Barbra: The Way She Is

2006, first edition, from HarperCollins
Christopher Andersen
Barbra: The Way She Is
Original price $25.95, purchase price $7.80
Hardcover in good condition
B-

Not since Schorer's Sinclair Lewis: An American Life (1961), have I come across a biographer who seems to dislike his subject so much.  This book can be summed up as "Barbra Streisand is very talented and very bitchy."  Other than his attitude, and his frequent misuse of "proverbial" (hint, is the item actually in a proverb?), the book isn't bad.  Andersen traces Barbra's life through her unhappy childhood, her awkward adolescence, and on to more than four decades of (super)stardom.  Although I've followed her career off and on (seeing a movie or two every decade), I'm not a huge fan, and there was much here I didn't know.  However, Andersen does jump to conclusions, as when he strongly implies that Streisand had an affair with Bill Clinton.  (Not that that's implausible of course.)  And he seems to exaggerate her neglect of her sister.  

One thing that does come through the book, whether or not Barbra is a good person, she is very witty!  If she ever writes her autobiography, I'd love to read it, even if she doesn't quite tell all.  

Since Andersen discusses Streisand's creative endeavors, in between the gossip, I'm using all these "criticism" tags.  And, yes, I'm also using the "LGBT" tag, in honor of Barbra's son and many of her fans, and because of course the subject of homosexuality comes up repeatedly.

Invasion of the Dykes to Watch Out For

2005, first edition, published by Alyson Books
Alison Bechdel
Invasion of the Dykes to Watch Out For
Bought new for $14.95
Slightly worn paperback
B

While there's still some good, sometimes funny, stuff here, I found it somewhat of a downer, as even Bechdel acknowledges, in a wall-breaking sequence (which also shows Stuart as a leather daddy).  It's not even because of the War on Terror, since her characters have seen (and protested against) past wars and invasions.  It's more how they interact with each other, especially in the bonus story, "Theory & Practice," where Sydney cheats on Mo (with an ex-lover and fellow cancer survivor) and, more heartbreakingly, Toni cheats on Clarice with long-time crush Gloria.  Yes, Toni and Clarice have discussed polyamory in the past, but this is not a negotiated outside relationship; it's clearly presented as something hidden and dishonest.  

Less troubling, I didn't like some of Stuart's child-rearing ideas, not just for the baby he and Sparrow have together, but for Jonas-Janis, who still drops by a lot.  Since he becomes a stay-at-home dad, no one really challenges him on this, although he does get yelled at for not respecting the Christianity of Cynthia, Ginger's right-wing lesbian student.

Yeah, it's not the small inbred DTWOF world of a couple decades before.  Well, it's still very inter-related, but more complexly than when it seemed to just be mostly Mo, Harriet, Toni, Clarice, and Lois.  I don't own 2008's The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For, which had most of the strips to that point.  I've read online what's happened to some of the characters, and I would like to see a 2010s update someday, but this isn't a bad place to end.

Country Girl, City Girl

2004, undated later edition, from Houghton Mifflin
Lisa Jahn-Clough
Country Girl, City Girl
Bought newish for $6.99
Slightly worn paperback
B-

This was published a generation after Nancy Garden's Annie on My Mind (1982), and it's interesting to look at the similarities and differences.  As the title suggests, part of the book is set in the country (rural Maine) and part in New York City, as opposed to all in NYC in Annie.  You might expect a dual narrative, but it's all from the perspective of thirteen-year-old country girl Phoebe, who meets fourteen-year-old Melita, the daughter of the best friend of Phoebe's late mother.  The passage of time seems to have allowed for greater explicitness.  Instead of "heck" and "damn" being the strongest swears, the S-bomb is dropped a few times.  Also, there are more mentions of breasts than in Garden's book.  And yet, perhaps because the girls are younger, they never do more than kiss.  They also come across as more bi-curious than definitely lesbian, and we don't even get a delayed Happy Ending, since the girls don't end up together.  (Phoebe does make another new friend, but it's not indicated that this friendship will turn romantic.)

I said that Annie was quaint and "timeless."  Here, there are more contemporary (or at least '90s) touches, like an androgynous barista and mentions of hair-dying, piercing, and tattoos, as well as the girls staging a "postmodern, feminist" fairy tale "fashion show."  I did find that the dialogue was more natural than in Annie.  However, I didn't particularly like Melita, so I wasn't especially rooting for her and Phoebe as a couple.  Perhaps it would've been better to have half the book from her viewpoint, although admittedly that didn't work too well when Danziger gave her Phoebe and Rosie each a book.

Dykes and Sundry Other Carbon-Based Life-Forms to Watch Out For

2003, first edition, published by Alyson Books
Alison Bechdel
Dykes and Sundry Other Carbon-Based Life-Forms to Watch Out For
Bought new for $13.95
Slightly worn paperback
B+

Well, it turns out that getting a Republican in the White House again was good for the strip, as this is the best collection in a long time.  As the title and cover art indicate, Bechdel continues to expand her world beyond just lesbians, since in the molecule-like structure, we see not only Sparrow's Stuart and Toni & Clarice's son Raffi, but also Jezanna's live-in father and Lois's "tranny fag VW mechanic."  (Plus one of Mo's female cats and a tofu package.)  As Bechdel says in her introduction, where she looks back at 20 years of cartooning, "You don't have to be a lesbian, in the technical sense, to want to do something about" all the forms of prejudice, "you just have to be human.  Or at the very least, a carbon-based life-form."

There's some good, funny stuff about the crazy 2000 election, and a touching wordless strip about 9/11.  But it's not just the politics/world events.  I like what Bechdel does as she moves the characters along, adapting to change even as they bump up against 40.  Probably the most dramatic change is Sparrow's, as she becomes accidentally pregnant by Stuart and decides to go through with it, while still trying to shock her parents (whose last name is Pidgeon, sort of a pun) with her living situation.  Mo starts library school, and struggles with her assumptions when she thinks Lois is transitioning to "Louis."  And Ginger gets a new girlfriend, one with a genderqueer 10-year-old son who likes to dress up as Hermione.  (I loved bearded Stuart bonding with the kid by playing Hagrid!)

The bonus story this time is "Replicants," which focuses on the Pidgeons' visit as well as Mo and Sydney's stay with the latter's dad and stepmom.  I don't think Toni, Clarice, and Raffi appear there, but their lives are settling down a bit, once Clarice gets over her post-election depression.

The next title is less futuristic, more of a throwback, Invasion of the Dykes to Watch For in 2005....

Angels

2002, 2003 HarperTouch edition
Marian Keyes
Angels
Original price $7.99, purchase price 50 cents
Very worn paperback
C+

I found this to be between the first and second Walsh Sisters books in quality.  Five years have passed in the real world and in theirs.  Second sister Maggie, or Margaret, is now 33.  As with Claire in Watermelon, her marriage is ending, or seems to be.  So she goes to visit her screenwriter friend Emily in Los Angeles.  (The title is also a reference to guardian angels.)  While there, she thinks about her marriage, and about her long-ago relationship with Shay, as well as the pregnancies that resulted from both.  Meanwhile, she has two flings, one with a man with a large, "angry-looking" erection, and one with a woman with breast implants.  Keyes goes into much less detail about the one-nighter with Lara, partly because Maggie is bi-curious but not really into women.  When Maggie's parents and youngest sisters show up, I expected some sort of pay-off with Mammy Walsh's* reaction but she doesn't find out.  Still, Lara is a sympathetic character, so this makes up somewhat for the stereotypes in the earlier book.  (There's still mild racism though.)

As with Watermelon, the husband's personality comes across differently at different points in the book, and again I can't tell how much of this is bad characterization and how much is the protagonist rethinking things.  This time though, the Walsh sister goes back to hubby, older and wiser (and more sexually experienced).

The view of LA here can be compared and contrasted to Fisher's insider portrayals from the '80s and '90s.  Keyes's LA seems both phonier and more down-to-earth, with less drug use and more plastic surgery.  

Next up in the series will be Anybody Out There, Anna's book, in 2006....



*Her daughters still call her Mum, but the word "mammy" is used to indicate an old-fashioned Irish mother.

All About "All About Eve"

2001 update from 2000, this edition from St. Martin's Griffin
Sam Staggs
All About "All About Eve":  The Complete Behind-the-Scenes Story of the Bitchiest Film Ever Made
Bought new for $15.95
Worn paperback
B

This is similar to Aljean Harmetz's 1977 Wizard of Oz book, focusing as it does on one classic movie that was the highlight of many careers.  I didn't grow up watching All About Eve of course, in fact I think I was in my 30s before I saw it.  But the first time I did, I thought it was one of the wittiest movies ever.  I don't know about bitchiest, but Staggs definitely writes from a middle-aged gay man's perspective.  There's certainly queer content in the film, although obviously there's a lot of straight content, too, with Bette Davis and Gary Merrill blurring with their characters, and Marilyn Monroe making a very memorable appearance.  The book is basically a long, sometimes repetitive, but almost always fascinating love letter to not just this movie, but Old Hollywood.  I'm also using the "literary criticism" tag because Staggs has quite a bit about the short story that inspired the film.

I'm going with the 2001 update rather than the original copyright, because it includes, among other things, Celeste Holm's reaction to Staggs's opinions.  She was the only surviving cast member (she died last year) and refused to be interviewed for the book, and yes, she and Staggs are pretty bitchy about each other.

Truer Than True Romance: Classic Love Comics Retold!

2001, first edition, from Watson-Guptill Publications
Jeanne Martinet
Truer Than True Romance: Classic Love Comics Retold!
Bought newish for $19.95
Slightly worn paperback
B

Martinet takes stories from romance comics, leaves the artwork intact, and makes up new, 21st-century dialogue.  So, for instance, in "The Job From Hell!," part of the suffering is that the main character has to use a 1971 typewriter instead of a computer.  I've read this book more often than most of my other books from its time (although the condition doesn't suggest this), so I didn't laugh out loud this round, but I still found it good solid parody, yes, especially after Maney's weakest.  There's a LGBT element here as well, notably in "Loving Gay Men!" of course, but also in the Sapphic happy ending of "Psychic Matchmaker."  With the latter story, it's hard to believe that the artwork is unchanged, and I sometimes wish that Martinet had reprinted the entire original stories, rather than just the splash pages and brief synopses.

Every story has something to enjoy, even the weakest one, "Carry-on Girl!", with the line "You know, you have very Ronald-Reagany hair."  While I think it stands up to repeat readings, I recommend you just read a couple stories at a time, since it might feel a bit repetitive all in one go.  Still, I thought Martinet does a good job of pointing out some of the craziness unique to each story, as well as things that appear in more than one, like entire panels in one color.

Kiss the Girls and Make Them Spy

2001, first edition, from HarperEntertainment
Mabel Maney
Kiss the Girls and Make Them Spy: An Original Jane Bond Parody
Bought newish for $14.00
Worn paperback
C-

I don't know if it's that I've never read a James Bond novel, and I think I've only seen one movie all the way through, but I didn't get much out of this book.  On the other hand, I didn't grow up reading Nancy Drew or Cherry Ames, but I enjoyed Maney's earlier parodies.  And, despite a plot to reinstate Edward VIII (in 1965), this has none of the loopy charm of Ted Mark's Here's Your O.R.G.Y. (1969).  I liked only two of the characters, Jane's bookshop employer/chum and the cat-crazy old lady.  Worst of all, there's none of the clip-art-on-acid like in the Nancy & Cherry series. 

Only the sort of amusing names, like Lady Wooley-Booley and Bibi Gallini, and the fashion descriptions kept this from a D+, and even there, it felt fresher in Maney's '90s works.

Marie Antoinette: The Journey

2001, 2002 Anchor Books edition
Antonia Fraser
Marie Antoinette: The Journey
Original price $16.95, purchase price $5.95
Worn paperback
B

This is equally as good as Fraser's 1969 biography of Mary Queen of Scots (one of MA's* ancestresses).  As with that profile, Fraser humanises the queen, flaws and all, although it's mostly a positive portrayal.  Even the flaws are ones that Fraser sees as common to MA's times, places, and class.  She argues that the "let them eat cake" remark was not only attributed to many earlier French princesses, but it would've been out of character with the soft-hearted MA.  The book can be fairly criticized for not giving much if any sympathy to MA's many enemies, although I understand why Fraser chooses to instead focus on MA's perspective and experience.  

One aspect I found especially interesting, as a post-Hillary-as-First-Lady book, is that MA was the subject of nasty rumors and even pornography, presenting her an anything-that-moves bisexual bitch who controlled her weak husband.  Although Louis XVI was killed first, it was her beheading that was meant to be cathartic, and unifying, for the French.  In her show trial, she was accused of incest with her eight-year-old son.  (And, yes, some right-wing sickos have accused Obama with incest with his daughter, and his father.)  As Fraser notes, some modern lesbians have claimed MA as one of their own, but in her lifetime and for a long time afterward, her sexuality (real or imagined) was considered part of her evil.

Fraser argues that MA had little interest in sex, and her closest female friendships were sentimental, not "tribadic."  And yet Fraser herself, on little evidence, insists that MA had a several-years-long affair with Count Fersen.  Fraser claims he used condoms to prevent pregnancy, but I think it's more plausible, given all the risks, that MA made out (or maybe just kissed) with the Duchesse de Polignac, and saved sex for reproduction with her often uninterested husband.

Still, I enjoyed this book so much the first time that my boyfriend bought me a novel about MA's son, "Louis XVII."  It wasn't very good, so I reread this book again instead of finishing that.  This time is my third read in three years, so that's saying something.


*I'm going with this abbreviation, especially since the queen's birth name was Maria Antonia Josepha Joanna.

Lesbian Pulp Address Book

2000, possibly first edition, from Chronicle Books
Susan Stryker
Lesbian Pulp Address Book
Probably bought newish for $12.95
Worn paperback
C+

This is from that time that now seems odd in retrospect, when I had email but no cell phone (1997 to 2004).  It actually says "Phone/Fax/E-mail," although of course if you have email, it comes with its own (cyber) address book.  For each letter or two, there's a cover of a lesbian pulp novel, with a blurb on the back.  I was surprised how bad some of the artwork was (like for Knives of Desire), and it does get tiring to read of lesbians as "twisted," "sick," and so on, even if it's presenting ironically.  I'm actually more interested in the fact that I was too lazy to put friends under the right letters and just tucked bits of scratch paper inside.  Still, the book has novelty value.  My favorite is for Cindy Baby, "She was a rock-and-roll lesbian with an angel's face and a devil's body!"

Me Talk Pretty One Day

2000, 2001 Back Bay edition
David Sedaris
Me Talk Pretty One Day
Original price $14.95, purchase price unknown
Worn paperback
B-

Although I laughed out loud a few times, I didn't necessarily like this book.  The stuff about Sedaris's childhood and his time in France was best, the young-adulthood less so.  Although I'm using the "biography" tag, these are essays (many if not most published previously in magazines) about his life, so you have to piece together how old he is, and roughly how many and what order his siblings are.  It's interesting that his sexual orientation is sort of background rather than foreground.  When he has to take speech therapy to deal with his lisp, it's implied this was done to all the obviously gay little boys in his school, but then later we find out that his younger and straight brother has an equally girly voice (I'm not sure about the lisp).  Similarly, there's no coming out process, or reaction to him and his boyfriend Hugh as a couple.  Maybe that was dealt with in his earlier books, none of which I've read.

When he writes about his life as a pretentious drug-abusing young artist, or tells of his sister uglifying herself partially to annoy their pimp-like (but innocent) father, it's disturbing even when it's funny.  That sister, Amy, has written her own twisted books, and I think I skimmed the one where she was sort of Martha Stewart on crack.  I could see spending more time with the Sedaris family, but on the other hand, I'm not eager to, and I suspect I've read this book only once or twice before.

Uncle Mame: The Life of Patrick Dennis

2000, 2002 Da Capo Press edition
Eric Myers
Uncle Mame: The Life of Patrick Dennis
Original price $16.95, purchase price unknown
Slightly worn paperback
B

I found this biography to be about equal to Dennis's fiction, not so much because of Myer's writing style, since that's a little flat and overly redundant (he tells us several times that one of Dennis's nieces became a nun), but because Dennis was even more of a colorful personality than any of his characters.  Whether he was a 10-year-old dressing up as Margaret Dumont, or a fiftysomething working incognito as Ray Kroc's butler, he was the life of the party.  Even his letters to friends, family, and his editor are priceless.

Myers never quite finds the right tone to address the darker side of Dennis's real life as Edward "Pat" Tanner, the depression, suicide attempts, and struggle to deal with his sexuality.  Tanner was campy before camp was recognized (including as a Boy Scout), and yet he was never involved with men until he was in his 40s, leading to a very long separation, but never divorce, from his wife.  (They reunited not long before his death, still in love.)  I consider him to be bisexual, but of course for most of his life-- he died in 1976-- that wasn't an accepted orientation.

As in Dennis's best fiction, there's a vibrant cast to back up the "lead," and Myers does a good job of digging below the stereotypes, so that Louise Tanner isn't just the long-suffering wife, or Corry Salley the Hattie-McDanielesque maid.  And we learn more about the folks behind Little Me, which sounds like it was even more fun to make than to read.

Note, I'm using the "film criticism" tag as well as the "literary criticism," because Myers does talk about the movie versions of Auntie Mame.  Dennis thought Rosalind Russell was great but found Lucille Ball "a little too c-mm-n for the role."

Alternate Channels

2000, possibly first edition, from Ballantine Books
Steven Capsuto
Alternate Channels: The Uncensored Story of Gay and Lesbian Images on Radio and Television
Original price $18.00, purchase price $2.00
Slightly worn paperback
B

Unlike Bryant's Bisexual Characters in Film (1997), I felt like this lived up to its potential.  True, Capsuto goes quickly from the 1930s to the '60s, and about half the book covers the '90s, but that's because LGBT (yes, he covers bi and trans images, too) characters increased exponentially over time.  It was interesting to read, for instance, an excerpt from a 1950 radio sketch with Hope, Crosby, and Garland, with her performing a mock wedding for the men.*  Capsuto half seriously says early on that he won't be discussing such maybe-queer characters as Miss Hathaway or Mr. Smith (from Beverly Hillbillies and Lost in Space respectively), but he does consider any character who has at least a moment of same-sex attraction.  

I have to admit that what most pleased me was the chapter called "The Ellen Morgan Story," because here was a show I watched from the beginning (the These Friends of Mine days) until the bitter end, and it bothered me when people (including gays) said it was less funny after Ellen D. and Ellen M. came out.  Capsuto instead believes that this finally gave the show focus, although the angry tone of the second half of the season (when DeGeneres was fighting ABC) hurt the humor.  He also has good things to say about Roseanne, although he misses the classic exchange about lesbians and LensCrafters.

There are some redundancies, and the ending feels a bit rushed-- basically "Now we have Will & Grace, where the likable gay man who never gets to date is the lead character, oh, and by the way lesbians are disappearing in the post-Ellen era," but overall it's a solid, enlightening book.  (The L Word wouldn't premiere till 2004, and at the time this book was published, the British version of Queer as Folk was only a year old and Capsuto might not have seen it.)  Since I no longer watch new programs on television, I Googled and found a few current lists, as well as this article:  
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/lgbt-tv-characters-down-2012-647281

Note, the numbers are still impressive compared to even the mid-'90s, although still far from proportional to the real population.  And Capsuto is still lecturing on the topic, as he has since 1989.


*I don't have a "radio criticism" tag, but I am using the one for "film criticism," because Capsuto points out the influence of LGBT film characters in opening doors on the little screen.

Post-Dykes to Watch Out For

2000, possible first edition, published by Firebrand Books
Alison Bechdel
Post-Dykes to Watch Out For
Bought new for $11.95
Slightly worn paperback
B

As the title and cover illustration suggest, Bechdel has enlarged the DtWoF world well beyond lesbians, although that is still her main focus of course.  That cover shows (in order) a straight woman, a trans woman, a trans man, a straight man, a gay man, a bi different-sex couple, and a lesbian, all of whom are in fact Mo, as she'd be with various genders and orientations (but always the striped shirt).  The inside contents address, among other things, why Sparrow identifies as a "bi-dyke" now that she's dating Stuart, and how drag king Lois deals with her crush on Jerry the FTM mechanic.

As so often with these collections, the best part is the longish story at the end, this time "Flow State."  Again, politics is in the background, even as the story moves into 2000.  I wonder if the eight years of a Democrat in the White House made Bechdel and/or the characters relatively complacent.  We'll see the effect the younger President Bush has when we get to Dykes and Other Carbon-Based Life-Forms to Watch Out For in 2003.

Oh, and I'm using the "2000s" tag to mean not just "2000 to 2009" but anything from Y2K onward, since there won't be terribly many posts from the 2010s.

Sexually Speaking: Collected Sex Writings

1999, first edition, from Cleis
Gore Vidal
Sexually Speaking: Collected Sex Writings
Probably bought new for $14.95
Slightly worn paperback
B

This overlaps 1968's Sex, Death, and Money, and not just topically.  The first three essays here are mid-'60s ones that appeared in SDaM, and although it's been a long while since I read that collection, I decided to skip those three works.  (Near as I could tell, Vidal hadn't made any changes or comments on them.)  I jumped ahead to a snarky and insightful look at David Reuben's Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Sex, which even at age 14 I found dubious.  The book overall is smart and funny.  Even when I don't agree with Vidal, he's entertaining.  It was nice to get his take on Eleanor Roosevelt compared to B. W. Cook's.  (In 1971 he offers his memories of her, and then in 1999 he briefly talks about reading her correspondence with Lorena Hickok.)  There are also some interviews of Vidal by gay journalists, in 1974 and again in 1992.

One thing that Vidal said repeatedly that no one (of any orientation) seemed to get was that "homosexual" is an adjective, not a noun, and it applies to acts rather than people.  He was (I'm guessing) a Kinsey 4 or 5, defining himself as bisexual when pressed for a label, but seeing nearly everyone as potentially bi.  He does discuss homophobia, and the impact of AIDS, but I found his opinions changed little over time, except to become both more cynical and more hopeful.  In his lifetime, he saw gradually more acceptance of homosexuality, but he was always aware of the prejudices of society, particularly the Religious Right.

I doubt that I'll get his novel The Golden Age (2000) in time for this project, but this is not a bad place to end with him.  As you probably know, he passed away after I started blogging about him, but even at the time I saw him in Celluloid Closet (1995), he was an iconoclastic icon.  He may not be remembered fondly overall, but he will be remembered.

Eleanor Roosevelt, Vol. 2: 1933-1938

1999, Viking (Penguin) edition probably from later that year
Blanch Wiesen Cook
Eleanor Roosevelt, Vol. 2: 1933-1938
Original price $34.95, bought used for $8.40
Hardcover in good condition
B-

I didn't find this as good as the first volume, with my mind wandering more, especially with the long, drawn-out unhappy relationship with "Hick" getting so much attention.  I was more interested in the issue of prejudice and how ER and others (including Hick) dealt with it.  Cook points out that one reason for the U.S.'s silence for so long about the Nazi abuse of the Jews was not only American anti-Semitism, but the shameful racism of much of the U.S. (although most obviously in the South) towards Negroes (the then politest term).  Lynchings were common early during FDR's administration, although all sorts of anti-black discrimination (much of it similar to what Hitler urged towards Jews) were everyday. 

ER had her own blind spots, but she made great advances personally and politically in the half-decade Cook examines here.  She was controversial, and yet more admired than any woman of her time, or than her popular husband.  Cook gets a bit worshipful at times, although it's understandable.  According to Wikipedia, Cook is currently working on Volume 3.  I doubt it'll be out in time for this project, but I probably will get it if and when it's published.  It'll likely focus on the World War II era, and I'd like to know more about what ER did and said in that period.  (And a Volume 4 with the UN would be great of course, but that's probably a long way off, to say nothing of Volume 5 with her reluctant involvement with the Kennedy campaign.)

Split-Level Dykes to Watch Out For

1998, possible first edition, published by Firebrand Books
Alison Bechdel
Split-Level Dykes to Watch Out For
Bought new for $10.95
Slightly worn paperback
B

The title this time comes from Toni, Clarice, and Raffi's move to a better neighborhood.  At the same time, in the bonus story (with a nifty map), Sydney moves in with Mo, and Ginger buys the house she, Lois, and Sparrow have been living in, although they have to have Sparrow's new sweetie move in.  June, who we never saw much of, moves to Boston and then Sparrow, well.

LOIS: (on the phone) Hey, Ginger!  Sounds like Sparrow's home.  And I think she might have the mystery date in tow.
GINGER: (off-panel) Really?  Who is it?  What's she look like?
LOIS:  Uh...kinda like Richard Dreyfuss in "Jaws," only balder.

Yes, Sparrow is dating a man, a white man, although she's still identifying as a lesbian.  Meanwhile, Ginger and Toni are both reminiscing about their one-night stand of a decade ago, although this time it doesn't get beyond some flirting and sexual tension.  As in the other recent collections, there's not much about politics, although Mo makes the point (one Deborah Rhode might agree with) that people would rather talk about the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal than about more serious issues.

I found this on a level with most of the other collections, probably the funniest moment being a cigar-smoking Lois's Groucho imitation.  Next time, Post-Dykes to Watch Out For (2000)....

Moab Is My Washpot

1997, 2004 Arrow Books edition
Stephen Fry
Moab Is My Washpot
Original price £8.99, priced at "3 for £18" but I can't remember if I bought any other books then
Worn paperback
B

Stephen Fry fan that I was and am, and having run out of books on a trip to Scotland (I had underestimated the amount of time I'd spend in transit), I picked this up at Heathrow to read on the flight back.  I enjoyed it, then and now.  Fry tells the story of his years at public school (in the British sense), with many flashbacks and forwards.  While he of course discusses the teachers and lessons, the book is also about how he became a thief and an out-to-himself homosexual.  The title, Wikipedia explains, comes from psalms in which the nation of Moab became like a basin, and Fry sees this book as "scrubbing at the grime of years."  Wikipedia also gives a somewhat happy ending to the story of Fry's love for a boy he calls here "Osborne," as they met again as adults, and both Mr. and Mrs. "Osborne" have been very nice to him in the years since.

Gay teenaged love and sex are rare to read of in autobiographies, but Fry shares much that's personal here, from his "deflowering" by a prefect to his inability to sing or play sports.  He also gives his opinions on various matters, and even if you don't agree with him (like whether corporal punishment has lasting psychological harm), he's always interesting.

And, yes, I'll be honest, with the first Harry Potter book approaching later in '97, it was helpful to get a nonmagical description of things like "houses," and trains that take the students to school.  Fry would go on to record the Potter audiobooks, and befriend Daniel Radcliffe, so this isn't entirely off topic of course.  

Since this book covers only Stephen's first 20 years, it's good to know that The Fry Chronicles: An Autobiography came out in 2010.  I doubt I'll get it in time for this project, but we'll see.

Bisexual Characters in Film: From Anais to Zee

1997, possibly first edition, from Harrington Park Press
Wayne M. Bryant
Bisexual Characters in Film: From Anais to Zee
Possibly bought newish for $17.95
Slightly worn paperback
C+

Although this book had potential, I didn't think it lived up to it.  The biggest problem is that Bryant arranges the book thematically, rather than chronologically or some other approach that would eliminate all the redundancies.  Not only are films discussed in more than one chapter, often the same information is repeated.  Also, of course, the book is dated, and not in an interesting way like the different editions of Celluloid Closet.  (I've read two but don't own any.)  As Bryant admits, the bi pride movement was then about fifteen years behind that for gays and lesbians.  So there weren't terribly many movies with clearly bi characters.  (And he misses one of my favorite moments, Terry-Thomas in Where Were You When the Lights Went Out [1968]: "I dislike women and men alike.  Does that make me bisexual?")  You could probably find equally good or better lists and analyses on the Internet these days.  Still, points for being a pioneer.

Hot, Throbbing Dykes to Watch Out For

1997, possible first edition, published by Firebrand Books
Alison Bechdel
Hot, Throbbing Dykes to Watch Out For
Bought new for $10.95
Slightly worn paperback
B

This is the collection that introduces Thea's annoying ex, whom Mo starts dating.  Clarice and Toni's relationship goes through some rocky spots, not helped by new babysitter Carlos (the first significant gay male in the comic), but ending with Clarice adopting Raffi (yes, with two F's now), who's becoming more articulate.  Meanwhile, Lois takes Prozac, until it interferes with her libido.  Ginger finally completes her thesis.  And Jezanna reluctantly agrees to a risque fundraiser to save her bookstore.  These plots intertwine in the bonus story "Sense & Sensuality."  (Yes, Austenmania hit in unlikely places in the mid to late 1990s.)

Again, there's not a lot of politics, although Sydney does bait Mo about Buchanan's populism, just to hear her rant.  But, yes, the personal is political, and as the title suggests, this is a book about relationships, carnal and otherwise.  The next year's title is more mainstream, Split-Level Dykes to Watch Out For, not that that's not a political statement in itself.