Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers: A History of Lesbian Life in Twentieth-Century America (Between Men--Between Women)

The woman who has spoken in interviews about her working-class Jewish roots and the fact that as a stripper she worked her way through college to a PhD from Berkeley at the age of 26 (not too shabby a feat in itself) and has three anthologies, four other books on lesbian history *and* a new book on the Hmong immigrant population in America notched into her no doubt still-lissome belt, now takes a keen look at the history of butch/femme emergence, struggle, culture and identity, and the actual *value* of butch/femme to lesbianism.

Faderman -- as would be expected of one with her background, her intellect, and her ongoing literary accomplishments -- is never afraid to tackle any subject, and do it not only with honesty but with a deft, sure touch, a style that has an unusual and very refreshing ability to make the academic not only accessible but enjoyable reading, and an even more unusual ability to empathize and yet remain objective. Never artificial and never superficial, neither apologetic nor smug, Faderman proves that butch/femme was and is just as difficult, wildly funny, complicated, fulfilling, ugly, beautiful, heart-breaking, and filled with both fear and its own gritty courage as is any other lifestyle -- lesbian or not.

I finished `Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers' with a real sense of loss. With this book, I've caught up on my reading of Lillian Faderman's works. (I'd recently read her astonishing new book on the Hmong experience in America: `I Begin My Life All Over', Beacon Press, another not-to-be-missed book!) Am I gushing over Faderman's books? You bet! Though she's a writer whose works you want to read and re-read I'm just sorry I can't connect with amazon.com and order something new by her tomorrow...

I only hope she continues to write and write and write. Her work is of tremendous literary and historical value to lesbians...and to everyone else as well.