Paula Christian (1)Rezensionen

Val expected men to desire her…sophisticated witty, attractive Val MacGregor was one of Inter-American’s most populas stewardesses. There was about her a provocative awareness of her own sensuality that excited men, and Val fully enjoyed their eager attentions. Never had she given thought to any other kind of love. Then one day lovely, dark-eyed Toni was assigned to be her co-stewardess. From their dirst moment of meeting Val sensed something oddly disturbing obout the girl. Not until later did she realize what it was-and then it was much too late! This book offers a refreshingly realistic treatment of women who are ‘different. ‘ Without the usual tragic and doomed atmosphere, Paula Christian has created a memorable and moving story about a difficult and much abused subject.

Val MacGregor had always been so strong, proud, self-sufficient and contained.
Her adopted family, ‘Mom’ and Della, stood by in miserable disarray, wondering how a bitch-kitten like Toni could hold her in thrall this way, demean her and tear her apart only to kiss her together again.
Val wondered herself.
‘How much more would she have to not see before she could break away from Toni… her lies and her deceits. The way she would seduce Val, dance for her, tease her and then when Val would finally let down her defenses, pull away with a tired yawn. It was a cat-and-mouse game, one which was slowly driving Val out of control. She knew it, but she didn’t know what to do about it.
‘Could love really destroy this much; could it eat away at you over and over? Was it possible to love someone you didn’t like… someone you hated? How sick do I have to be, Val wondered, how sick to put up with this?’

Follows the triumphs and travails of saucy New York photographer Dee Sanders. Dee’s lover, the naughty, selfish Rita, engages her alternately in infuriating fights and wild lovemaking. When Rita is finally caught with another woman, Dee must forge ahead alone. Uncertain of everything, Dee travels to Paris, where she is torn between two new women and must struggle to find herself before she can trust anyone with her heart.

Love Is Where You Find is completely counter-clockwise to Paula Christian's Another Kind Of Love, which has a much happier, more healthy ending not typically found in lesbian pulp fiction.

Other than the rather exceptional writing for its genre, Love Is... has little else to offer. In fact, I found myself so distraught by the ending (inexplicably, really, since many books have had sad endings in my lifetime) I wished I hadn't read it.

It's not just the "it's just a phase" element that sucker punches just when you think everything is going to be alright, but how much the book seems to go in a positive direction, _then_ veers off to the stereotypical.

It's very fitting, though, that the electronic version of this is included with Another Kind Of Love. It makes for great comparison/contrast.

Another Kind Of Love is not any worse than any other lesbian pulp fiction I've read and yet some reviews for it are less than favorable. The thing about l.p.f. is that it both reminds modern lesbians that things have gotten much better and that some things (especially ostracization from family and friends) have sadly stayed the same.

Given the self-hatred so rampant in much of lesbian pulp and how much hate there still is out there for gays and lesbians, some of us still like, almost feel compelled, to read these titles. They can ring more true than today's romance novels that almost always end happily.

In Another Kind Of Love there are quotes that jump out at me. Besides these quotes, the doubt and self-recriminations the main character experiences get to me a lot.

-“People-starved,” Laura said aloud, “that’s what I was. Just plain people-starved.” She turned the phrase over in her mind and savored it as something significant. . . .

-Laura felt her throat constrict with sympathy. My God, that poor kid. She felt an overwhelming need to help Ginny, to offer her friendship, to take care of her.

-Home. It was an empty word when there was no love.

I'm also impressed by the writing itself...except for Sloane Britain, no other writer from this era and this genre has quite captured the sincerity and experience of what it must have been like back then.

Salacious-free and even somehow earnest, Another Kind of Love (it could have a better title) is not half bad.


Two classic lesbian pulp stories originally published in 1959 and 1963

This book reprints two of Paula Christian's lesbian pulp novels, "Amanda" and "The Other Side of Desire," which are reviewed separately below.

AMANDA

Evelyn Rawlins (under a pen name) writes lesbian pulp novels for a living - even though she is very straight, thank you very much. That is, until Amanda, an aspiring author of lesbian pulps, walks into her life by asking Evelyn to help her with a book, turning Evelyn's life upside down in the process.

I wasn't a huge fan of this book. Although it's definitely interesting to read a first-person pulp (which is pretty rare), Amanda throws off a billion warning signals that she's not exactly a stable person, which Evelyn blissfully ignores. And the ending - ugh. SPOILER ALERT Although I know it's common for lesbian pulps to end with the "stable" character deciding that she's not REALLY a lesbian, it still sucks, especially since Evelyn decides that the whole affair happened because she has never given herself fully (emotionally) to a man. Ick. END SPOILER ALERT So, really, just a meh book.

THE OTHER SIDE OF DESIRE

Carrie Richardson is a housewife, mother to two children, and hiding a secret about her past - she had several lesbian relationships before meeting her husband, Paul. But once she meets Kim, a brash neighbor, Carrie discovers that the tight rein she's been keeping on her sexuality is about to come undone.

I also wasn't a fan of this book. I know the times were different, blah blah, but the rationalization of male infidelity is just gross. Carrie blames herself for her husband cheating because she doesn't like having sex with him (as she's a lesbian...duh). Yeah, that totally explains why he keeps a "little black book" with the names of the women he's had sex with as a trophy. Ick again. But, hey, at least he told her that if she didn't put out more, he was going to cheat on her! What a swell guy!

SPOILER ALERT And, in the end, Carrie decides that she might have an affliction of lesbianism, but what she's REALLY looking for is love, and hey, Paul loves her (in spite of - no, according to Carrie, BECAUSE of his endless booty calls with other women), so she's going to give up being a lesbian and just try to be happy by further repressing her sexuality. Sounds like a good plan! Until the next lonely and attractive housewife crosses her path, I'm sure. END SPOILER ALERT

To be short - neither of these books are good, and they are definitely not Paula Christian's best work.

It's always difficult to review these old pulp novels, because they are definitely a product of their time. The misogyny and homophobia (even coming from the lesbian characters) can be off-putting, but I look at them as historical documents. It's amazing that such work was even published in the 1950s and 1960s.

There are two novels published in this collection: Another Kind of Love, and Love is Where You Find It.

ANOTHER KIND OF LOVE

Laura Garraway is having an affair with her boss, an unhappily married man. But after doing a piece for the magazine about the star Saundra Simons, Laura meets Ginny, a wannabe starlet who (she later learns) is also Saundra's lover. Laura and Ginny share a kiss and some stolen moments, but Ginny is focused on her career and advancing it in any way possible. Heartbroken, and given the opportunity to work in New York City (instead of Los Angeles), Laura flees. She meets Madeline, a divorcee who helps finance the magazine. Eventually, Laura has to decide who she wants to pursue: Walter (who is now getting a divorce), Ginny, or perhaps someone else...

This was the stronger of the two stories, and it definitely had a happier ending. I liked the character of Laura, and even though sometimes things happened just a little too conveniently, it was still a good read.

LOVE IS WHERE YOU FIND IT

Dee is in love with Rita, a wannabe starlet. And Rita is in love with Rita. Dee looks the other way when Rita dates (and presumably sleeps with) other men, but when she finds Rita in a compromising position with another woman, Dee has had it. She leaves for Paris for a work assignment, where she runs into an acquaintance - Martie. She has an affair with Martie, but Dee's heart is fixed on Karen, Dee's secretary. When Dee returns to New York, Karen seems ready to embark on a relationship with her, but this is Karen's first lesbian relationship, and Dee is convinced that their love will eventually fall apart. SPOILER ALERT (Which it does.) END SPOILER ALERT

This story was much darker than the first one. There is a lot of self-loathing here, especially when Dee is trying to convince Karen that she doesn't really "want" to be a lesbian. Dee thinks that what she does is "perversion," etc, etc. Reading this made me so glad that I wasn't born 50 years before I was. Being a lesbian in a rural area is hard enough, but if I need to find like-minded and/or accepting people, I can in the nearest big city. Imagine a world where practically everyone thinks you're a pervert. Ouch.½

Edge of Twilight was originally published as "pulp fiction" in 1959, its paperback covering proclaiming: "One of the most candid and challenging novels ever written about today's women who dare to live in that outcast world of 'twilight' love." In other words, lesbians.

Unlike many other novels about lesbians of that period, Edge of Twilight doesn't end with suicide or utterly destroyed lives. It tells of the internal struggles of Val, who must choose between marriage to Don or life with a woman. The novel shows how Val comes to terms with who she is, and doesn't punish her for doing so. The writing is earnest, but far from brilliant. It's worth reading as an historical document of how much things have changed, and haven't changed, in the past fifty years.½

This second novel by Paula Christian picks up the story from her first, Edge of Twilight, which told of a young woman in the late 1950s coming to terms with the fact that she is a lesbian.

While Edge of Twilight ends with Val reconciling herself to living life with a woman as a partner, This Side of Love makes clear the choice won't be that easy. As with Christian's first book, the writing is uneven and often awkward. The story takes its value from being a document of lesbian culture from the days before Stonewall.½