Odd Girl Out

by Ann Bannon

Paperback, 2001

Status

Available

Call number

PS3552.A495 O33

Publication

Cleis Press (2001), Edition: F First Edition Used, 211 pages

Description

In the 1950s, Ann Bannon broke through the shame and isolation typically portrayed in lesbian pulps, offering instead women characters who embraced their sexuality. With Odd Girl Out, Bannon introduces Laura Landon, whose love affair with her college roommate Beth launched the lesbian pulp fiction genre.

User reviews

LibraryThing member schatzi

I wasn't sure how I would feel about this book. Written well before I was born (actually before my mother was born), I was rather skeptical that I would find this book to be anything more than a window into lesbian pulp fiction and how lesbians were viewed in the 1950s. But I was pleasantly

surprised. After I got through a couple of chapters, I felt myself being sucked in by the characters, and I was disappointed when the novel ended.

Of course, lesbians are portrayed somewhat badly here, but for being pre-Stonewall, this book is surprisingly forward. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series.

Show Less

1 more

LibraryThing member lethalmauve

My first foray into the world of lesbian pulp fiction is an interesting and unexpected experience. With expectations set aside for the sake of amusement alone, it's a surprise to find something insightful and satisfying in Odd Girl Out's pages. How the first words that often trail the phrase "pulp

fiction" are "perverse" and "smut" make most people stay away from the genre. But the only perversity found in Odd Girl Out is the insistence of men almost without consent (a hand creeping up your thighs with no warning) and the consistent disregard of a character towards another's feelings. Set and published in the 1950s, this is a piece of lesbian history in its own right; lesbianism is believed to be a mental illness by some of the characters if not an ordinary fad most women should grow out of.

Odd Girl Out is the story of college freshie Laura Landon who is instantly enamoured by a senior in her sorority. What is initially and supposedly just a strong girl crush develops into an intense infatuation. But no affection is strengthened without being fed of its hunger. And so ensue the maddening push-and-pull of such forbidden and confusing feelings on both sides. Certainty can't blend with ambivalence; and when commitment is a game for one but a future for another, it obviously spells heartbreak. Yet no character here is completely vilified and there is more or less a reason, be it personal trauma or upbringing (this doesn’t necessarily excuse anyone but rather a chance for understanding their actions), for their motivations; for their selfishness and anger. And whilst the struggle with sexual orientation and first love against someone's experimentation is delineated in a grey area and not in black-and-whites—what a relief that is—it's quite an observation to read the descriptive sexual parts between men and women compared to the restrained and even enigmatic parts between two women. Perhaps this is a cautious reflection of the author's experience in itself who wrote this whilst she was still married, raising two children, and was questioning her own sexuality. She isn't called the "Queen of Lesbian Pulp Fiction" for nothing.

This novel is not written for pleasures of men nor for tragedies, it presents homosexuality in a positive light hence defying the common lesbian tropes and beliefs at the time. And what makes it an absolute outlier is its non-tragic ending (see also: Highsmith's classic The Price of Salt). Bannon's prose is straightforward and simple but she does a fine job of communicating her characters’ emotions if not for some dangling, sudden subplots and awkwardly worded phrases here and there. A necessary read for those interested with the history of lesbianism in literature.

Show Less

Fewer