Jen Dean: 32 year old Jenny Dean, globe trekker from Brisbane Australia, free lance journalist ,fancies herself as a connoisseur of lesbian fiction who loves to get her hands on a ‘fresh' author/novel and brag to her friends about her find.
Benchmarks, by C.C. Saint-Clair, is a sensual meditation on female desire. Saint-Clair's distinctive prose taps into all sorts of sensitive layers. Her sensual style of writing explodes with tenderness and passion.
Benchmarks is the story of Adrienne's efforts to save her monogamous relationship she has with Sophie, her long-term lover, despite an almost desperate longing for Alexandra. It is irresistibly charismatic in that it invites the readers to feel and remember while it surprises them by its candor and intensity.
Saint-Clair definitely belongs to a rare breed of contemporary lesbian writers who achieve a lot more then mere titillation. Her writing is solid, sensuous and totally engaging.
What I really like about Benchmarks is, as I said, the way it just made me wish I were there, being either Alex or Adrienne. Wishing I could still feel such emotions so strongly and, at the same time, I was so grateful that none of that was happening to me. So much sexual frustration! So much desire! And yet we all know that such intensity happens in real life. We've all been there. It's just that I don't want to be there again. Too painful.
Throughout Alex's introspective thoughts the frequent use of “you,” referring to Adrienne, the focus of all her thoughts, acts as a direct address to you (to us) the reader, drawing you in to experience vicariously the intensity of her angst.
“I glanced back at you; your eyes trapped mine and held them tightly, for the space of a nano second which stretched into infinity. If we had effectively arrested time, Eli, not affected by our time warp, had caught up with us. Somehow, I had become aware of her silent encroachment and wrenched my eyes away from yours. In a mad attempt to protect you, I reached for my glass, tapping the rim against hers. ‘To us and to yet another great day!' ”
I have found Benchmarks a seriously engaging read because of its almost relentless intensity, even if it's anything but a ‘whodunnit' thriller. Even if there are only two (real time) characters to speak of. Even if the fragility of the feelings these two women share is splashed against murky flashbacks of male violence.
When we're in love, I say, the rest of the world disappears and the only focus there is is that of our raw, all engulfing private desire. And it is her meditation on a very private emotional space that C.C.Saint-Clair shares with us in Benchmarks.
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