A review by dontwritedown
Gentleman Jack: The Real Anne Lister by Anne Choma

emotional informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

'When we leave nature, we leave our only steady guide, and from that moment we become inconsistent with ourselves.'

Anne Lister and Ann Walker will forever now be my excuse for people who go "there weren't gays in the past."

My problem normally with the whole biography genre is that it lacks any nuance when it comes to the person they are talking about. They are either a hero, or a villain. They have nothing in between. Gentleman Jack, however, acknowledges the nuance and societal problems that Lister had to contend with. In many ways, she was ahead of her time, and in many ways she would be seen as backwards, especially when it comes to her views on politics, sexuality and religion as all they conflict with each other. Lister was able to make that conflict meld together and the book doesn't shy from her more nonpalatable views or actions to make it appealing to a modern reader.

I cannot lie when I say, Lister reminds me of my grandmother. My grandmother was a closeted lesbian who semi-came out after my grandfather died. She was a devote Christian woman, but she was often run-off from her church because they learned about her "roommate." And like Lister, many in the family didn't know she was lesbian until after her death and going through her diaries. There's gay people in our history, you just have to search for them. They're hidden, yes, but they're there.

Definitely a must read when it comes to LGBT+ history.