Stone Butch Blues in Our Shared Shelf

Jun 28, 2017 Sarah rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, classics, american-fiction, nyc, lgbtqia

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I read this book on a recommendation from someone who knows far more about LGBTQ+ literature than I do. It was incredible. (I should get recommendations from that person more often.) Feinberg tells an archetypal story of life in the 1950s-1980s in the LGBTQ+ community, highlighting specifically the lives of working class butch lesbians and transgender members of that community. At first, I had to adjust to the multiple sexual assaults - they're clustered at the beginning of the book - because so I read this book on a recommendation from someone who knows far more about LGBTQ+ literature than I do. It was incredible. (I should get recommendations from that person more often.) Feinberg tells an archetypal story of life in the 1950s-1980s in the LGBTQ+ community, highlighting specifically the lives of working class butch lesbians and transgender members of that community. At first, I had to adjust to the multiple sexual assaults - they're clustered at the beginning of the book - because so many seemed implausible to me. However, then I realized a) the story is archetypal rather than aimed at being a realistic representation of one person's life; b) of course they're clustered at the beginning of the book because the book is chronological and of course most women are most vulnerable to sexual assault when they're in their teens, twenties, and thirties, instead of when they're older; c) I'd better do some more research, too, because I don't really know how common multiple sexual assaults were for the butch and trans communities in the 1950s - 1980s, especially when the police were involved, and maybe writing multiple sexual assaults IS realistic for one person's life. Point c) especially horrifies me, and reminded me why I need to read more LGBTQ+ literature. I thought Feinberg did an excellent job of articulating the emotional turmoil behind cool facade, and the reasons for it. I am personally very expressive of my own emotions, and so it's hard for me to understand such cool; the constant inner monologue Feinberg wrote for Jess was incredibly helpful for me in thinking through the history of oppression in the LGBTQ+ community in a more concrete, detailed way, and particularly in understanding how much discipline and heartbreak was involved in maintaining such facades. The novel also addresses so many class issues, ranging from factory work and unionizing to sub-standard housing. We see, in concrete examples, how dominant gender identities pushed everyone who identified in any other way into poverty and low-skilled jobs. The intersection is very clear. It is rare that I have nothing critical to say about a book, and maybe in this case it's due to my own ignorance, but...I have nothing critical to say about this book. ...more

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