Transgender Book Reviews
Stone
Butch Blues
Fiction by Leslie
Feinberg
Copyright 1993, 301 pages, $12.95
Firebrand Books
ISBN 1-56341-029-X
Capsule:
Stone Butch Blues is a groundbreaking, seminal book -- a
must read for those interested in the life of a masculine, butch
lesbian in the turbulent 60s and 70s. Author Leslie Feinberg, who
has gone on to write other books, fictionalizes the nine (or more)
lives she's lived, including schoolgirl-who-looks-like-boy, butch
lover, labor activist, transgender pioneer and more. A very
well-written novel about a "stone butch" with a woman's soul who
learns to define and live out her particular blend of masculinity
and femininity.
Full review
I came upon Stone Butch Blues purely by accident several years ago. Helping to get my first TG novel into print, I was looking for a book with good graphics and page design to emulate. Browsing a gay/lesbian bookstore, I came across the attractive book cover above. Noting that the book was the winner of some impressive literary awards sealed my decision.
After taking the book home and perusing the design elements, I began to read ... and read. Stone Butch Blues turned out to be one of those riveting odysseys I had to finish in a weekend.
"Jess" is born under a cloud after a neighbor woman's prophesy that she will "walk a difficult path in life." Growing up in upstate New York, kids ask her if she's a girl or boy. She's caught wearing her father's clothing. After being raped by the football team, she likes to curl up and listen to storms. Early on, she leaves home and never returns .
The world outside is topsy-turvy with some of the turmoil of the 60s. Meanwhile, Jess learns what "butch" means -- and that there are bars where women love and compete for each other. This begins Jess's induction into the hidden world of lesbian bars with tough butch women and their femme lovers. She's in heaven, and she finds some companionship and love. But there's a price to be paid. Cops routinely visit to harass the "freaks," haul them off to jail, and beat and humiliate them.
She also discovers motorcycles.
At the same time, she must work, and she must play the games that revolve around unions and butch women in the workforce. This is not secretarial work, but tough industrial work. There are strikes ... and accidents caused by unsafe conditions.
Eventually she has breast removal surgery and decides to pass as a man by using hormones. Feinberg writes: "I fought long and hard to be included as woman among women, but I always felt so excluded by my differences ... I hoped that [becoming a man] ... would allow me to express the part of myself that didn't seem to be woman. I didn't get to explore being a he-she, though. I simply became a he -- a man without a past. Who was I now -- woman or man? That question could never be answered as long as those were the only choices ....
"What if the real me could emerge ... Who would I be?"
This is a story of isolation, punctuated with intense affairs of the heart, with a note of hope at the end -- Jess discovers community and and others like herself in New York City, along with the desire to speak out about the joys and horrors of her life. And also -- to speak out about her conviction that the workers of the world deserve better.
Stone Butch Blues is very coherently written. Emotional. You will not forget "Jess" soon.
(Reviewer: Valory Gravois) (Copyright ©1999 by Alchemist-Light Publishing)
Where
this book can be purchased
Return
to list of reviews
Return
to home page