An incisive but slightly uneven debut collection about the nuances of queer identity.
Queer characters break rules and make them in Manning's smart debut collection.
"My family had no rules," says the teenage narrator in the title story. "At least it felt that way for a time, because most of the rules were vague and unspoken." There's one rule, however, that the narrator and her sister, Stacy, come to understand: Being queer is not OK. Stacy is kicked out for "choosing" her sexuality, and the narrator runs away before her parents can reject her. But joining her sister's queer household comes with new rules that, while intended to keep her safe, wind up putting her in a vulnerable position. These are intellectually keen stories that measure the high cost of heteronormativity and also critique equally restrictive norms within the queer community. "I'm sensitive about being recognized as queer or radical," explains the narrator of "Ninety Days," whose lover, Denise, has left her to transition to being a man. Being outwardly femme means the narrator has to perform her queerness and "come out, multiple times a day." Sometimes the rule is that there are no rules. At least that's what the queer narrator of "Chewbacca and Clyde" thinks when she comes home from a backpacking trip and brags to her partner, Meredith, about having had sex with a man. "Who are you?" Meredith asks. Manning's overriding interest in sex, sexuality, and power means their characters are sometimes conscripted into playing specific roles that flatten them and some of these stories. But when they complicate the script, this work is a powerful testament to the complexity of identity and desire. "The term’s ‘bottom,’ " a character describes, "but it's not always about penetration." Instead, it's about the "the vulnerability and the weight and the pain...and the sheer disbelief that I was a space for claiming and fitting."
An incisive but slightly uneven debut collection about the nuances of queer identity.Pub Date: May 12, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-55152-799-4
Page Count: 168
Publisher: Arsenal Pulp Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
Dated sermonizing on career versus motherhood, and conflict driven by characters’ willed helplessness, sap this tale of...
Lifelong, conflicted friendship of two women is the premise of Hannah’s maudlin latest (Magic Hour, 2006, etc.), again set in Washington State.
Tallulah “Tully” Hart, father unknown, is the daughter of a hippie, Cloud, who makes only intermittent appearances in her life. Tully takes refuge with the family of her “best friend forever,” Kate Mularkey, who compares herself unfavorably with Tully, in regards to looks and charisma. In college, “TullyandKate” pledge the same sorority and major in communications. Tully has a life goal for them both: They will become network TV anchorwomen. Tully lands an internship at KCPO-TV in Seattle and finagles a producing job for Kate. Kate no longer wishes to follow Tully into broadcasting and is more drawn to fiction writing, but she hesitates to tell her overbearing friend. Meanwhile a love triangle blooms at KCPO: Hard-bitten, irresistibly handsome, former war correspondent Johnny is clearly smitten with Tully. Expecting rejection, Kate keeps her infatuation with Johnny secret. When Tully lands a reporting job with a Today-like show, her career shifts into hyperdrive. Johnny and Kate had started an affair once Tully moved to Manhattan, and when Kate gets pregnant with daughter Marah, they marry. Kate is content as a stay-at-home mom, but frets about being Johnny’s second choice and about her unrealized writing ambitions. Tully becomes Seattle’s answer to Oprah. She hires Johnny, which spells riches for him and Kate. But Kate’s buttons are fully depressed by pitched battles over slutwear and curfews with teenaged Marah, who idolizes her godmother Tully. In an improbable twist, Tully invites Kate and Marah to resolve their differences on her show, only to blindside Kate by accusing her, on live TV, of overprotecting Marah. The BFFs are sundered. Tully’s latest attempt to salvage Cloud fails: The incorrigible, now geriatric hippie absconds once more. Just as Kate develops a spine, she’s given some devastating news. Will the friends reconcile before it’s too late?
Dated sermonizing on career versus motherhood, and conflict driven by characters’ willed helplessness, sap this tale of poignancy.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-312-36408-3
Page Count: 496
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2007
BOOK TO SCREEN
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