Mary M. Read: Mary M. Read, M.S., MFCC is a psychotherapist practicing in Los Alamitos, CA, a part-time instructor in the M.S. in Counseling program at California State University, Fullerton, (her alma mater) and a Ph.D. student in Counseling Psychology at the University of Southern California. She is doing qualitative research on lesbian identity, with a focus on narrative construction.
In a very personal and poignant way, Lee Fleming both contributes to and edits this remarkable volume. Presenting the accounts of eighteen sets of lesbian sisters self-reflecting on their connections with each other, a varied tapestry of sisterhood in many voices is created and celebrated. Utilizing a “snowball sample” technique, Fleming's friends told friends about the book-to-be, shared information on the World Wide Web and distributed questionnaires at the Michigan Women's Music Festival, reportedly the largest all-women gathering in the world. In the end, it was the sisters Fleming, Lee and Louise, editor and publisher, who sifted through the stories and photographs, weaving the intimate portraits of sisterhood into a delightful whole.
Life is represented here. There is illness, abuse, estrangement and loss as well as joy, solidarity, respect and friendship. Through the honesty of the participants, family portraits emerge from multiple perspectives. The sense of being sisters is heightened by this juxtaposition of stories. Different personalities, ages and birth orders resulted in different stories about the same family, through the “lens” of the sister speaking at the moment. In the deeply personal recollections the context of the stories also shines through, forming a commentary on the lesbian community (or lack thereof) to which the writers have access.
Having edited two earlier anthologies for gynergy, Fleming's expertise as an editor is apparent as she blends the sisters' voices with a sure hand. Some of the chapters interweave snippets of each sister's story, some have one letter simply followed by the other, and some have only one sister's voice represented. The flexibility of the format enhances, rather than detracts from the story being told. When only one sister speaks, the longing for the other voice is heightened, longing the sister herself expresses. When two or three voices blend, the richness of the harmony illuminates the portrait of family that emerges, even when their respective viewpoints collide.
There is a tremendous sense of listening in this book. The thread of sisterhood uniting the volume encompasses the famous (e.g. Alix Dobkin) and the not-so-famous; women who go it alone and those whose connection to their network of friends, their family or the women's community is clearly their life's blood. The dual connection of being sisters and being lesbians is consistently a cause for celebration, albeit one not always easily achieved.
While this book does not purport to be particularly political, echoes of the rallying cry of the Women's movement in the 1970's, the personal IS political, can be clearly heard. Through their personal musings, the ideas and ideology of the contributors provide a commentary on how each one sees the reality of their lesbianism. There is no debate of “nature vs. nurture”, no theoretical discussion of the social construction of self in a postmodern age. What is presented is a rich archive of first-person accounts, a telling of the family that allows the reader to draw her own conclusions about these other, larger issues.
Amid the telling of sweet memories and lingering regrets an interesting theme present across the stories was the prevalence of distress that the first sister to “come out” had somehow stolen the thunder of the one(s) who came later. Several families had responded to the news that another daughter was also lesbian as though they were merely copying the pattern of the icebreaking sister. Perhaps the distress of these women is more reflective of the need to be seen as unique in the family and distinct from one's sister than a particularly lesbian trait.
There are voices missing from these accounts. With contributions from Canada, the United States, Australia, Germany and Sweden, the collection is solidly Eurocentric. Some diversity is present, in terms of race (two sets of sisters are African-American) socio-economic status, religion and physical ability, however, one hopes for more. Perhaps future anthologies could present the voices of sisters from other backgrounds and geographic regions.
The appeal of this volume is its humanity, its unvarnished telling of sisterhood. What remains after the telling is the enduring sense that, on clear and stormy days, in multiple contexts, these sisters are there for each other, as women, family members and lesbians. Having opened their lives to the reader, the gift is given. For a brief moment we are in their family, able to see their sister through their eyes.
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