Archive for the Novel Category


Summer Reading: The Grave Soul by Ellen Hart

September 30th, 2015

GSELHJLOne of the most delightful things about the novel Maria-sama ga Miteru ~Ibara no Mori was the description of Sei, the compulsive reader, looking for stories that reflected what she was going through, this unspoken, confusing and many ways, distressing love of another girl. She found things about homosexuality, of course, that treated it as a pathology and, based on the descriptions of the stuff she read, she found herself staring down the Well of Loneliness and other dire lesbian classics.

I loved this section of the novel, because I too was young, and combing through the library, trying to find books that didn’t make me want to stab myself. I wasn’t, thank the gods, looking for confirmation…I just wanted to read a good book with lesbians.

I was lucky. I found Desert of the Heart, by Jane Rule and Beebo Brinker,  by Ann Bannon and I found lesbian mysteries. Murder at the Nightwood Bar by Katherine V. Forrest launched me into a 1990s full of volumes of lesbian-protagonist mysteries. Naiad Press was publishing them in droves and I was haunting Barnes and Noble, (this was so long ago Borders did not yet exist and B&N’s “Gay and Lesbian Fiction” shelves were a second home) buying them and borrowing them at the library, Dozens, maybe hundreds of lesbians with long-dead lovers, with drinking problems who weren’t out, who were out and suffering from institutional homophobia, being stalked and tortured and beaten and eventually catching the bad guy. So, so many mysteries. So many, in fact, I became absolutely sick to death of mysteries.

At then end of the decade, there were two authors left I could stand. Forrest kept writing, left Naiad for a major publisher and her character, Kate Delafield, out and comfortable at last, became more comfortable for me to read. And Ellen Hart, whose Jane Lawless mysteries scratched an itch for lesbian characters who were not suffering from homophobia, alcoholism, or trauma. Although Jane had the prerequisite long-dead lover, she ran a restaurant, had a female Oscar Wilde as a side-kick and was quite likable. I always liked Jane.

But, as I mention, I left mysteries behind me. And I had not realized that Ellen Hart was still writing them. Until last year, when I discovered Ellen Hart on Facebook,I also discovered Jane once more. And just after I had caught up to Hart’s last book, (the Fates must have found this hilarious, I swear I can hear them giggling,) it tuns out that her new publisher is an imprint of a large publisher and her editor is a friend of mine.  And so, with thanks to the publisher, I had a chance to make the last of my summer reads, Ellen Hart’s newest Jane Lawless mystery, The Grave Soul.

It was an excellent book.

The construction was turned inside out a bit, so we begin with the aftermath of the crisis, then work our way back in to it. We, the reader, always know that aftermath and so the tension is turned way up throughout the book without us actually having to go through the crisis itself. When all too many novels these days are merely prologues to violence, stalking and torture scenes in the name of “suspense,” this approach worked to create a lot more suspense without having to subject us to violence porn.

It was good to revisit Jane Lawless, the restaurateur who sleuths on the side, good that she broke up with her horrible girlfriend in the last novel, good that they did not get back together in this one. Cordelia, her side-kick, is always too much to be believable, but that is what we like about her. She’s the comedic relief in the Shakespearean sense of the word.

The story was tightly written. The mystery was a classic small-town murder, but one in which Miss Marple had to come from out of town in order to make sense of it. And the ending was appropriately Agatha-Christie-like as well.

All in all, an excellent revisit to an obsession of my youth, long before Yuri manga, and long before Jane (or I) was so comfortable with saying the word “gay.” In this case, I was able to come home again and find that what has changed, has changed for the better.

It was a good read, and I’m glad that Ellen Hart is still out there plugging away at it. ^_^

Ratings:

Overall – 8

Facebook is your friend. Ellen Hart, Katherine V. Forrest, Ann Bannon and many other lesbian writers of the past and present are there and you should totally take a look at their books. This is your literature.





Summer Reading – Red Girls: The Legend of the Akakuchibas

July 26th, 2015

81GCH6FO7nLFirst, the good news. My bathroom renovation is finally, after 9 weeks of crazy, finished.  I hope that means my life will return to normal and I’ll get back to regular reviews. (If not…oh well. ^_^)

Today I want to rave about the book that sustained me through the last few weeks, Red Girls: The Legend of the Akakuchibas, by Kazuki Sakuraba, translated by Jocelyne Allen.

The novel follows three generations of a rich manufacturing family in remote western Japan: Illiterate, clairvoyant, Manyo, a daughter of the mountain people who was abandoned as a child, her daughter Kemari, who ruled the girl motorcycle gangs of western Japan, then left it to become a famous manga artist, and her daughter Toko, the narrator of the book.

The synopsis had me intrigued. But you know I keep my expectations low, and I’ve read a lot of Japanese novels, so I’m aware of the slow-to-fast pacing that dominates their writing style. I did not expect to love this book.

I loved this book.

I enjoyed reading it so much, I did something that is unheard of for me – I stopped reading quickly. I started parsing out chapters, then half chapters, slowly, night after night, so I wouldn’t finish too soon.

The language in the book is quirky and strange. My first thought when I started reading was that the translator was a genius – how exciting for me, then to find that the translator was my friend Jocelyne Allen! What a fabulous job she did, communicating the richness of the words, the tones of the speech, and the all-out strangeness of the book. Did I forget to mention that it’s strange? It is. It’s really, really strange. Captivatingly so.

The isolated location, the overview of Japanese 20th century history as seen through the eyes of utterly unaverage, but completely sane, people, coupled with the fantastical visions, and fictionality of their lives, tied together with unnerving precision of description of humanity makes for a fascinating read. This is a super, dark, super, rich, super bitter dark chocolate of a book. The flavor is complex and delightful, but it requires an adult palate to appreciate it.

That said, I found the book especially delightful when it wandered directly into my own playground full of girl gang manga. I’m not going to lie  – those bits were extra specially tail-wagging for me. ^_^ Kemari’s manga, Iron Angels! bore a striking resemblance to Hana no Asuka-gumi, which put a smile on my face through that whole section.

But what surprised me most was how good (strange, but good) the ending was. It had been such a delightful read that I had no hope at all that the ending would be good. It was perfect. Strange, but perfect.

This is the first Haikasoru book out of Viz Media that I had ever read. If this is the kind of stuff they are putting out, I’m going to have to go browse through their catalog. This was an  amazing bit of summer reading, a great translation and a damn fine novel.

Ratings:

Overall – 10

I couldn’t have imagined a book this perfect for me to read this summer.





Lesbian Novel: Dolly Dingle, Lesbian Landlady

February 2nd, 2015

DollyDLLA few years ago, I discovered Monica Nolan’s genius with the Big Book of Lesbian Horse stories. Following that, I’ve read and reviewed Bobby Blanchard, Lesbian Gym Teacher, Lois Lenz, Lesbian Secretary, and Maxie Mainwairing, Lesbian Dilettante.

Dolly Dingle, Lesbian Landlady continues the saga of the lady-loving ladies of Magdalena Arms in Bay City. Like the earlier entries in the series, Dolly Dingle, is simultaneously a romp through lesbian pulp novel tropes, a drawing room comedy and a mystery story.

The elderly landlady of The Magdalena Arms is taken ill and resident Dolly steps in until Mrs. DeWitt is well again.  While acting as stand-in landlady, Dolly starts cleaning up the old place, until she learns that it’s not just that the carpets that are worn and out of repair. The finances are in serious disarray and if Dolly can’t think of some way to get them all out of a predicament, the Arms will be closed and torn down!

Unfortunately for her, Dolly is also trying to balance her own career, and not one, but two, love affairs, neither of which seem to be going quite the right way.

Will Dolly decide whether it’s Kay or Arlene she loves? And what is with all that stuff in the basement? Will Dolly and the gals save the Arms? Find out in this thrilling – well, highly amusing – installment of the Bay City series by Monica Nolan! /end AM radio announcer voice/

As always, I adore Nolan’s campy mixture of mid-century YA literature and pulp prose (that is, apparently, entirely on purpose.) The mystery this time started in one place and ended in another, but it was a terrific ride getting there. And ultimately, the mystery part was more developed than the love affairs.

A notable addition to the ever-changing cast is Jackie, an African-American nurse. I hope we’ll get her story in the near future…and I’m still holding out for a barracks romance story one day. ^_^

Ratings:

Overall – 8

As always, I’m looking forward to the next pulp novel adventure in Bay City. ^_^





LGBTQ Novel: Atashi no Kanojo (あたしの彼女)

January 22nd, 2015

anknWe’re very familiar with Mori Natsuko-sensei’s work here on Okazu.So, it comes as no surprise really that her newest Atashi no Kanojo (あたしの彼女) is another romp through various forms of adult play and BDSM.

Notably, this novel comes with a cover drawn by Morishima Akiko-sensei which, as far as it goes, actually is pretty good illustration of the content. There are no other illustrations in the book, as it is not a light novel.

Sae is a college student, in love with her classmate Hanano. Hanano returns the feeling, but in a private conversation, explains she is not interested in sex, only masturbation. If Sae wants to be her “lover”, she’ll use Sae’s sexual exploits as masturbatory fodder. (The word in Japanese for this, btw, is “Okazu”. That was one of the meanings I had in mind when I chose the name for this blog. Okazu is more commonly use to describe little dishes of various food items, as well, which fit into the idea that the blog covers this and that. And, finally, it’s a nickname for lesbian sex, as it’s not “the main course”, but a “side dish.”)

Sae agrees to Hanano’s term and find herself torturing a nice, attractive male classmate, Eiji, for Hanano’s pleasure. Hanano also sets up a session with a butch lesbian Midori. Sae becomes increasingly unsatisfied with her “relationship” with Hanano, as she never gets to so much as touch the other woman. When she meets up with Midori on what she thinks is her own, she finds that Hanano is already there and is watching them.

One last time, Sae is the top to pretty (and rather sweet) Eiji, but Sae’s thoughts stray towards Midori. She’s attempting to break away from Hanano, but finds that her “lover” is two steps ahead of her. Midori straps Sae down, then calls both Hanano and Eiji to join them, As Midori directs Eiji to have sex with Sae, Sae suddenly realizes that all along, Hanano was the sadist and she, like Eiji, has always been a masochist.

Like Sae, I grew a little tired of the “relationship” about halfway through the book. It was an easy read and I suppose it was sexy, if that’s what one is into, but there was never any kind of emotional development for any of the characters that convinced me to like them. This was very much a case where I would have liked to see Sae be plucked out of this book and find someone nice in another story. ^_^

Ratings:

Overall – 6

It was okay. All of Mori’s typical fetishes, without any of her fabulous outrageous humor or geeky wonderfulness. In the end I decided that the one thing I never, ever want in my porn is an ironic ending. ^_^;





Yuri Novel: Kanoe-san no Hidari Te (鹿乃江さんの左手)

January 5th, 2015

kanoeleftKanoe-san no Hidari Te  (鹿乃江さんの左手) “Kanoe-san’s Left Hand”, is author Aoya Mami’s debut novel and a winner of the Poplar Book’s Newcomer Prize…and a truly wonderful read.

You may remember from my recent trip to Japan, that I mentioned  that the Toranoana in Akihabara had a truly “Yuri” section, with comics and novels from multiple publishers. I picked up a number of books there that I either had never heard of or might not have otherwise bought, just because they were there.  I grabbed this up, saw that it had won an award and thought, okay, why not. This book has no illustrations, although I wish it had. There were at least two scenes that would have been spectacular to see illustrations for.

If you want a really, really good book on which to practice reading Japanese, this is the book. It was compelling, I kept staying up too late to read 2 pages more, well, 5…okay 10, heck I’ll just go to the next break. That kind of good.  ^_^

At Daishima girl’s school, there is a rumor that a witch will appear if a girl has a sincere enough wish. Once you’ve sealed the contract with a kiss (which does not have to be on the lips) your wish will be granted. And, as we learn in three unrelated scenarios, this rumor is absolutely true.

In the first story, a transfer student who draws pictures to pass the time, finds herself captivated by a member of the Kyudo club, Kanoe-san. When she asks the witch to be able to draw realistic pictures, she finds that she isn’t just drawing pictures that are true to life, but that reality appears to following her pictures!

The second scenario follows the events when a class decides to do a ballet as their culture festival performance. A girl who had previously studied ballet ends up directing, while a former karate competitor ends up starring in the production.

The final story follows the school doctor whose entire life has effectively come to a complete stop after the girl she liked in high school, so many years ago, left her.

In each story, the atmosphere was so thick with tension, so ripe with possibility, that I wasn’t actually sure if the story would be a horror story or not until the very end. The ballet scenario, particularly, could have been a bloodbath – and I’m not being symbolic when I say that. It easily could have been a really bloody, violent story. But it wasn’t. It was – they all were – absolutely delightful to read.

In terms of Yuri, the first story really sets up the book being “Yuri-ish,” with constant mentions of two girls acting “Yuri-ish” (“Yuri’ppoi”) and that intensely thick, anticipatory atmosphere. The second story had some breathtakingly sexy/intense scenes, without any actual Yuri. The third story – the least intense of the three, but still pretty full of tension, was the most Yuri of all.

I am absolutely going to check out Aoya’s other book, although it looks like a Yokai/mystery comedy. But hey, that falls comfortably into my wheelhouse too. ^_^

Ratings:

Overall – 10

A real, honest-to-goodness page turner.