The Sophie Horowitz Story by Sarah Schulman

I wanted to kiss her soft so she would know what that’s like and then kiss her hard so she wouldn’t think that soft was the only option.” As she says, “Nothing beats the pure pleasure of watching them experience women in such an immense way for the first time.” The straight woman in question is Laura Wolf’s college roommate, who Sophie finds intriguing and lusts after. Unlike almost every lesbian protagonist I have encountered, Sophie prefers to date straight women. Call it mild satire and credit Shulman’s sensitively drawn main character for the ability to get her likeably wry personality across. The missing woman, Laura Wolfe, was once, for instance, head of a group called Women Against Bad Things, which seems to encompass pretty much everything. Here are the bad things about this book: nothing.Īlthough Sophie is a staunch feminist, who-despite her youth-is often called upon to speak at meetings and attend conferences, she is not above poking fun at some of the excesses in the movement. Here are the good things about this book: everything. Sophie Horowitz is assigned to write a story about the missing woman and in the process becomes obsessed with locating her. One is captured by police the other goes on the lam. A bank is robbed by two women who were early and very vocal activists in the feminist movement. Although I suspect that Schulman set out to write a simple literary novel about the women’s movement in New York in the early 1980s, the fact that it includes a mystery brings up the average quality of lesbian mysteries.

After having read The Sophie Horowitz Story, I understand why. Sarah Schulman is probably the most widely acclaimed writer on our list, mostly because her novels are more literary than most and get reviewed by major publications.

The Sophie Horowitz Story by Sarah Schulman