January 1989
Building a world with myth and allegory
In Mundane's World, all living things earn a voice in the
story and share equally in the perpetuation of life
BY
A N N D E E
H O C H M A N
TiJXJNDANE’S
1V± WORLD
eaders of Judy Grahn can trace footprints
from her poetry and nonfiction to the
strange, mythic landscape of Mundane’s World.
This, her first novel, carries themes introduced
in earlier works: the primacy and playfulness of
language, the value in the “ common” details of
women’s lives, the sense of nature and history
that binds women across centuries. But as a
framework for the book, these ideas speak too
loudly, eventually out-shouting both the plot
V. ' V . . - v s s ’. u\\
and the characters. In Mundane's World, the
story ends up taking second place.
In The Work o f a Common Woman (The
Crossing Press, 1978) Grahn established herself
as a skilled wordsmith who used language to pry
apart convention and patriarchal culture. A
series of poems called “ The Common Woman”
looked with a respectful but unsentimental eye
f
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at the lives of seven women. About “ Ella, in a
if -lÆ ;
square apron, along Highway 80,” Grahn
writes, “ Like some isolated lake / her flat blue
eyes take care of their own stark / bottoms. Her
A NOVEL BY
hands are nervous, curled, ready to scrape.”
Another Mother Tongue {Beacon Press, 1984)
spun out of Grahn’s interest in language and
culture, particularly the ways in which gay and
lesbian tradition has been whispered through
in language and setting seems designed to
the centuries. The book is a fascinating, enter
nudge the story into mythic proportions: “ Five
taining study of gay history through the avenues
mostly brown young girls moved down by the
of language.
riverside . . . they ranged in age from the eldest
Mundane's World lacks both the razored
to the youngest.. . . ” This kind of light-handed
insight of Grahn’s poems and the historic reso
description does set a tone and force readers to
nance of her nonfiction. In an effort to create an
exercise their imaginations. It does universalize
egalitarian, utopian landscape, Grahn models a
the story, suggesting that the allegorical mean
bland world in which no character, conflict or
ing is more important than the w ho-what-where
episode stands out enough to command attention.
details. But good fiction ultimately needs
The book is written as a myth — actually, a
specifics; it needs character and it needs
series of mythic vignettes — tracing a young
tension. Mundane’s World seems a pleasant
girl’s coming of age. The story, set in a name
enough place to visit, but Grahn gives us no
less place an unspecified number of years ago,
compelling reasons to stay.
•
follows Emesta and several of her friends from
a frightening and pivotal encounter with a lion
to an actual rite of passage, a four-day dream
sequence in a room-sized menstrual chamber.
The story is told largely from Emesta’s
viewpoint, although the omniscient narration
also dips inside the minds of other characters,
he publisher and the editor of the Lambda
animals, trees and plants. In Mundane's World,
Rising Book Report, a bi-monthly review
all living things earn a voice in the story and
of contemporary gay and lesbian literature,
share equally in the perpetuation of life. Indeed,
have announced a new annual awards program
Grahn carries this idea to specific extremes; the
to recognize excellence in gay and lesbian
women of Mundane's World sometimes repro
writing and publishing.
duce by taking plants as “ spirit mates” and
dreaming their babies into their wombs.
The public is invited to participate in the
Lambda
Literary Awards by nominating their
Like Mary Daly, whose Webster’s First New
favorite gay and lesbian books of 1988.
Inter galactic Wickedary o f the English
Nominations are accepted in twelve categories:
Language played deliciously with the roots and
Lesbian Fiction. Gay Men’s Fiction, Lesbian
meanings of words, Grahn has fun with puns
Non-fiction, Gay Men’s Non-fiction, Lesbian
and wordplay. “ Being Dead is a Matter of Inter
Mystery/Science Fiction, Gay Men’s Mystery/
nal Turmoil,” heads one chapter, a discussion
Science
Fiction, Gay and Lesbian Poetry,
of the internal churning and merging of the
Lesbian First Novel, Gay Men’s First Novel,
“ matter” of a corpse. Another, describing an
Lesbian Small Press Book Award, Gay Men’s
overly zealous rain dance, is titled, “ Women
Small Press Book Award, and AIDS (a special
Together Are Often More Than Making Dew.”
category).
These epigraph-style headings, although clever,
Nominating ballots are being distributed
begin to feel forced, as if the chapters were
through gay and lesbian newspapers and book
written to justify their titles, rather than the
stores and the Book Report itself. The deadline
other way around.
for nominations is February 17, 1989. Five
Grahn makes satisfying use of repetition as a
finalists
in each category will be announced
tool of myth and an allegory for how a young
nationally on March I, 1989.
girl gains knowledge by watching and doing,
A panel of 60 judges from across the country,
over and over and over. One segment that crops
representing
a broad cross section of the entire
up several times, “ How Cooking Took a Long
lesbian and gay literary community, will select
Time to Learn,” examines the intuition that
a
single book in each category from among the
governs how we prepare and eat food.
finalists.
These sections, along with some others,
For further information about the awards
work well as self-contained vignettes. But as a
program or the banquet, please contact Will
whole, the book lacks enough dramatic tension
Guilliams: Book Report, 1625 Connecticut
to propel it forward and make us care. Overall,
Avenue. NW, Washington. DC 20009-1013 or
Mundane’s World feels too self-conscious.
phone (202) 462-6965.
From the first words, an intentional vagueness
R
[ i
Judy Grahn
Lambda Literary
Awards announced
T
Lesbian Stages: Plays by Sarah Dr«.
Victoria Publishers. Inc. 1988. 310 page>i!,0 Pen
$9.95.
FO REST Group Events
Sunday, Jan. 1: Annual cross country ski of Mt.
Hood. (Gayle. 233-2084.)
•
Ian. 6: Potluck (6:30) and meeting
he successful local production o f Alumnae
justices c , .,
> j
News introduced Sarah Dreher’s vision
and wit to Portland audiences. The publication
o f Lesbian Stages, a collection of five plays that
includes Alumnae News, brings her work to a
wider audience, all the silent readers who
hunger for images of lesbian lives in theater.
The tive plays in this collection prove a varied
and satisfying meal.
While Dreher notes in the preface that most
of her work is autobiographical, the plays in
Lesbian Stages do not read as carbon copies of a
single life. They take place in college towns and
the Women’s Army Corps compounds and
mountain cabins, they are set in 1945 and 1966
and the unspecified present. They span a range
of tones from quick-witted comedy to family
drama to farcical Gothic Romance.
In Alumnae News, two friends, Stacey and
Karen, confront each other ten years after their
graduation from Wellesley, where a jealous
classmate’s suspicion destroyed their friend
ship. The scene shifts from Stacey’s college-
town country home to the women’s junior-year
dorm, where their developing affection for each
other drove another friend, Terry, to report her
suspicions that Stacey was a lesbian.
The tone of the second play. Base Camp, is
similar to Alumnae News. In it, a protagonist as
sardonic, competent and irreverent as Stacey
has an unexpected encounter with a manipula
Shadows o f Ixjve, American Gay Fiction
tive ex-lover. The setting changes — the pro
edited bx Charles Jurrist (Alxson Publications.
tagonist is the owner of an isolated Montana
$R.95).
mountain lodge, the ex-lover a reluctant
The contributors to this volume of gay short
member of a climbing party that is snowbound
stories live in small towns such as Femdale,
at the lodge for three days — but the theme rings
Washington and Toms River, New Jersey as
familiar. Both of these plays click with witty
well as such diverse cities as Seattle. Toronto,
dialogue and end. perhaps better than real life,
Houston and Atlanta.
with their female couples choosing the possibi
Shadows o f Love abandons the rut of the New
lity of love over the certainty of loneliness.
York-San Francisco axis in which much of the
Backward, Turn Backward strikes a more
gay fiction of the past two decades has
somber tone. Although the main character is a
wallowed. In his introduction, the editor com
lesbian, the theme of her sexuality takes second
ments that the aim of the volume was to
place to that of child abuse. Rae’s father
assemble a group of stories that “ would more
Monroe, is dying and Rae has come home, at
accurately represent the geographic and ethnic
the urgent plea of her sister Lynda, for a final
diversity of gay America.” In this he has
visit with this controlling, ailing man.
succeeded, with no stinting on quality.
This Brooding Sky sticks out of the collection
Highlighting the volume is the wryly comic
A View o f the Freeway by William Reyes which
like a rap musician at the symphony. It contains
no complex relationships or emotionally
involves a second generation Mexican-
charged encounters — it is a farcical Gothic
American. two young illegals from Mexico and
Romance, pure and funny. As reading material,
an upwardly mobile Japanese-American.
it provides gleeful relief to the more sober
Reyes’s romance whets the appetite for more by
this promising writer.
themes of the other four plays in the collection.
Hollandia ’45 takes place in a South Pacific
— Jay Brown
Women’s Air Corps compound during World
War II. The main character. Kit Fortescue, must
play herself as she was during the war and as she
is 30 years later. This play contains both the
A Mistress Moderately Fair, by Katherine
kind of macabre wartime wisecracking that
Sturtevant, Alyson Publications, $R.95
entertained M*A*S*H audiences and deeper
conflicts about survival, both in and out of war.
atherine Sturtevant’s first novel bursts
In a scene late in the play that crackles with
upon the scene much as one of her King’s
intensity, 70-year-old Kit argues with her small-
players burst upon the stage in the mid-1670s,
minded neice, Marian, on the porch of her
the setting for this fast-paced, exciting,
house, while in the adjacent set representing
adventurous lesbian love story.
Kits’ memories, her wartime lover Mary begs
The pages are peopled with lords, ladies, and
her to stay.
the dramatic and interesting players of Drury
Marian’s jealousy would have her destroy
Lane — London's theater district. Margaret
Kit’s souvenirs, take away her memories, but
Featherstone is an extraordinary woman; a
Kit orders her off the property — and. figura
widow who writes plays, competing with
tively, declares her psyche off-limits to
England’s most creative men. She longs for the
Marian’s intrusions. It is an act of self-
patronage of King Charles II — but even more
preservation, reminding us that, in the old age
she longs for Amy Dudley.
awaiting us all. what we will have left are our
Amy is a superb actor with a scar that would
histories. In Hollaiulia 45, in all of these plays,
keep most women from the stage. She also has a
Dreher insists that those histories are worth
past that could bring her to the gallows should it
saving.
be revealed.
— Anndee Hochman
Their lives and their stories become inter
twined in this well researched, well written
page-turner. Seventeenth century England
The Gay Desk Calendar — 1989 by John
comes to life with steamy sex scenes, intense
Preston (Alyson Publications. $7.95) is chock
fear and hatred of wrongdoers, and blessed
full of daily reminders of the extent of the com
revenge in this novel of love, suspense and
justice.
munity and history which pull us together.
The first of what the editor hopes will be an
— Sandra de Helen
annual event. The Gay Desk Calendar is
T
K
just out * 1 5 * January I W i