting-edge issue for queer people, having been supplanted by more topical concerns, such as gay marriage, "postgay" theories, and hate-crime legislation. However, lesbian readers will appreciate these reminiscences for the voyeurism: a bird's-eye view of an admired writer fumbling and breathless in her first embrace. The most profound insight here comes from seasoned lesbian writer and activist JillJohnston: "Should it ever cease to be necessary to come out, a lesbian or gay identity would itself cease to exist. " An uneven but enjoyable collection of original reflections on the notion of the process of coming out and its continued necessity. .