"This celebration of lesbians through history blends memoir, archive, and invention to (re)define how their love stories are told"
Possanza explains in her introduction that ‘just as these historical figures had to invent new blueprints for how they loved as lesbians, I have invented entire scenes, moments that are absent and inaccessible, the very ones I crave. [...] Historical accuracy and rigor had only excluded us from the narrative.’
It strikes me as gorgeously, quintessentially lesbian, in its very form, to approach the archiving of lesbian love stories in this way – both fact and fiction, archive and invention, gentle and defiant. It’s a celebration, absolutely, but always aware of the gaps in the narrative, and there’s a lamentation and anger of those absences too.
I was struck by how unfamiliar these names and histories were to me. At first I was embarrassed at my lack of knowledge – and here I am, thinking of myself as a huge fan of lesbians, love, and stories! – but duh, that’s the point. And yet, as I read on into Possanza’s inventive archive, it also struck me how familiar these lesbians feel to the modern-day lesbian. From Sappho to Rusty Brown, Possanza is sensitive both to the similarities and idiosyncrasies of their different stories – how they forged and belonged to this timeless, mutable community.
I hope generations of lesbians buy this for their lovers – and continue to add to the archives.
| Primary Genre | Biographies & Autobiographies |
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