sibylvanereviews

[sibylvanereviews]

Ham on Rye by Charles Bukowski

1/5

yeah... I don't know what I was expecting.

Spoilers Ahead

Honestly, not much of the story is compelling. There are instances where I felt the poetry in his words, but overall it was shadowed by the over the top misogyny. I understand there's a very necessary crudity to be had here, but jesus, constantly referring to any woman by the word "cunt" ? As a descriptor, not an insult. It was just not an enjoyable or insightful read. Sure it's authentic, but I live that authentic. The message just doesn't resonate from this side.

Not sure if I am going to continue and read the rest of the trilogy.

[sibylvanereviews]

The Femme Mystique edited by Lesléa Newman

3/5

This book is a collection of writings by American femmes in the 90s, edited together by Lesléa Newman.

Because of the nature of the book, not every entry is a 'winner'. I found myself skimming through some of the rougher pieces. But I enjoyed it as a whole, more so for the difference in perspective than beauty of writing.

Before I read this book, I hadn't really thought much about what it meant to be femme. I, in no way, identify with it, so it didn't cross my mind. The only thing I have in common was being a lesbian, and I honestly didn't understand the femme perspective. Like many others, I assumed that femmes were heteronormative. Not on purpose, rather by default. This book corrected that and some other assumptions I had.

Femmes experience a certain intersectionality as they operate between two cultures, and in lesbian culture it seems the general idea is that they are more privileged because they are less visible. But just because it can be harder to spot one on the street, doesn't exonerate her from her lesbian-ness. She still feels the impact of homophobia, and she suffers from lack of visibility in her own community. It's a pretty nuanced identity too. This book gave the fears and the strengths. Femmes aren't forced to be femme, it isn't compulsive. Reading these accounts, it was clear that a lot of them take a certain power from it. They have confidence and comfortability in their identity. And, this identity can be presented in so many different ways! There is explicitly *not* one right way. How could you even conform to something counter-culture?

I found it interesting to look on the other side, even as I disagreed with some of the ideas of butchness and butch culture it presented. I also understand that this was written in a different time and doesn't quite reflect the scene today. And it definitely can't reflect the scene everywhere, the world is too large for that.

I enjoyed the variety of perspectives. There were a lot of contradicting ideas and everything felt so human. It was also nice how it changed delivery, that kept it engaging. And though each author wrote about the same topic, they all had something different to say.

[sibylvanereviews]

Kiss Her Once For Me by Alison Cochrun

1/5

I really did want to like this.

Spoilers ahead.

I had a hard time getting through this novel as it was horribly self-referential and aware. The plot itself is derivative, which was expected by the back blurb, but there was no 'extra bit' that I found satisfying.

The story itself is about a women writing about the book as we are reading it, and how much it is a rom-com. Which, yeah, I'm reading that. The meat of it is the big 'twist' of the trope. She is fake engaged with this man she finds attractive (but is basically strangers with), and turns out is truly in love with his sister, who she met once a year ago. I can look past the one time meet, it is a rom-com, but the behaviour of the siblings that we are supposed to believe love each other? That's literally a plot point, how these siblings care about each other enough to create the plot.

They talk back and forth how she could never betray her brother, all the while making out. Apparently it doesn't count unless they have sex. Yikes.

But don't worry romantics, they have the affair anyway. This is treated as romantic as desperate love is- until somehow it was the protag that forced the sister into it for two pages or so of betrayal angst. Really pushed that second act falling out.

All the while, we need an excuse for how these people can be so rich, while still acknowledging how wealth generated at that level can only be achieved immorally. The solution is a bastard of a grandfather who nobody likes, and a father whose big Immorality is, you guessed it, cheating. Don't worry, the rest of the family is lovely and falls in love with our dear protag.

There’s a lot of realistic casual dialogue that is completely upended by the constant desire for a snappy chapter end, therapy speak, and pop-culture references. I don't live in Portland and I'm not a Buckeye though, so maybe the last two are beyond my purview.

Like wayyy many wlw novels, the protag had major mom-issues. This could have been a point of character growth but it only was used as character explination. The mother is still half-way in the protag's life and was antagonistic towards her. Only once does the protag stand up to her, protesting strongly only to her mother’s view of bisexuality. This of course doesn't lead to any development either plot or character, as the mother simply ignores this and the narrative moves on. But at least we got that in there I guess.

I don't think that it was purposeful, but it felt that the protag was only demi to explain how she couldn't possibly want to suck it up and marry the man / fall for him. It's mentioned immediately that she is demi, and then that she is attracted to this man that she doesn't know. Then, we find out that she fell in love completely at odds to her sexuality with a woman a year before. She goes with the woman then because they had a connection (the one night stand a year ago, also noted to be a deviation from her sexuality), and tells the man she cannot be with him because she is demi. God forbid a women just not find every man attractive.

The novel is expected to be a bit mushy, but past that, the subversion I came here for just wasn't right. It's a sapphic romance and half of it was a false marriage to a man and the other half dràma over sibling relations.