Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book.

Lesbian Love Story is a mix of lesbian history and memoir but more than that it’s a lovely addition to the lesbian archive! Possanza connects being a lesbian today to our greater history as a community and it was so fun to read!

TO READ IF: You miss talking to your smartest friend (or if you’re a hot, gay librarian).

This “memoir in archives” chronicles the lives and loves of seven historical lesbians, while also weaving in the author’s personal experience with her identity. While lesbians (and women and queer people in general) are often left out of the narrative, Possanza puts together a history of lesbianism that’s filled with care, warmth, love, and community.

From ancient Greece to Depression-era Harlem to the AIDS crisis, this book collects and shares the stories of sapphic love that have often been ignored by history. Reading this book feels like having a passionate conversation with a good friend whose special interests perfectly align with yours. Lesbian Love Story is charming, heartfelt, and wonderfully gay.

From: https://lithub.com/literary-lovers-a-sapphic-reading-list-for-every-mood/

I am SO GLAD this book exists... and I wish it did so much more! Possanza's writing is clear and sometimes beautiful and her research is nearly exhaustive. The issue is that in avoiding contemporary fights about lesbian identity, she seems to have created an elephant in the room/text. Why include the cisgender male singer Drake on a list of people who might be considered lesbians (?!?—I am still so confused by this choice), but not on that list include lesbian transgender women, whose identities are attacked daily? Why include people she briefly acknowledges might have been transgender men (and yet repeatedly sweep them into the lesbian fold, thus denying their identities), but again not trans women? Why talk about TERFs finally in one paragraph of a laudatory chapter on Cherrie Moraga without acknowledging that Moraga has made many anti-transgender remarks as part of her separatism? As a book of history, this gives very moving, well-researched portraits of several lesbians. As a memoir, it's curiously arms-length. As an archival work written in this historical moment, I wish it had really gone into stakes more. All that said, there were many individual pages I loved, and I imagine this book will be dear to lesbians who strongly identify that way and aren't yet familar with their history.

Lesbian Love Story. Did Amelia Possanza know when she began what her results would be? She said she would “collect” lesbians. Lesbian Love Story is part archival history – herstory – of lesbians throughout the ages, primarily in the US, and part personal experiences by Amelia. She often blends the two within chapters, interjecting her memories, feelings about her research, and much more.

This book consists of seven chapters ranging from Sappho in 595 BC to the 1980s. Possanza opens with a writer, Ruth Fuller Field, who used the pseudonym Mary Casal, Mary lived in the late 19th-early 20th Century. We learn about her relationship with a younger woman named Juno. We learn that “romantic friendships” were common and not necessarily frowned upon, as these were perhaps considered “practice” for “real” marriage. The state of women living together was known as a Boston marriage.

In several chapters, the author has chosen examples of women who lived lesbian lifestyles, i.e., apparently intimate relationships with at least one woman, who were married, or had been married to a man. Not all these women were monogamous in their lesbian relationships either, even if they declared themselves to be married to one another. She introduces interesting women from different decades. Mabel Hampton and Lillian Foster were Black women who moved from the South to New York when they were young. They were together for 40 years. Theirs was one example given of a “butch femme” relationship. Amelia learned much about the pair from interviews that Mable recorded. They called each other Big Bear and Little Bear, and Lillian was considered the “wifey.” Babe Didrikson, the famous multi-sport athlete/pro-golfer was another featured “butch” lesbian. Although Lillian “Babe” was married to pro wrestler-promoter George Zaharias, it was a well-known “secret” that Babe was “that way.” She claimed that she’d been taught how to be a lady, but she was still rough around the edges. However, she took Betty Dodd under her wing to make a lady of her, and the two were mostly inseparable. When Babe was dying of cancer in her early 40s, it was Betty who was at her side.

Perhaps there was no one more butch than Rusty Brown. Rusty made a living wearing pants to get a man’s job during WWII, and after the war worked as a male impersonator (as did Mabel). There are numerous mentions of drag queens in the book. There’s a hilarious story of the time Rusty and her drag queen partner switched roles one night. Rusty was uncharacteristically in dress and heels. She got arrested for impersonating a woman!

No herstory would be complete without Sappho, the Greek poet. She lived on the island of Lesbos – hence, the word lesbian. Because there was no record of her life, little is known about her personal story. Some of her lyric poetry remains; much of it is love poetry, written to be performed to music. She was thought to have killed herself by drowning after throwing herself off a cliff for love of a man named Phaon. However, much of her poetry referred to female beauty, and she got a bad reputation for her “impure friendships” with her female friends. Suffice it to say that Sappho is considered by some to be the “Tenth Muse” because of her lyric poetry and is practically a patron saint to many lesbians. I found parts of this chapter rather confusing, perhaps because of the fuzzy history.

Moving on to modern times, the author writes about two Chicana lesbians, Gloria Anzaldúa and Cherríe Moraga in a chapter that focuses on diversity, politics, and community. She describes the women’s pasts, and sadly, Cherríe Moraga is one of the only women I could find who is still alive. There was no women’s study program at the time, so, in order to write her thesis on feminist writings, she designed her own program with the help of her advisor, Sally Miller Gearhart, the first out lesbian to hold a tenure-track position. Gearhart sounded familiar to me. Sure enough – she was one of the women in a 1977 documentary film featuring interviews with 26 gay men and women called Word Is Out: Stories of Some of Our Lives. For her thesis at SF State University, Cherrie wrote, This Bridge Called My Back with Gloria. The seventies also saw the beginning of Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival, the formation of Olivia Records, and lesbian collectives.

The final chapter discusses friendship between lesbians and gay men, spotlighting a relationship between a man, Michael, who was dying of AIDS, and the woman, Amy, who nursed and cared for him throughout his illness. The author points out how the broader lesbian community supported their brothers in that same way in the 80s, and how women became more outspoken about healthcare equality, AIDS prevention, and treatment for all.

Throughout the book, Amelia inserts her own comments and memories. I think swimming is her first love. At times, it is distracting. Mostly, however, I found it endearing. It is, after all, her journey. In seeking a history, a herstory, to share with others, she discovers her own story and creates one as well. She has some valuable insights to share about gender and gender roles. She is often self-deprecating about her femininity, to which I can somehow relate; by the end, she seems to have come to terms with all her many selves. I could say much more. But please, read it for yourself, even if you’re not lesbian.

I received an ARC copy of Lesbian Love Story in exchange for my honest review. My opinions are my own, Thanks to NetGalley, Catapult Press, and the author.

An interesting blend of memoir and historical fiction, this book combines author’s own experiences with lives of historically neglected/overlooked lesbians before her. Drawing on extensive research, personal reimaginings, and various parallels, the author presents a fairly compelling quilt of a narrative.
My main draw here was the historical aspect since I do not like and try to actively stay away from memoirs. Especially memoirs written by people who haven’t even hit middle age. Now only do I not care to read them, I also don’t like reviewing them, because it inevitably feels like I’m reviewing the person themselves. But how does one not do that? Seriously, how does one avoid forming judgements when reading heavily confessional accounts seasoned with equally heavy confessional details?
Like how do I not think…well, this person is still single because she refers to her partners as lovers like some cheesy SNL sketch? Or question how someone who has relationships with men calls themselves a lesbian?
See, what I mean? Profoundly personal business but one certainly opens themselves up to such inquiries when writing a memoir, no? Why even memoir at all? Is it a reflection on out modern culture of oversharing?
Why not stick to the historical facts? Those were genuinely interesting. Maybe the author’s story might be too, sometime in the future. But biographical accounts present complete lives, different times and mentalities, different journeys in a much more interesting way. Often not needing interjections of what the author and her lover did or the author’s musings on her unshaven legs.
At any rate, whatever you get out of this book, it’s worth a read. It is an objectively clever use of historical research to shed light on past more fascinating and storied than is seen at a brief glance. Because love is love, it has always been there and will always be there, regardless of social mores and conventions. Thanks Netgalley.

Thank you NetGalley and Amelia Possanza for allowing to read an advanced copy of Lesbian Love Story.

This book was very well-written and well-organized. We get to experience seven different love stories throughout the book. We started by hearing about Mary Casal and her love for a woman named Juno. Her story was fascinating. I was pulled into this story and couldn't wait to dive into each subsequent chapter to learn about each new character. I devoured this book in one sitting. Would highly recommend reading this one.