Odd Girl Out by Ann Bannon

     Ann Bannon's classic pulp novel introduces us to Laura Landon, a freshman at a midwestern college, who is extremely shy and quiet, but determined to join a sorority.  Soon Laura moves into the sorority house and meets her new roommates, Beth and Emmy.  Emmy is a wild, outgoing party girl - and maybe just a little boy crazy.  But Beth is older, wiser, and much more aloof when it comes to relationships.  Sure, she's dated plenty of men, but she never seems to be in a committed relationship.  At first, Laura is intimidated by Beth's commanding presence, but it doesn't take long for the girls to become close friends - and within a few weeks, both the girls are aware of a magnetic, intense attraction between the two of them.  They may not completely understand it, but they don't fight it, and by the end of the first semester, Beth and Laura are lovers.

     But things get complicated for Laura and Beth when Charlie enters the picture.  Charlie is an old friend of Laura's, but he is noticeably attracted to Beth - always complimenting her, staring dreamily at her, and constantly making excuses to spend time together.  And what worries Laura the most is the fact that Beth seems to enjoy the attention from Charlie.  But more than that, she seems to encourage it.  The rest of the novel explores the tumultuous, intense aspects of Beth and Laura's romance as both Laura and Charlie fight for Beth's affections.

     Compared to today's standards, Odd Girl Out is incredibly tame, but when it was published in 1957, it was scandalous and shocking.  In the age of The L Word and Sex and the City, it isn't abnormal to see depictions of same-sex couples engaged in graphic sexual behavior, but more than 50 years ago, homosexuality was still illegal, not to mention a complete social taboo.  After all, 1957 was the same year Leave it to Beaver made its television debut, so you can probably imagine how the first lesbian pulp novel was received by the media.  But (not surprisingly), Odd Girl Out was a bestseller.  Gays and lesbians were thrilled to see a positive, realistic depiction of homosexuality in literature, and straight folks were curious as to what all the fuss was about.

     So with this novel, Ann Bannon unknowingly launched the lesbian pulp movement in America.  Odd Girl Out became the first in the Beebo Brinker Chronicles, a series of 6 novels featuring Laura Landon and a host of other nontraditional literary characters.  Odd Girl Out is surprisingly subdued considering the cultural shock waves its publication initiated.  But when the world is reading things like the 50 Shades trilogy, a kiss on the lips between two women is nothing to bat an eye at.  But it's important to remember that Ann Bannon paved the way for "queer lit," and with her novels, she bravely acknowledged that heterosexuality doesn't have to be the only option for romance, sex, and relationships.

     Odd Girl Out is not sultry or steamy, and the writing is neither complex nor imaginative, but that's ok, because it wasn't written for literary critics.  It was written to fill a literary void, and to demystify and openly address a very controversial topic.  So the next time you read a book or short story featuring a lesbian relationship, just remember that Odd Girl Out was the little pulp novel that made it all possible. 

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This past weekend I re-read Francesca Lia Block's Weetzie Bat (as I do every year).  If you missed my review of Weetzie Bat last year, you can check it out here.

Sorry I'm so behind on my reading/reviewing these past couple weeks. Between summer school, my internship, birthdays, and anniversaries I haven't had a lot of free time.  Apologies...

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

     In ancient Greece, a young prince has fallen out of favor with his father and the gods, and is exiled to the land of Phthia.  When Patroclus arrives, his status is diminished to that of a servant - he is scared, lonely, and still just a child.  He soon is introduced to Prince Achilles, and the two immediately strike up a friendship.  The boys spend nearly every hour of the day together, and over the years, their friendship develops into something much more complicated and tender.  But Achilles is the son of a goddess - Thetis - and she is not pleased by the nature of their relationship.  She is focused on the prophecy surrounding her son - that he will be a great, famous warrior, but will die young in battle.  As Patroclus and Achilles grow older, their relationship blossoms, but always in the shadow of the prophecy.

     The Greek myths are inconsistent regarding Achilles and Patroclus.  Some stories suggest that they were not just lifelong friends, but also lovers, and some stories do not mention the two in a romantic context at all.  In Madeline Miller's retelling of the classic myth, their relationship resembles that of a secret marriage.  Patroclus and Achilles are devoted to one another and nearly inseparable for almost 20 years.  While their closest friends knew the nature of their relationship, their love and affection for each other is only recognized in the context of friendship to most.  Eventually, the Trojan War intensifies, and Patroclus and Achilles must balance love, warfare, heroics, and honor.

     Even if The Iliad and The Odyssey aren't that fresh in your memory, The Song of Achilles is easy to read.  Miller includes a very helpful list of all the characters in the back of the book that acts as a refresher to figures such as Zeus, Odysseus, Paris, Chiron, and Helen.  I admit, I did have to consult Wikipedia a time or two, but this novel was still very readable and fast-paced.  Reading about such famous characters and stories in such a new context is fascinating, and retelling Greek myths is ambitious (especially for a first novel), but Miller's writing is graceful and natural, and the book is very well-organized and highly researched.  Patroclus and Achilles may not be as famous as Odysseus and Penelope or Orpheus and Eurydice, but Miller's version of their story is equally epic, tragic, and unforgettable - prompting discussions of love, sexuality, gender roles, fate, and sacrifice.

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Are You My Mother? by Alison Bechdel

     Those who are familiar with P.D. Eastman's classic children's book, Are You My Mother?, may remember the sad, but touching storyline in which a baby bird leaves the nest and tirelessly searches for its mother among various species of animals.  In Alison Bechdel's graphic memoir of the same title, she knows exactly where her mother is, but she just doesn't understand her.  In fact, Bechdel can see little to no resemblance between herself and her mother, but their intense relationship has affected nearly every other subsequent relationship she has ever had.  Are You My Mother? traces Alison Bechdel's life as a writer, philosopher, artist, and lesbian - but mostly as a daughter.

     This book isn't written like your typical memoir.  It's written as a comic strip and includes a great deal of discussion on classical psychology, drama, art, and literature - especially that of Virginia Woolf.  Bechdel has spent decades in therapy and analysis trying to work out her complicated relationship with her mother - a woman who is incredibly intelligent and talented yet emotionally distant.  Much of Bechdel's childhood was mapped out in her first memoir, Fun Home, a graphic biography about her eccentric and distracted father who committed suicide at the age of 44.

     It's no stretch to say that Bechdel had an unusual upbringing and a complicated relationship with her parents, but sometimes the book felt a little too self-aware and over-analyzed.  For one thing, she takes psychoanalysis very seriously and invests a great deal of time and energy in dream analysis - which she often interprets very literally.  Don't get me wrong - I think one can benefit tremendously from attending therapy sessions.  It can be cathartic and emotionally cleansing.  But Bechdel seems unable to make any decision or comprehend a situation without first discussing it in detail with a therapist.  Sometimes her emotions just don't feel completely natural.  They take on a numbed, almost clinical vibe, which likely contributes to her original anxiety.  She also is a dedicated (if not obsessive) diarist, writing down conversations verbatim between herself and her analyst, girlfriends, and family members.  In turn, much of the book consist of conversations between herself and her therapist about Alison's dreams, Alison's feelings, Alison's life philosophy, and Alison's memories.  That's exactly what therapy is for, but it may be a little too self-absorbed for a book (even for an autobiography).

     Another troublesome aspect of the book is that Alison seems to want some sort of psychological peace regarding her mother, yet she struggles with the ability to see her mom as a human being capable of making mistakes and indulging in selfish tendencies - which is sometimes in direct contrast with her feminist platform.  She seems to hold her mother to much higher standards regarding motherhood and identity, which isn't completely fair.  We must also consider that Alison has been keeping very accurate and detailed notes since she was an adolescent, which makes harboring a grudge a little too easy.

     Alison Bechdel is obviously a talented writer and artist, but this book needed a bit more organization.  Sometimes it was a book about her mom, sometimes it was a book about writing a different book, and sometimes it felt like reading a teenager's diary.  But somewhere along the way, she begins to see her mother in a different light - perhaps it is due to the years of analysis, or maybe it's due to the therapeutic act of writing the memoir itself.  Either way, Are You My Mother? leaves Bechdel at the cusp of an opportunity for renewal and peace, which comes as a much needed breath of fresh air.

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Favorite Fiction: Toni Morrison

Over the years, Toni Morrison has earned great respect as an author.  As the winner of the Nobel Prize, the Pulitzer Prize, and the Pearl Buck Award (just to name a few), Toni Morrison has been a tremendous influence on American literature.  Now, at the age of 81, she is publishing her 10th novel, Home, which will be released next week on May 8.  In celebration of her many accomplishments and to gear up for the new release, here are Hooked Bookworm's top 5 Toni Morrison novels:

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson

   The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest picks up exactly where the previous book ended, and I don't want to spoil anything for those who may not have read the first two Millennium books, so let's just say that Lisbeth Salander is in all kinds of trouble and her resources are very limited.  To avoid spoilers, I won't say much else about the plot other than the fact that it didn't follow the same pattern as the first two (50-100 pages of background/setup then BOOM! BOOM! Non -stop action!).  The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest felt much slower to me, but still engaging and entertaining nonetheless.  In this book, we are introduced to quite a few new characters as well, which, as I mentioned in my post for The Girl Who Played With Fire, can be difficult to keep track of if you don't speak Swedish.

   I personally did not enjoy this book as much as the first two.  It wasn't nearly as creative or well-written, and the story felt very choppy at times.  But still, it is the final piece of the Millennium Trilogy, and I find the Lisbeth Salander story to be incredibly entertaining.  Unfortunately, Stieg Larsson passed away before he could complete any more novels, and though I've heard rumors of a fourth manuscript, thus far none have been confirmed.  Either way, through the character of Lisbeth Salander and her loyal friend, Mikael Blomkvist, Stieg Larsson has left an unforgettable literary legacy for the world.  He was brave enough to breach the controversial and often taboo subject of sexual violence, bringing international awareness to the issue of brutal and sadistic crimes against women.  And for this fortitude, I will forever applaud him.

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The Reality of Romance

If you've ever been in a relationship for more than 6 months then you know that love and romance don't always feel like prancing through a field of rainbows with your "lover" (why does that gross word even exist?).  The reality of romance is that once the initial fairy tale magic wears off and the hustle and bustle of daily life sets in, maintaining a relationship is NOT like Nicholas Sparks says it is.  It's hard.  And sometimes it's not pretty or attractive at all.  You may think that your relationship will look like Buttercup and Westley's for the rest of your life - all lusty and moony-eyed - but it won't. You'll probably gain weight and develop an embarrassing skin rash at some point.  And your idea of sexy lingerie will become the underwear that don't have any holes in them yet.  But that's ok.  It just means you're normal.

   So this year, instead of suggesting mushy-gushy love stories or sexy, steamy lust stories for Valetine's Day reading, I thought I'd put together a list of books that I think more accurately depict the reality of romance.

Pink Smog by Francesca Lia Block

   Pink Smog tells the story of Louise Bat, better known today as Weetzie Bat, who is one of my favorite literary characters of all time.  But when she was 13, Louise hadn't fully blossomed into Weetzie yet.  In school, she is picked on and bullied (as are her very few friends), and at home, her father has moved away unexpectedly and her mother is usually passed out drunk in front of the TV.  But when she meets Winter, everything begins to change.  Weetzie sometimes cannot decide if Winter is real, or if he is her guardian angel.  He is mysterious, elusive, and always seems to be around when she's in trouble.  But things get even more strange when Weetzie begins to receive mysterious envelopes with cryptic poems inside - poems that seem to be leading her on a scavenger hunt to some of the most magical and exciting places in L.A.  Through these strange journeys and the ongoing search for her father, Weetzie embarks on a journey of self-discovery that eventually leads her into the world of Dangerous Angels.

   Even though this novel has been marketed as a stand-alone prequel to the other Weetzie Bat books, I would still recommend reading Weetzie Bat first.  Weetzie is magical, whimsical, and glamorous, and after all, where you end up is much more important than where you begin, right?  When I started reading this novel, I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about it.  I have such strong emotional ties to Weetzie Bat, and Louise didn't really feel like the Weetzie I know, and L.A. didn't seem as magical as Weetzie's L.A.  But that's because Louise hadn't yet experienced all the things that would make her Weetzie.  By the end of the novel, it felt like a much more natural segue into the rest of the series.

   However, I do wish that Francesca Lia Block had stuck to the third person narrative of Weetzie Bat rather than the first person voice of Pink Smog.  The third person voice somehow made her seem more infinite and less vulnerable as a literary character.  But it does make more sense from a character-development standpoint...if Weetzie seems more vulnerable and less-developed than she does in Weetzie Bat it's because she is.  She doesn't yet have Dirk and Duck and Cherokee and Witch Baby, but Pink Smog puts her on the right track.

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The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson

   In Stieg Larsson's second Millennium Trilogy novel, the tables have turned for Lisbeth Salander.  The introverted, antisocial woman finds herself as the target of a media feeding frenzy when her fingerprints are found at a double murder crime scene.  To complicate matters further, the victims were working closely with Lisbeth's old friend, Mikael Blomkvist, on exposing Sweden's underground sex trade industry.  For the first time in her life, Lisbeth is unable to solve the problem on her own, but lucky for her, Mikael owes her a big favor.

   The Girl Who Played with Fire follows a pattern similar to that in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.  The first 200 or so pages provide background information and sub-plot details, so it moves a bit slow, but I was never bored.  But like the first book in the trilogy, the plot starts picking up speed about midway through, and once things start happening they don't stop.  And then you find yourself sucked into the powerful vortex of a Stieg Larsson novel...and then you stop showering  and all signs of productivity come to a temporary halt because finishing the book has become the only item on your agenda.  I guess you could say I was hooked like a bookworm (good one, Karli!).

   Anyway, what I really liked about this book is the fact that we finally get more of a back story on our heroine.  In the first one, we only get a few bits and pieces of Lisbeth's life story, but here, a more complete account is slowly revealed.  However, this does make the second book much more complicated than the first - more stories, more characters, more details.  And if you're like me and you don't speak Swedish, it can be difficult to keep track of all the names.

   I wasn't planning on starting the final Millennium book so soon, but this story doesn't wind down like it did in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.  The ending is more of a cliffhanger, and like I said before, I'm hooked...so off I go to find out what happens in The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest.

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The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

  So I finally got around to reading The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and I'm very sorry it took me so long because I could not put it down.  Just in case I'm not the last person in the world to read this novel, here's a brief introduction:

Winter's Bone by Daniel Woodrell

The Ozarks are scary!

The Gigolo Murder by Mehmet Murat Somer

Eat your heart out, Miss Marple...

White is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi

   It is difficult for me to write a summary of this book because I could never really decide what it was about.  The best I can do is to say that the story revolves around 16 year old Miranda and her twin brother, Eliot.  They live with their father in Dover - in a house that has belonged to their family for generations.  The twins are grieving over the death of their mother, and their father has converted the house into a bed and breakfast, so they are constantly surrounded by strangers.  Miranda suffers from pica, an eating disorder that compels her to eat strange things, namely chalk.  But Miranda's eccentricities don't end there.  She has also inherited some abnormal abilities from the women in her family which often yield psychologically disturbing outcomes.  Oh and I should also mention that the house is haunted (and evil) and serves as a narrator in the story.  From the beginning of the story, the house is an ominous force as it informs readers that something is wrong with Miranda and asks, "Is Miranda alive?"  When she enters an intense relationship with a girls she meets in college, Miranda angers the house and it must retaliate - out of jealousy and the need for control.

   This book is a whirlwind of crazy, but nonetheless, it is one of the most beautifully written books I've ever read.  Helen Oyeyemi's prose often reads like poetry, even if the subject is disturbing.  Her writing is complex, sensual, and disjointed, but it all comes together in the end.  Mostly.  The style of writing is so fast-paced and abnormal that it forces you to forget everything you know about storytelling and start reading without any expectations.

   It is difficult to know whether or not we can even believe Miranda's story.  Each of the narrators is obsessed with her in some way, which makes me wonder if the happenings in this book are ways for the people who are consumed by her to justify some sort of psychological demise that is too traumatic for them to comprehend.  Either way, White is for Witching is entrancing and will stay with me for a very long time.  When I first started reading it I didn't like it, mostly because I couldn't make sense of it.  But my confusion turned into wonderment  quickly, as Helen Oyeyemi's book is full of little surprises.  Her writing is so intense and evocative that it makes up for the challenging parts.  I'm curious now to read some of her other works just to see if the experience matches this level of intensity.

Weetzie Bat by Francesca Lia Block

Every year when I pick up this book, summer reading officially begins.

Southern Lit Rant

Being from Tennessee, I have great affection for southern literature and southern authors. When people talk about southern authors, they almost always think of Faulkner, Flannery O'Connor, Truman Capote, etc. Now I think these writers hold a well-deserved place in the literary canon, but lately I have been reading (and thoroughly enjoying) books from (shall we say) less recognized southern authors, such as: