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A review by imogenrose97
Lesbian Love Story by Amelia Possanza
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
I'm giving this book 5 stars because technically it was beautiful, learning about my community and taking in the history of generations of people who didn't get to embrace their sexuality in the way I get to now, was a delectable treat.
However for me personally it would rate as a 4, simply because I had hoped to read only lesbian love stories, I wanted to fall in love with each story the way I fall in love with my own. The first half was exactly this with sprinkles of important information and delightful descriptions of feelings I've felt as a lesbian. The second half delved more deeply into friendship, community and the tensions within the LBGTQIA+ community. Which I loved to read but wasn't what I personally was looking for. I wanted romping love stories to connect me to the generations before me, to feel less alone in my lesbianism.
However for me personally it would rate as a 4, simply because I had hoped to read only lesbian love stories, I wanted to fall in love with each story the way I fall in love with my own. The first half was exactly this with sprinkles of important information and delightful descriptions of feelings I've felt as a lesbian. The second half delved more deeply into friendship, community and the tensions within the LBGTQIA+ community. Which I loved to read but wasn't what I personally was looking for. I wanted romping love stories to connect me to the generations before me, to feel less alone in my lesbianism.
I soared through the first half, delighted, squealing, excited. I also felt the pain the author felt at how hard history has tried to burry us, hide us, erase us. The depictions of historians removing she/her pronouns from Sappho's poetry bit at me. How could someone see art and change it tp ft their narrative simply because of queerness. I will never understand how someone could view something that makes someone happy, brings someone into themself, lets them live as they are, and want to ruin it. Reading of college smashes made my heart sing! The fact that it was an encouraged thing in women colleges to have a girlfriend, to woo her, to celebrate her is beautiful. The reason it was allowed to happen in a society where being gay was still very much vilified makes me sick, men had no idea that women had sexualities and so did not think these campus relationships were at all a risk to their bringing home a little wife when she was done smashing her college gal pal.
I loved reading Possanza's exploration of lesbian history, I loved the passion, the dedication to our people, I loved the way she loved the lesbians before us. I related so deeply to the insatiable need to know more, to know if this kind of love is just what I feel or if I am part of a lucky group who get to celebrate women every damn day. And it turns out I am just one of many, but one of the luckiest many.