Crybaby Butch

Frank is a fresh, innovative voice in literature today. Her narrative style was refreshing and different, but flowed easily in the mind of the reader. Her characters were complex and Frank did not make it her obligation to make the characters any more glorified or flawed than they seemed to be in her minds eye. Chris and Anna are very different people, and are very much a product of both the time and place they were born, as we all are. What connects them is truly the way the heterosexual world perceives "women like them".

I have recently learned that authors as well as potential buyers read these reviews. I enjoyed this book very much as would like to both recommend it to anyone who is looking for a good read and share with the author (should she ever come across this review) what I `like best' about her work. I loved this book. A good book has to make you think and feel and Crybaby Butch does both. I especially appreciated this book because I came across it the day after I finished my comps in grad school and was looking for a non-academic book to read (my first in over two years because of schoolwork!!). So, in my defense - this review reflects my experience of the book as both an academic and as a `real' person. The topic of butch identity is explored according to socio-economic status in a very capable and insightful manner. The author illustrates how upper/middle class and working class butches evaluate themselves and one another - and is able to articulate in a respectful manner what they think they "have over" the other and the ways they feel the other can make them feel small. The lifestyle, challenges, and opportunities associated with their socio-economic status drive the plot in many ways. Although the author does not call for the reader to analyze how SES bounds our lives, we do anyway as we come to care about each of the main characters. The characters are complex and realistic - I didn't always like Anna or Chris but I respected their attempts to grow and do well in their lives. I was not able to anticipate many of the choices and feelings of these characters - making them seem all the more real. My only complaint is that the author is not able to really capture the femme spirit as well as she is able to bring to life butch identity. I find that if I did not know that Gladys and Kathleen had a butch woman as their life partner, I would read them as straight women. Even if I did not know the gender or identity of their lovers or partners, I would still know Anna and Chris as butch women. In all honesty - this small complaint did not really detract from the storyline or diminish my enjoyment of the book. If the author was able to portray her femme characters as richly and realistically as the butch protagonists I think I would have been truly beside myself with satisfaction. As it stands - I cannot wait to read her next work!!

This is a very well written and interesting book. I hope this author writes more books like this. Angela Brinskele, Director of Communications, The Mazer Lesbian Archives

Once I moved beyond Chapter One, written in the second person, I found this book completely absorbing. I fretted over the characters when I had to leave the book to go to work (how annoying - work, I mean). I found the exploration of butch culture fascinating, and the difficulty of the older butch's life almost unbearable to read about. It's hard to imagine what life would be like looking like a stone butch in a society that scorned (scorns) that identity, coupled with the unbelievable alienation of being illiterate in our society. My partner and I talked about the book for hours. She read it after I did and I kept interrupting her to ask "what's happening now?" Beautifully written. As much as I worried about Chris and Anna, I also found the book wonderfully entertaining, filled with rich characters, lots of humor, wonderful insights. I feel fortunate to have read it.

I couldn't put this book down. For one thing, I fell completely in love with the two main characters. For another, the writing is breathtaking. There are so many sentences I had to read twice because they were just so beautiful. Or oddly perfect. Or completely hilarious. Also, don't let the description fool you. Yes, it's about "adult literacy"-and poignantly, brilliantly so-but it's no chaste school-marm treatise. It's about lush, real life-and real sex, the blush-worthy kind. I loved it. I loved it so much, in fact, that I'm reading it a second time!