Alma Rose

Doesn't matter that this is a love story between two women - it could as easily be any forbidden love. It is about love so big outsiders can't see it. It is about being changed so much by love, waking up so much, that trivial things like "facts" and broken hearts don't matter any more. It's about owning your own life, and never being a victim. This is a book about the wisdom of learning that what happens TO you doesn't matter so much as how you respond. It is an utterly Romantic book, in the best, old sense of the word, and I would recommend it to anyone of any persuasion. (It was recommended to me by a straight woman.)

Without a doubt, the novel "Alma Rose" is the best book I've ever read with a lesbian main character. Frankly, I'm biased against the genre, but this book set me, uh, straight. What most struck me was the beautiful language and the thoughtfulness of the narrative. It is a heart-rending book that also makes you think.

The introverted world of a small town woman is described as she blossoms, wilts and fights the truth of a love gone forever. The supporting characters come to life with a realism that reminds me of co-workers and neighbors. As the secret world of the main character's head enters the reader's head, the similarity and diversity of perception are simultaneously evoked. In the end, the unyeilding truth of change continues on unchanged, while a mountain of stone yeilds to the chisel of a sculpture dedicated to hope and the past

> There are some genre books that are so good that you know they'd be in contention for a Pulitzer if they were considered mainstream. This is one of those books.<br> > The heroine is so inarticulate as to be almost mute. That is, until a female trucker rolls into town. She rolls out again almost immediately, leaving our heroine with a choice: she can sit around wringing her hands or she can build a monument which can be seen from the highway and may again draw the trucker into town and back into her life. So she starts dynamiting a mountain and shaping it as her "Alma Rose."<br> > A startingly good book.