Girlfriend number one : lesbian life in the 90s

From Publishers Weekly Stevens (freelance writer and former editor of Out/Look ) culls stories, cartoons and graphics from "the lesbians of Generation X" to offer a fresh and irreverent collection for and about women who have come of age under such contradictory influences as Audre Lorde and Charlie's Angels . Penny D. Perkins investigates the elusive definition of the lesbian date, using case studies to establish such amusing maxims as "a lesbian date is something that is interrupted by pets." Masha Gessen explores the personal ads subculture, ranging from the all-too-common search for someone with whom to walk the beach to the deadly specificity of a San Francisco ad which begins "The worst of it is that I take books to the dinner table and hustle literary theory, have been seen dressed like Laura Petrie gone amiss in Bohemia . . ." Women's bathroom graffiti becomes an engaging narrative when E. G. Crichton contributes four montages that cover sex, sexuality, racism, war and other subjects as visitor after visitor adds comments to the continually evolving discussion. Stevens herself takes an unrestrained, vengeful look at meeting her ex-lover's new girlfriend Alice at a dinner party. After deciding Alice is hopelessly stupid when she can't identify Camille Paglia, Stevens decides to act as "dramatic and irrationally rational" as Paglia would and handcuffs Alice to a pipe in the bathroom, later throwing the keys (Lorena Bobbitt-style) out the window of her car while driving down the freeway. Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Booklist The former editor of Out/Look amasses an anthology that is as crisp and sharp as diamonds cutting glass. It revives the word fresh, for among its 14 pieces are no coming out stories, no appeals for an academic imprimatur, no sloshings through the swamps of porn or sex therapy. Instead, here are angry, funny, "generation X" lesbians, urban daughters of the baby boomers, contributing everything from cartoons and writings-on-bathroom-walls to performance pieces. Satire and humor form the collection's bedrock, most of it slanted toward a lesbian audience but quite often striking chords that will resound for all women and all lovers of women. Achy Obejas' "Wrecks" and editor Stevens' "Vengeance," for instance, put gritty, wry spins on postbreakup behavior. Kris Kovick's "Miracle at the Men's Magazine Rack" and Elissa Perry's "Good Customer Service" take us into the heads behind everyday faces. Established writers Mary Wings, Mabel Maney, and Carla Tomaso appear in new guises, while Martha Baer spoofs academia and Penny Perkins posits answers to the elusive question, "What Is a Lesbian Date?" Bittersweet as the laughter of clowns, the book's a class act, full of talent and brains. Marie Kuda