A review by mothtimothy
The Penguin Book of Lesbian Short Stories by Virginia Woolf, Nicole Brossard, Jayne Anne Phillips, Sara Maitland, Joan Nestle, Radclyffe Hall, Merril Mushroom, Djuna Barnes, Alison Bechdel, Beth Nugent, Jewelle Gomez, Colette, Renée Vivien, Jane Rule, Anna Livia, Margaret Atwood, Isak Dinesen, Rebecca Brown, Dorothy Allison, Frances Gapper, Dorothy Strachey, Gertrude Stein, Monique Wittig, Emma Donoghue, Hilda Doolittle, Margaret Reynolds, Sarah Orne Jewett, Jeanette Winterson, Pat Califia, Anaïs Nin, Kathy Acker, Katherine Mansfield, Ann Bannon

3.0

I bought this book furtively when I was 13 or 14, and hid it in a drawer in my room underneath something -- a box of stationery, I think? Its presence there, in my room, made very anxious, but also excited. Anyway, I bought it because I thought reading it would answer some of my questions, namely, Am I Really Gay or Not?

For the record, it was not helpful in this matter. I think I thought it might ring some bells, strike some chords, but it was just... confusing. There were no bells or chords. Part of the problem was probably my obsessive attachment to reading anthologies straight through from beginning to end; this one is arranged chronologically, so that meant I had over 100 pages to slog through before I made it to the 1940s. I gave up before that, though.

It also says a lot about me-at-13 that I thought reading a book of short stories was the way to determine if I was really truly a homo.