My 5. 2QQ2
Amy Bloom
Continued from Page 28
and em otions and desires are portrayed as
they are— messy and com plicated.
In the title story a mom awakens to her
child’s real gender identity: “Jane knew that she
had managed not to see it, as you manage not to
see that your neighbor’s new baby has your hus
band’s eyes and nose.” In “Light Into Dark,"
Lionel and stepmother Julia try to get through
Thanksgiving, sharing the secret of an incestuous
night together. “Running to Eden” follows hus
band Charlie and lesbian best friend Ellie as they
shape an unusual connection during the care of
Mai, the third, ill member of their liaison.
A strong smell of death and illness wafts
through most of the book’s scenarios. This delib
erate presence of imperfection adds instant des
peration and unpredictability, stripping characters
of their last pretenses (e.g., a mistress straddles her
lover in his darkest hours of Parkinson’s disease)
and liberating and intensifing each central love.
And just when you think the gloom will
never end, something beautiful sprouts out o f it.
It’s but a tiny part o f Bloom’s vast insight into
the quirks of the human heart, deriving, no
doubt, from her long career in psychotherapy.
To top it off, her astuteness is accompanied
by a witty side, filling the collection with wel
come irony: “She is now practically a profes
sional observer o f gender, and she sees that
although homeliness and ugliness won’t win
you any kindness from the world, they are not,
in and of themselves, the markers that will get
you tossed out o f the restaurant, the m en’s
room, the M ichigan W omyn’s Music Festival.”
A Blind Man was nominated for the N ation
al Book Award, and its title piece was chosen
for The Best American Short Stories 2000. Bloom
also wrote Come to Me (more short stories) and
Love Invents Us (a novel).
— Els Debbaut
Auto, Home, Life & Business
JH
hen Sara Ryan learned that a
woman whose daughter checked
out her book Empress o f the World
from a public library in
Houghton, M ich., was refusing to return it
because she didn’t think it was suitable for the
public, the Portland writer sprang into action.
She immediately contacted the library and
offered to send an autographed copy. T he staff
happily accepted.
T he 30-year-old’s first book has received a
lot of attention. Empress has been written up in
USA Today, Teen People, Publishers Weekly and
other periodicals, which have described it as a
tender, compelling story about a first love affair
between two girls attending a summer camp for
gifted and talented kids.
T he novel was also nominated for a Lamb
da Literary Award in the Children/Young
Adult category. (It lost to Julia W atts’ Finding
H .F.)
Ryan calls the whole thing “very exciting.”
fJnsubtaAle/
bq vJack lurtelt
he Michigan-born novelist’s literary
habit began at a young age and became
more focused when, as a teen-ager, she
attended Clarion, a science fiction and fantasy
writing workshop. She remembers it as very
intense— 16 aspiring young writers and six
instructors spent six weeks together at M ichi
gan State University in Lansing. “T h e experi
ence pushed me to becoming serious about
w riting...it had a huge impact.”
Ryan moved to Portland almost five years
ago for her job in the Multnomah County
Library’s school outreach program working
with teachers and media specialists to provide
resources for children and adolescents. She says
she loves her job because she gets to put her
■
passion about books into action.
U nlike similar gay-themed novels about
young people, Empress “doesn’t deal with all
the negative social ramifications o f ‘coming
out’ to angry parents, prejudiced peers or disap
pointed school counselors.” Instead, because
Sara Ryan’s coming of age story was nominated
the story is set in a place removed from the
for
a Lambda Literary Award
usual hometown and family dynamics, it can
because people would ‘know’ about her,”
focus on the excitem ent and uncertainties of a
Ryan shares.
first love that “just happens to be lesbian.”
A nother young woman reported that she
Except for the incident in Houghton, the
made her sister read Empress because “her
book has received what Ryan believes is sur
entire family was homophobic.” T h e sister’s
prisingly little protest. As a librarian she is
experience with thfe book “changed the whole
keenly aware how many books with “contro
outlook o f the family.”
versial” content are under attack. Instead, most
T h is is good news to Ryan, who identifies
feedback is coming from encouraging e-mails
as bisexual and lives with a male partner. “I
written by young people and adults— gay and
feel com fortable in my identity,” she asserts.
straight— who find her account of love realistic
“O n e reason I wrote the book is to make
and convincing.
space for people to be bisexual, as well as gay
O ne girl “read the book in three successive
or transsexual.”
sessions in different bookstores. She didn’t
Ryan has adapted one of the characters from
want to buy it or check it out of the library
p fu n
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A partment B ldgs .
Empress for a
comic book story
with her partner,
illustrator Steve
Lieber, for the
magazine Cicada,
which is geared
toward teen writ
ers. She also pens
an occasional
technical support
column for Voice
o f Youth Advocates,
a publication tar
geted at educators,
librarians,
coun-
selors and
other pro
fessionals
who work
with young
people.
In fact,
the reaction
to Empress
has been so
positive th e
writer is work
ing on a
sequel, w hich
will focus again
on the same
young lovers.
S h e ’s in no hurry, though, noting getting it
on the shelves is less im portant th an making
sure she “gets it right.” JFl
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