The blurb for this book wasn’t quite true to the content, but the book’s worth a go. In current day USA, a long-established couple are packing up home in preparation for a move when one of them falls and is rushed to hospital. Her partner tell the story of their getting together to the young paramedic who helps them (and the world’s smallest subplot spins off from there).
Much of the book is set in the 80s in the context of a fearful environment in which coming out risks friendships and careers. They know each other for ages, become very close friends, but will they cross the line? No spoilers to say that they will. But how?
There are some very long winded bits about how they live their lives, which borders on dull, but serves to set the context of their lives very well for an audience of today. And they tell each other they love each an awful lot, which is obviously nice to hear if you’re in the relationship, but doesn’t make terribly fascinating reading.
I’m writing this in 2017, as a woman in my 40s, and I’m grateful I was coming out a decade or 2 after this is set. Any lesbian in her 20s or 30s who’s not familiar with what these very real struggles were about would do well to read this book. It’s not preachy or traumatic, but might help you understand why the older lesbians you know seem a bit more on edge, or political about the world, than the current environment might require. (For really good books to give you a sense of how lucky you are, though, read some Katherine V. Forrest books – reviews to follow in due course.)
She Sighed! 