Solitaire and Brahms

I really loved this book. I read it twice and I NEVER read fiction twice. I actually want to read it again, just to relive and feel the geniune love (without all the hangups or gender identity issues) growing between Fran and Shelby. The thing I enjoyed most about this book was that it, unlike the majority of books in this genre, was free of the common lesbian sterotypes. It was a genuine love story. It wasn't a story about girl meets girl at bar, girl sleeps with girl afterwards, girls thinks she's in love with bar girl. (rolleyes) It also wasn't a story about promiscuity and superficial relationships between women. Nor was it a story of a relationship based on possessiveness, dependency, or insecurity. Shelby Camden is an educated, unmarried young women, who is trying to make it as an editor. She behaves how she thinks she is supposed to behave and does a lot of people pleasing and yet is so unhappy. She meets her new neighbor, Fran Jarvis, and a ray of sunshine suddenly enters her life. She loves spending time with her new friend, and feels as though she can just BE HERSELF around Fran. This is freedom for Shelby. She's light, happy, and carefree. When she is in the company of people and situations where she doesn't feel free to simply be who she is, and feels she has to present a certain image, her health suddenly is compromised. As the book progresses Shelby is able to take a good look at herself and her life and realize what/who she wants in it, and what/who she no longer wants in it. She toughens her backbone and stands up for herself and courageously goes after want will make her happy and lets go of all that will not. Cheers Shelby! This novel gives and insightful look on how it was to be a lesbian or show any romantic attraction for another women at that time. The novel describes how social attitudes affected those with 'lesbian tendencies' psycholigcally, socially, and otherwise. Fran was a woman who knew that she preferred other women romantically. She knew who she was and did her best to be happy and deal with the world around her who didn't approve of who she was. Shelby did was she thought she was supposed to do. She didn't categorize her sexual orientation. Real Love came to her and she welcomed it. Even after, she didn't feel the need to define who she was. In the end, this is a story about two people who fell in love with each other. No classifications needed. I highly recommend this book.

Having only read Deher's Stoner McTavish Series, which I enjyoyed immensely, I thoroughly enjoyed the poignant story of Shelby and Fran. Not having experienced lesbian life before Stonewall, I found it a valuable slice of history as well as a really good story. I look forward to more of Deher's work.

Oh, yes, for those of us old enough to remember, this is a searing book! If you can't remember, you might want to be real glad. It captures exactly the feelings and ambiance of the late 50s and early 60s. This was NOT a time to be a lesbian, even for those of us who could be nothing else, and who went ahead and got married anyway.

Bravo, Sarah Dreher. In these post-Sonewall, post-feminist movement days, it's been easy to forget just HOW it was. Yes, we were committed to mental hospitals or somebody in the family tried to have us committed; yes, we were fired from jobs and evicted from apartments; yes, our friends, once told, were no longer friends and, YES, good old Mom and Dad not only had the proverbial cow; they killed it too. (Figuratively, of course, by banning us from the bosom of the family so others wouldn't catch "it".) Yes, we blamed ourselves for our lesbianism and KNEW everything would be okay if we could just get rid of this blasted disease. Unfortunately, for most of us - despite the marriages and children and shock therapy, etc., recommended by the shrinks and/or family to get us over this stage - nothing worked. We stayed gay and learned to live with it for better or for worse. I've got a hunch your wonderful charcters in "Solitaire and Brahms", Shelby and Fran, learned to live with it for the better. What a great ending! And now, as I look back to then from the pages of your excellent book and remember how it was, I'm glad nothing worked, glad I'm a dyke and VERY glad I survived those years. A must-read for those who lived how it was, or those up-coming youngsters who would like to know how it was.

Sarah Dreher, best known as the author of the seven volume Stoner McTavish mystery series, has broadened her horizons with Solitaire and Brahms,an insightful and tender novel about a woman recognizing the freedoms and fears associated with self-discovery. Dreher's main character, Shelby Camden, is a complex, witty, kind career woman who maintains the strong facade of happiness in spite of her nagging depression, migraine-like headaches, and an unfullfilling engagement to the man of her mother's dreams. Set in the sixties during the dawn of the sexual revolution and women's movement, this work portrays the pre-Stonewall mentality of the country, a time when being lesbian meant certain ostracism, self-hatred, and often psychiatric intervention. Camden is a young woman, not terribly brave, caught between her desire for a conventional life and her deeper yearnings for a career as a magazine editor and a blossoming friendship with a warm easy-going, but rather secretive woman we discover is lesbian. "The Childrens Hour" is playing it's first run at the local theater and as readers we are immersed in the thinking that prevailed at the time when loving another woman meant very unhappy endings. Dreher's prose is engaging, never overwritten, often humorous. Her work as a clinical psychologist comes in handy, as well as her playwriting skills. The dialogue is fast paced, never trite, and captures the heart. Highly recommended reading for all who love a good character study, a brilliant depiction of a time in our history, and simply a beautifully composed story. She takes us on a journey through darker days but remembers to leave a light on at the end of the tunnel.