7 - LAM BDA RISING BOOK REPORT
lllliwtration (rom th« cover)
A YEAR W ITH THE LADIES OF
LLANGOLLEN,
edited
by
Elizabeth Mavor (Penguin, 238 pp.
$5.95).
In 1778, two young Irishwomen,
Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby, defied
their families as well as social convention by
"eloping” to the Langollen valley of Northern
Wales. This is their story as revealed by these
selection from Eleanor Butler’s journal.
A t first the journal seems rather ordin
ary with references to the weather and what
they ate for dinner, but soon it unfolds into a
loving account of a life well-lived with a cher
ished companion. Readers will delight at
Eleanor’s reference to Sarah as "M y
Beloved.” The phrase may seem stilted to our
modern ears, but the tone is sincere and
therefore refreshing. In fact, of all the diaries
I ’ve read, this stands out as the only which
focuses on a life-long loving relationship.
It is also the oldest diary I have read,
and as such it provides an excellent protrait
of the late 1700’s and early 1800’s. The bigg
est surprise is the true liesure with which
they led their lives. Eleanor and her beloved
take morning and afternoon walks, enjoy long
evenings of reading and drawing, and ease
through days (in her words) " o f the most
delicious retirement." (Oh, I AM jealous!).
Eleanor and Sarah extend their loving
concern to an assorted menagerie of dogs,
cats, and cows. Eleanor records their concern
for a lost cat, a cholicy horse, and the difficult
calving of their favorite cow. In contrast,
Eleanor’s loving concern reaches compara
tively few people. She does not waste any
sympathy on wandering gypsy beggars, way
ward servants, or uncooperative shop
keepers. Similarly, she spends little time
chronicling the larger historical events of the
day, since they never actually have impact on
her life with Sarah which is obviously her
primary concern. The result is a sort of his
torical sampler with such events as the Napo
leonic Wars, the decline of cotton man
ufacturing, and the beginnings of the indus
trial revolution embroidered in with the
threads of their lives.
For those who love a story of a roman
tic relaionship, this is a good and rare find.
But best of all, this journal is for those who
love the romance of an age past-for it is rich
with the imagery of bird song, brook ripple,
wind and “ mizzling rain,” the scents of laven
der and sweet briar.
-Deborah Kachelries
LEAVES FROM A VICTORIAN
DIARY, by Edward Leeves (Alison
Press/Secker & Warburg Limited,
126 PP. $19.95).
One of the major problems of being gay
has always been the feeling of isolation, l b
whom do you talk when things go wrong.
Nowadays, we get on the phone and call our
nearest and dearest. One hundred years ago,
it seems many people wrote all of their inner
most feelings in their journals. By reading
those journals, we discover that many things
never really change.
LEAVES FROM A VICTORIAN
D IARY chronicles one year (1849-1850) in the
life of Edward Leeves, an upper class Bristish
expatriate living in Venice. When an immin
ent invasion by Austrian troops ti<reatens his
quiet existence, he journeys home to his
native England where he meets, loves, and
ultimately loses Mr. John Brand, a young
member of the Royal Horse Guards. Though
leeves himself evidently destroyed a portion
of the diary (Sept. 5 to Dec. 15) in his grief, we
soon learn the details of the all too brief
affair. After a few weeks of intense happiness,
Leeves makes a brief visit to the country with
the intention of meeting his "darling boy”
when he returns. Three weeks later, his life is
shattered when Jack fails to appear at their
reunion. Visiting Jack’s barracks, he learns
that the young Jack Brand was a victim of
the cholera epidemic then sweeping Europe.
The remaining year in the diary is the por
trait of a man consumed by a grief which
polite society could not understand.
Of primary interest to readers with a
passion for biography and history, this first
(llltMtratkMi (rom Urn c o w l
hand view of life in the mid-nineteenth cen
tury can be quite enlightening. The parallel
between cholera and A ID S is inescapable.
Leeves notes that according to the London
Times of December 17, 1849 “ In Paris the
most fatal month...was June, when 5,769 peri
shed. In London...September, when 6,644 fell
victim.” History and historical paralles aside,
Leeves teaches us how not to deal with grief.
Though one must sympathize with Leeves
because of his private grief which he could not
share, he comes across as a stereotypical,
melodramatic
Victorian
who
wallows
gloriously and emotionallly in self-pity. Albeit
not light reading, this diary is an interesting
window on the past.
•Paul Webb
THE GODDESS LETTERS: The Myth of Demeter & Persephone, retold by Carol Orlock
(St. Martin’s Press, 220 pp. $15.95).
CONVERSATION
W ITH
MY
ELDERS, by Boze Hadleigh (St.
Martin’s Press, 209 pp. $14.95).
Ever the graceful and mannerly chap,
Mr. Quentin Crisp conveys this book to the
gentle reader with a polished and ever so
slightly ticklish foreward. From there on, it’s
every gay man and lesbian for themselves as
idols and demi-gods turn aside from their
carnal pursuits to permit yet another probe of
their often palatial closets, and in the process
thrash about their inner sancta like Orson
Welles looking for his magic decoder ring in
CITIZEN KANE.
Sal Mineo, Luchino V isconti, Cecil Bea
ton, George Cukor, Rainer Werner Fassbinder,
Rock Hudson, the bric-a-brac of great names
dropping and clattering across the oak
parquetry almost obscures the rather more
astounding undercurrent which is the great
value of this series of interviews. Each of
these six astonishingly successful gay men
has a specific set of reasons for not coming out
that, when examined apart from their fame,
may provide at least a partial framework for
addressing this highly politicized personal
issue.
The subjects are quite frank in dis
cussing their professional and personal lives,
but this frankness is not born of an extra
degree of trust imparted to the author, Mr.
Hadleigh. Instead, they all know that, as Rock
points out, no one would print these revela
tions while they were alive. They wouldn’t be
printed because no one would believe them.
Also, Hadleigh informs us that the general
media has perpetrated a "gentleman’s
agreement” and thus quashed the highly con
troversial truth for so long, that coming out in
print becomes a political act denied to these
receptacles of the average American’s dreams.
The utopian dream that has shaped this
book and so much of our community is also
embraced by Rock who agrees that under the
right condition, he would have considered
doing a strictly gay part in a strictly gay
movie. Rock and Hadleigh both assert that if
some us come out others will follow, and our
numbers and the aggregate weight of our
accomplishments will earn us a place of resp
ect. A beautiful dream it is, but why doesn't
Mr. Hadleigh declare himself in his introduc
tion?
-Jack Garman
Next to your BULFINCH’S MYTH
OLOGY, just to the left of your D ’AU-
LAIRE’S ILLUSTRATED BOOK OF
GREEK MYTHS, make a space. And in it,
lovingly squeeze this little gem, which is for
those of you who collect Mary Renault, or
those of you who call the constellations by
name.
The myth of Demeter, the goddess of
vegetation and the protector of marriage, and
her daughter Persephone (also spelled Pro
serpine), who is abducted by Hades, the god
of the underworld, is one of the most familiar.
When Hades kidnaps the young goddess,
Demeter’s grief is such that the earth grows
brown and lifeless. Thus the ancients
explained winter. In brief, a compromise is
reached whereupon Persephone is given
special dispensation to return to the upper
realms six months out of every year. Usually,
no one is allowed to return from Hades.
However, at the end of this reunion of mother
and daughter, in which spring and summer
reign, Persephone must return to her dread
lord. Fall and winter sweep down upon the
earth as Demeter grieves, and Persephone
rules as Queen of Hades.
Orlock has rendered the myth into the
form of missives, diary entries as it were,
between mother and daughter. During the
course of this interesting exchange, in which
deities behave with human resolve, frus
tration and a bevy of other foil, many tales
and myths which we have heard in childhood
come brilliantly back to life. The book jacket
brags of THE GODDESS LETTERS that it
exhibits "a more subtle feminism than is
found in most of today’s fiction.” It is at once
more and less. 7b be sure, the turnabout from
goddess to human matters little in Orlock’s
insights into relationships between mother
and daughter. It is at most an interesting
vehicle for her feminist perspective. What is
unique and delightful about THE GODDESS
LETTERS is the humor derived from these
earthbound immortals. One favorite passage,
Demeter’s maternal jealousy of another’s off
spring, is Victorian in its polite campiness: " I
searched Oceanus’ caverns. I looked for his
daughters, the girls of Oceanus and Thetys,
Oceanus their father. Put a Titan with a
Titan and what can one expect? They have
three thousand daughters, a ripe supply in all
the large sizes. ‘ Deep-bosomed,’ poets call
them kindly.”
THE GODDESS LETTERS is a swift
read. A knowledge, indeed, a love for the
classic myths is helpful. However, by no
means is it necessary.
-David Perry
(Illiutrotioa from tb* cover)
CONFESSIONS OF M ADAM E PSYCHE, by Dorothy Bryant (Ata Books, 376 pp. $11.95).
Dorothy Bryant (author of THE KIN OF ATA ARE WAIT is inspirational, speaks through to us with her own straightforward
ING FOR YOU) has put together a phenomenal piece of writing, words. Mischievous, compassionate, often confused, she moves
THE CONFESSIONS OF M ADAME PSYCHE. Tbken from the through a world in up-roar. 77ie book addresses the racism preva
actual diaries and correspondences of Mei-li Murrow, it tells the lent in those days against Chinese, Mexican and Black people.
story of this Chinese-American woman who lived an extraordinary From her perspective we see how they were the groups to suffer the
life. Born in San Francisco before the great earthquake, Mei-li most throughout the hard times.
grows up a neglected genius. A manipulative sister channels her
Mei-li’s own true spiritual awakening carries the book, albeit
talents to develop a fraudulent psychic medium act which wins her slowly at times. Aside from the fullness of the plot and the smooth
fame and some fortune. Mei-li travels to England and is there flow of events that only some fiction and exceptional autobiogra
during the First World War. After eloping with an opera singer, she phies can achieve, the vivid descriptions of life in San Francisco and
travels throughout post-war Europe. She returns to the U.S. alone, Europe in the early Twentieth Century makes this novel great
quits the psychic business and forms a commune, has a lesbian reading. It seems misdirected to give credit to Bryant for this book
relationship, lives through the great depression and helps to form when it was written by Mei-li herself. Yet whatever additions and
unions.
editing Bryant did, it serves to make Mei-li’s voice stronger, the
Migrant worker, radio personality, lonely woman, Mei-li’s plot tighter. A terrific summer reading book.
story is charged with wonder. Her incredible strength and beauty Laura Markowitz