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More copies of this ISBNOther titles in the Lesbian Pulp Fiction series:Beebo Brinker (Lesbian Pulp Fiction)by Ann Bannon
Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:Designated the "Queen of Lesbian Pulp" for her landmark novels of the 1950s and 1960s, Ann Bannon's work defined lesbian fiction for the pre-Stonewall generation. With Beebo Brinker, Bannon introduces the character who made her famous: a butch 17-year-old farm girl newly arrived in Beat-era Greenwich Village after being kicked out of her Wisconsin home town for wearing drag to the State Fair. Here Beebo finds "love that smolders in the shadows of the twilight world," falling for a glamour girl among the Bohemian set. Review:"Bannon's books let me imagine myself into her New York City neighborhoods of short-haired, dark-eyed butch women and stubborn, tight-lipped secretaries with hearts ready to be broken. Her books come close to the kind of books that had made me feel fatalistic and damned in my youth, but somehow she just managed to sustain a sense of hope. And of course, there was her romantic portrait of the kind of butch woman I idealized. I would have dated Beebo, no question, although, like a lot of my early girlfriends, she would have grown quickly bored with my political convictions and insistence on activism." Dorothy Allison, Salon.com Review:Greenwich Village in the 1950s offers a backdrop for this classic lesbian pulp-fiction novel, first published in 1962, newly reissued in paperback and endorsed by Dorothy Allison and Joan Nestle. Forty years on, readers can look back at a plot trajectory — boy meets girl; girl meets bad girl; girl meets good girl; girl meets closeted-superstar girl; girl finds true love — that melds mistaken identities and molten love scenes, via melodramatic prose, into a satisfying whole.
Things begin with Jack Mann, a fairy godfather and war veteran comfortable with his love of "volatile, charming, will-o-the-wisp boys." Jack spots Beebo Brinker, 4 inches taller than he and freshly fallen off a Greyhound bus. Offering a meal, shelter, peppermint schnapps and sympathy, he learns her story as we do: a misunderstood Wisconsin farm girl, tall, tanned and strong, but unable to shoulder the burden of not fitting into the small-town feminine roles expected of her. Soon enough, our heroine (who couldn't pronounce "Betty Lou," her name, as a child) takes center stage. Her job driving a pizza delivery truck brings her into the orbits of local siren Mona Petry, femme not-so-fatale Paula Ash and high-profile Hollywood actress Venus Bogardus. The trio's soft shoulders and dangerous curves provide high entertainment value, no matter where you fall on the Kinsey scale. Watching our heroine's choices, you see plainly the uncertainty, the tentative quality of youth when it's new to the adult world's unspoken codes of behavior and desires, changing from inchoate to incarnate, ice to water to steam and back again. You wind up with a stake in the book's hard-earned happy ending, so different from the doomed love and downfall common in the lesbian pulp novel plots of its time. From moment to moment, Beebo's willingness to battle propriety, lovers, husbands and her own fears for the sake of her lady loves earns her readers' respect. This is pulp fiction any reader would be proud to peruse. George Kelly, Salon.com Review:"Sex. Sleaze. Depravity. Oh, the twisted passions of the twilight world of lesbian pulp fiction." Chicago Free Press Review:"Bannon's books grab you and don't let you go." Village Voice Review:"This is more kitschy now but still fun for its 1950s sensibilities." Library Journal About the AuthorAnn Bannon is the author of the classic lesbian pulp novels Odd Girl Out, Women in the Shadows, and Journey to a Woman. What Our Readers Are SayingAdd a comment for a chance to win!Average customer rating based on 2 comments: 
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