What's the Name of That Book??? discussion

Hi guys,

Desperately trying to find a book I vaguely remember from the late '80s, early '90s. It had a much earlier vibe, so I think it was probably released in the '70s sometime.

I made a list for Communes in YA and Middle Grade Fiction and have been scouring Worldcat to try to find it so I can add it to the list, but all my searches for "communal living" and "communes" are coming up empty.

MC was a teenage girl named Katie, but I think it may have been spelled oddly, perhaps Katy or Kati. She was about 16 or 17, definitely in high school. Or would have been if she'd been to traditional school. She was raised on an all-female commune in a rural area, goats, chickens, milking cows, handicrafts, stuff like that. I can't recall if there were lesbians on the commune. Probably, but I don't think it was a significant part of the story. I'm pretty sure Katie's mother was straight. Her dad was unknown.

Here's where my memory gets fuzzy. She leaves home in search of.... something. Maybe her dad? But I could be confusing that with Looking for Jamie Bridger. I don't remember if she announces that she's leaving home or she runs away, but at some point she winds up in a big city. She stays with people, possibly relatives? In a big apartment building, I think, maybe a fancy apartment.

Whoever she was with, they were not harming her. She didn't find herself falling into the sex trade as a runaway or anything like that. She may have started going to school. She met a boy she liked. One thing that I recall was that her feminist values from the female commune were at odds with '70s or '80s big city life. I think she becomes involved in feminist consciousness raising or protesting, so I believe women's liberation played a role.

Thanks mucho for any help!

Also wanted to mention it could very well have been from a lesbian, feminist or alternative press. I had a lot of those types of books as a kid.

For some reason, I have this story linked in my mind with Woman Chief, but that's a completely different book with wildly different subject matter. Perhaps I first read them both around the same time because I'm not seeing any other obvious similarities.

Katie and the female commune bump....

It has some similarities to The Shunning by Beverly Lewis

Thanks, but it's definitely not that book. The Shunning was not pubbed until 2000, and my book was read in the early '90s. There were no Amish people anywhere in my book. And Katie was raised in a feminist, all-female commune, not among the Amish. Also my book was for teens, not adults.

I could just be fanwanking at this point, but I feel like Katie's father was involved in the story somehow. I think her dad was unknown, but she discovered a secret about him. Possibly her birth was the result of an affair he was having, and he didn't want his wife to know about Katie. Maybe that's why Katie's mom moved to the commune in the first place.

Katie and the female commune bump....

Katie and the female commune bump....

Katie and the female commune bump....

Katie and the female commune bump....

Fiction or non-fiction?

Location (country/region/well-known city)?

Can you tell us about her biological family? Who and where is her father?

It's absolutely fiction. This is a YA novel.

From what I can remember, the story started out at the commune. The commune was somewhere in the countryside. This would have been the rural USA. I suppose maybe it could have been rural Canada, but I'm positive it was not overseas.

Katie's mom raised her on the commune. I don't know if Katie was born there or if she was brought there as a young child, but I don't think she had memories of anywhere else. Katie's biological father was unknown to her. I think Katie may have been the product of an affair. Maybe her father was married to someone else at the time, and that's why Katie's mom took her to live on the commune? Katie had never met her father.

Katie then traveled to a big city. I don't know which big city. I mean, it could have been NYC but also some other big city like Boston or Chicago. I don't know if the city was even named. I don't know who she stayed with in the city, beyond the vague impression that they were relatives. Maybe grandparents? Maybe an aunt and uncle? Possibly the dad was involved somewhere along the way.

Was the female community referred to by terms other than "commune"?

To be honest, I can't remember. I assume it was referred to as a commune. It was for sure all-female and explicitly feminist.

Katie and the female commune bump....

I read a recent (?) book where girl was raised on a female compound by her mother because the mother was raped by the father and TERRIFIED of men. At 18 ish, the girl headed for the city. Ended up finding her paternal grandparents AND her father who were all supposed to be dead, per mum. There’s a story with the father, but the main story I think was her and a rocker?

That could be the same one!

I don't remember anything about rape or a rock musician, but it's not outside the realm of possibility. My book was pubbed no later than about '92, though.

Not it probably, but there’s a chance it’s a republish or something like that. I don’t remember anything ‘saying’ the story (like pre mobile phones etc), but it could have been updated.

Blind Attraction
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

Thanks again, but definitely not Blind Attraction. My book was much older, YA, and the focus was not on romance.

I found it!!!

The Real World by Harriet Sirof

The MC's name was Cady. I knew it was an odd spelling, but would never have guessed that, lol. I finally managed to locate it using "feminism" as a keyword. "Communes" and "communal living" are NOT one of the subjects in Worldcat. Weirdly, "women's commune" appears in the description, so no clue how it wasn't coming up on my previous searches.

One of your updates made me think to check on this -- I see I'm late to the party, but awesome that you found this! This is one of those posts I really wanted to see solved, just because you had so many good details on a somewhat unusual subject and I wanted to know what the heck it could possibly turn out to be.

Thanks! Yeah, I think I read a lot of obscure stuff as a kid. Not many books out there about feminist communes, lol. I'm glad I finally came across it!