18th meeting: Stone Butch Blues

On Sunday, the 18th meeting of Eat, Drink, and Be Literary was hosted by Tana-- it also marked her last meeting since she is graduating (color me jealous) and will be moving to Boston to start a post-doc.  For her last book, Tana chose Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg.

Our meeting was small this time-- only five people-- but we had a great discussion of the novel. It is the story (seeming based loosely on Feinberg's life) of a young butch lesbian, Jess growing up in the 1950's-60's in Buffalo as she struggles with her her gender identity and finds a place in the world. It was brutally hard to read at times (emotionally, I mean), but I am so glad I got through it. This book helped me to really take the perspective of a group of people that I haven't ever before.

The struggles that Jess faced as a child and young adult were horrific, and while this story was fictionalized, I assume that it s representative of so many people's stories. The entire group mentioned how glad we were to be living in a time where women can't be arrested and beaten and raped simply for dancing with one another. While the fight for equality in this country is far from being won, I am thankful that we are closer now than we were 50 years ago.

As happy as I am that I read this, I didn't love all of it. I thought that the first hundred pages were incredibly powerful and eye-opening, but the middle of the book just dragged for me.  A huge part of the novel dealt with the formation of unions and other social movements of the 60's, and while I find this whole era incredibly important and fascinating, I almost thought that there was too much going on in certain points of the book. Too many characters, each with so many struggles I almost became desensitized to them. I guess I just think that the plot could have been streamlined somehow.