Scan barcode
A review by ajb24
Patience & Sarah by Isabel Miller
4.0
This isn’t the most well-written book I’ve ever read, but it is earnest and sweet. I guess I would characterize the writing style as “simple”. The historical colonial setting was interesting, but I never felt fully involved in the world. It felt like...the old-fashioned things were just quirky aspects to embellish an otherwise basic storyline.
It’s not a novel that makes you think too deeply, but I have to enjoy it because it’s such a celebratory portrayal of a lesbian relationship (i mean, they have setbacks and there’s some awful physical abuse, but Patience and Sarah are so happy in the end to make a life together and throughout the book their love is portrayed so deeply it was nice to read).
What I liked and found interesting was that they consider themselves married. A lot of lesbian fiction I read they are “united forever” or “joined’ or there’s some other way of saying they’ll be together forever, but rarely is it ever stated so explicitly that they think of each other as “wives”. This book was also written in 1969, which makes this aspect even more surprising to me.
One quote I want to save/remember:
“We can be Plato’s perfect army: lovers, who will never behave dishonorably in each other’s sight, and invincible. Let the world either kill us or grow accustomed to us; here we stand.” (116)
It’s not a novel that makes you think too deeply, but I have to enjoy it because it’s such a celebratory portrayal of a lesbian relationship (i mean, they have setbacks and there’s some awful physical abuse, but Patience and Sarah are so happy in the end to make a life together and throughout the book their love is portrayed so deeply it was nice to read).
What I liked and found interesting was that they consider themselves married. A lot of lesbian fiction I read they are “united forever” or “joined’ or there’s some other way of saying they’ll be together forever, but rarely is it ever stated so explicitly that they think of each other as “wives”. This book was also written in 1969, which makes this aspect even more surprising to me.
One quote I want to save/remember:
“We can be Plato’s perfect army: lovers, who will never behave dishonorably in each other’s sight, and invincible. Let the world either kill us or grow accustomed to us; here we stand.” (116)