She Who Staples

I've had this book on pre-order for ages, and it finally arrived last week. I am always on the hunt for books with Christian LGBT characters, and this one delivered.

The narrator, Jo Gugielmo or Joanna Gordon, depending on which group of friends she's talking to, is the daughter of a radio minister, is herself a committed Christian, and is an out lesbian. None of which is a problem in Atlanta, but when her father remarries and the reconfigured family moves to a more conservative part of Georgia, she agrees to go back in the closet, just for the time being. This goes about as well as might be expected, and things only get more complicated when she falls for one of the girls at her new church.

This was a very readable teen story with engaging characters, all flawed, none perfect, but likeable nonetheless. I was not entirely sure about the portrayal of the love interest's intellectually disabled twin brother, and raised my eyebrows a little at how much the straight Christian teenagers talked about the sex they were having. But that latter point may be a US/UK thing.

My first introduction to U. A. Fanthorpe was almost certainly a reading of BC: AD at some childhood Christmas carol service. It has taken me some years to get round to reading a substantially larger number of her poems, and those of her partner, R. V. Bailey. This is a lovely collection of poems written by the two of them, addressed to each other. They aren't attributed, so, except in a few cases where the title includes a dedication, it's pure (and rather fun) guesswork as to who wrote what. Although, of course, the more of their work I read, the more of their poems I track down, attributed, elsewhere. This one, for example. Recommended.

I mentioned last week that I'd read Lesbian Pulp Fiction, edited by Katherine V. Forrest. In fact I skipped one excerpt, because I'd already started reading the novel that it came from. That novel was The King of a Rainy Country by Brigid Brophy, which I'd picked up sometime in the last three years using my usual method of 'go into charity shop, stare at bookshelves, look for green spines because they're probably Virago Modern Classics'.

I loved this book. It's not very cheerful and I am frankly surprised that it got into the anthology, because it's not very pulpy and - for all that the action is largely concerned with the narrator's search for the girl she was in love with at school (she eventually finds her in Venice) - its FF content is significant only by 1956 standards. Almost everything that I wanted to happen, didn't happen. And there are some rather cringeworthy sections concerning American tourists. Nevertheless. The writing was breathtakingly beautiful ('The afternoon stirred, split, and became brilliant.') When I say that the school flashbacks - in fact, the whole thing - reminded me of very good Marlows fanfic, I mean that as a compliment. It's enjoyable as a story of travel and compelling as one of coming of age and of the fragility and cruelty of all sorts of relationships.

And, because I am still not entirely satisfied that this counts towards FF Friday (I know, I know, who am I to argue with Katherine V. Forrest?), I am also going to rec a fic that I have filed under 'favourite travel stories'. Saffy's Secret by Rosie_Rues is a post-canon Casson family series story with a delightful original character, the Trans-Siberian Express, and a really satisfying ending. I've elevated it to quasi-canonical status in my head.