Nonfiction by Barrie Jean Borich
Copyright 1999, 294 pages, $24.95
Graywolf Press
ISBN 1-55597-292-6 (hardcover)
Capsule:
A writer's solid account of her longtime love affair with a
masculine lesbian. The theme throughout is a return to family and
tradition, especially the tradition of marriage.
Full review
OK, this isn't strictly a transgender book. Yet it contains enough on the subject of lesbian pairing, and enough about the author's partner who is masculine or butch, to provide an interesting read.
The writer, Barrie Jean Borich, calls this a creative work of nonfiction. In other words, many names have been changed, and some poetic license exercised. "I have worked to write within the bounds of the actual," she writes.
She's a loquacious writer with a rich memory and a lot to say about her past. Sentences and paragraphs are packed with information. She's an experienced writer in her prime -- very comfortable with her material. The book moves back and forth in time with ease.
The author's photograph shows me a happy, confident, Midwestern woman.
Borich grows up in the Chicago area amid relatives with one foot in the Old World. Tradition, marriage and procreation are held in high reverence. Yet Borich distances herself from becoming buried in these expectations. She goes to college, boozes, plays around with guys, but never feels comfortable going all the way. After a series of exploratory relationships with women, she finds a bar with " ... women like none I had ever seen before. They had magnificently cragged faces and wore slim-cut tuxedos and rhinestone rings on their pinky fingers. They were women I did hope would scoop me up in their strong palms as they would a pool of water in the desert. Boom. My sound barrier shattered. It really did exist, the noise I heard in my head, my chest, my heart. It annihilated, I thought, all that had lived there before and I knew I could never go home again. And I never have gone home, not as the girl who grew up on that steel-mill and freeway plain."
She writes about having obeyed the dictates of feminism for a time -- of lesbians all looking the same and trying to eliminate all vestiges of men. In time, though, especially after meeting the love of her life, Linnea, Borich recognizes the importance of differences and polarities in a relationship. Borich returns to her true self, a woman who enjoys wearing dresses, lipstick and (I believe) being emotional. Linnea on the other hand loves motorcycles and men's clothing.
While many other lesbian relationships fail, theirs lasts as they establish themselves in Minneapolis's version of Bohemia and set up housekeeping. The right pixie-powder has been scattered over them; they become a fixture.
Meanwhile, back in the author's family, changes are afoot. Borich's brother marries a Japanese woman, and Borich's family slowly and grudgingly accepts the union. To these family weddings comes a gay relative who has a male lover, but they don't announce themselves as such. Borich chides him, but still feels somewhat of an outcast herself with Linnea along.
As the years pass, Borich comes into her own. With her own family of two as a beginning, the author tries for greater acceptance from her family. She doesn't want to be pulled down by tradition, yet she wants the rewards that tradition can offer -- the continuity between generations, the feeling of being vital and loved, and the recognition of being a successful adult and marriage partner.
Finally, and this is a semi-silly ending for what is mostly a levelheaded, somewhat serious book, the couple decide to tie the knot -- in Las Vegas.
Moral of the story: follow where the excitement of life leads you, but be aware that love and commitment may ambush you along the way.
(Reviewer: Valory Gravois) (Copyright ©1999 by Alchemist/Light Publishing)
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