Lesbian fiction review: Annie on my Mind – Nancy Garden
Posted on | September 7, 2009 | 4 Comments |
Annie on my Mind: 7.5/10 (8/10 for teenage level readers)
Hello all,
Welcome to the first new post of the married Yuribou! *bows* I hope you treat me as well as you did the old unmarried version…
A couple of months ago, I decided that since I love reading lesbian fanfiction so much, I should probably bite the bullet and read some actual lesbian fiction (of the English variety) that was actually written by real authors. Not that the interweb can’t come up with good fiction, because you all know that I approve of well written fanfiction; but there must be something special about an author that actually gets her work published, surely?
Anyway, this culminated in an Amazon spree, the result of which is my first lesbian book review of Nancy Garden’s “Annie on my mind”.
Overview
Nancy Garden is (or was) a fantasy writer when she decided that she should write something poignant about lesbian relationships, which got published, to acclaim in 1982 and after that she decided to continue in the above vein writing lesbian romances and coming out stories to highlight discrimination and hardships of being a gay couple.
Accordingly, “Annie on my Mind”, her flagship novel, is written in a style that is most appealing to teenagers (think Harry Potter or Point fiction level). Ha ha, I think Point fiction is showing my age. I used to read Point SF. I wonder if they’re still doing those books…
The writing is simple, with imagery that is easy to picture and much fewer metaphors and going up the author’s metaphoric rectum than you would get in a book of a similar type written for an adult audience. However, (thankfully) it doesn’t give the impression of belittling the reader so even an adult reader such as myself didn’t feel particularly talked down to when reading it.
Characters & Plot
Annie is about the coming out story of two young girls who meet at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Liza and Annie (the books namesake, of course). Liza is from a middle class white American upbringing, whereas Annie’s parents are more working class immigrants (from Sicily, no less).
The basis of the story follows the old lines of yuri romances – Girl meets girl, girl makes friends with girl, both girls slowly become to realise that there is more to their relationship than regular friendship but don’t know what it is. Girl kisses girl on the spur of the moment, girls go out together. However, interspersed with this altogether touching teenage romance story are the ups and downs of high school life, Annie’s school with its drug pushers and violent gangsters and Liza’s school with it’s homophobic teachers and suspiciously close female staff members. (I’m trying not to spoil things too much here…)
The book’s focus, however, is on the two main characters who are marvellously developed throughout the story. Even coming from a heterosexual standpoint, it’s refreshing (and a little nostalgic) to recognise the feelings between two people get slowly realised as they clumsily make their way towards realising something important about themselves. The supporting characters are equally believable as well – especially Liza’s parents, teetering on the fence between shock and supporting their child it is rather admirable that the author didn’t go straight for the easy pickings of “Disbelieving parents who excommunicate their child on the first whiff of homosexuality”.
Of course, the crux of the plot is when events come to a head in Liza’s school and the pink marshmallowy haze of romance that the two are bathing in is suddenly brought crumbling down when they are “discovered” and brought before the school tribunal by the old-school headmistress. This part I also think was handled well – whereas in a more adult book, this part could have been doom and gloom with a panel of homophobic American nationalists condemning the “unnatural” actions of innocent teenage girls (But then there wouldn’t have been a good moral to the story, eh?). But…oh, I won’t spoil the ending…
Conclusion
Annie on my Mind does what it says on the tin. It’s a book aimed at teenage lesbians and teenagers who are confused about their sexuality and paints a rose-tinted view of the fruition of lesbian love between two high school age girls who get caught up in the old-school homophobia that is rife wherever you go in the world but come out the other side relatively unscathed. Despite having an obvious moral purpose (namely that gay love is NOT unnatural or wrong), Annie is very well written for it’s target age group and even reads well for adults. The strength of the novel is the vividness with which Garden paints her characters and how well these characters gel with people you may or may not have met in reality. This is not a fantasy novel about how coming-of-age lesbian love could be – this sends the message that real life is hard, but if you’re determined, love can win in the end. And for that, I would recommend it.
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4 Responses to “Lesbian fiction review: Annie on my Mind – Nancy Garden”
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September 9th, 2009 @ 5:43 am
Hm…
sounds interesting…
anyways, of course we will still accept you now that you’re married ^^
September 9th, 2009 @ 7:08 am
No! Go back and get UN-married, NOW!
Just kidding! Congratulations on your marriage!
Great review! Ive never read a western lesbian romance…
September 14th, 2009 @ 10:16 am
Western lesbian or yuri it doesn’t matter in my language nothing seems available … but let’s see if I can get hand on a copy~
September 26th, 2009 @ 5:54 pm
Great site, how do I subscribe?