You think gay marriage will destroy the institution of marriage? Check out Lynne Cheney's masterpiece, thoughtfully exerpted by the folks at
WhiteHouse.org. In short, it's a lesbian novel.
Yeah, WhiteHouse.org is a spoof site (and a damn funny one), but this is legit. As you can see here and here.
Here's the kicker. Book sellers are rushing to stock the book, which the jacket describes as:
Waiting for Sophie was a world where women were treated as decorative figurines or as abject sexual vassals ... where wives were led to despise the marriage act and prostitutes pandered to husband's hunger ... where the relationship betwen women and men became a kind of guerilla warfare in which women were forced to band together for the strength they needed and at times for the love they wanted. In her effort to grasp the meaning of her sister's life and death, Sophie discovers the secret that tainted her life and begins to understand the experience of the vast majority of silent, trapped women...
An email newsletter for the publishing industry writes:
With relatively little fanfare, Penguin Group USA is reissuing in
trade paper in early April a bodice-ripping romance set in the 19th century Wild West. It was first published as a $2.50 New American Library mass market paperback in 1981 and went out of print about 10 years ago. The novel, Sisters, contains a mix of standard and unusual pulp romance fare: lots of turgid prose, heaving bosoms, female characters who are proto-feminists and practice safe sex with multiple partners--and a juicy lesbian subplot. [...]
It's not the kind of title that a progressive bookstore known for its left-wing politics and large gay/lesbian inventory usually stocks, much less actively promotes to its patrons. But Left Bank Books in St. Louis, Mo., ordered 25 copies of the book as soon as it heard that Sisters was being reissued.
"People are going to buy this book, even though it's really bad,"
Jarek Steele, Left Bank's Webmaster, told PW. "But it's by Lynne
Cheney. It's really funny, coming from someone like her--even if her daughter is a lesbian."
The book includes such lines as one female character writing to
another: "Let us go away together, away from the anger and the
imperatives of men. We shall find ourselves a secluded bower where they dare not venture. There will be only the two of us, and we shall linger through long afternoons of sweet retirement. In the evenings I shall read to you while you do your cross-stitch in the firelight. And then we shall go to bed, our bed, my dearest girl...." [...]
The connection between Cheney and her second novel was originally uncovered when Princeton University English professor Elaine Showalter published her scholarly review in the September 29, 2000 issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education entitled, "Lynne Cheney, Feminist Intellectual?" Showalter discussed what she called some of the more surprising aspects of Sisters, especially its open-minded attitudes toward feminism, considering that Cheney has been an outspoken opponent of women's studies programs.
Showalter's positive review ends: "I found Sisters surprising and
impressive then, very different from Cheney's public persona.
Rereading it a decade later, I am even more struck by its narrative power and daring. Historical color, forbidden passion, female bonding, whips and fires, strong opinions, scenes of morbidity and madness--Sisters is a real page-turner and would make a wonderful movie."
Hmmm....
Incidentally, the folks at WhiteHouse.org have released their first book: The White House Inc. Employee Handbook: A Staffer's Guide to Success, Profit, and Eternal Salvation Inside George W. Bush's Executive Branch. It's pretty darn funny. Check it out.