Written in 1962 by Ann Bannon, it is a prequel to the immensely popular series featuring this character. “Beebo Brinker” is described as ‘lesbian pulp fiction’. But I digress.Beebo Brinker is a good and enjoyable read.
Gay rights situation in this progressive civilized great world of ours certainly still leaves a lot to be desired, but then again Montana just decriminalized gay sex, so (insert sarcasm) hurray for progress and equality and all that. There is still an abundance of discrimination taking place. It's strange to think how things have changed since and how some things and views really haven't changed that much despite how much time has passed. Some great characters in this book too, particularly the love interest. It's fascinating, because she is such a far cry from the Beebo Brinker at the end of Women in Shadows, and it's really interesting for the reader to get such a well rounded sense of the character's journey. We get to meet Beebo when is young and inexperienced and watch her find herself in NY and become comfortable with her identity. Published chronologically last, Beebo Brinker is technically the prequel to the chronicles, set about 15 years back from the events of Women in Shadows. Understanding Bannon's own life as a parallel to the plots of her books is also a bonus in re-reading them. They are deceptively simple enough to warrant reading more than once to understand exactly how brave these books were. These books were published as pulp fiction because no other publisher had the nuts to publish them as literature. I attest that anyone who criticizes Bannon's books for being too constricting in gender role play hasn't read them deeply enough, or quite frankly - has not had enough life experience to recognize multi-layered human motivation. Even for lesbians.īeebo Brinker is "accessibly human" and a beautiful portrait of an outsider who has courage by necessity. And Bannon did this for the world to see, and for her readers, she shattered any preconceived notions of what a butch lesbian was. She laid out the heart and mind of a young woman who knew she was different, but also knew she was special. When Barbara Gittings started adding pictures of real lesbians to the cover of The Ladder in 1964 it was a revolutionary act - it showed lesbians as normal folks for anyone to see - heterosexuals who believed they'd never seen any before, and lesbians themselves who were questioning who they were, might they be? What Bannon did was very similar with this book. She stated in an interview she stopped writing when she felt she was getting really good at it (Forbidden Love video, 1994). Her prequel to the saga of Beebo and her other characters. The last of Bannon's books, unfortunately.
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