Charm School, Book One: Magickal Witch Girl Bunny by Elizabeth Watasin

(oversized pb; 2000, 2002: graphic novel)


From the back cover:

"In the town of Little Salem, magic and modern life collide in a hormonally charged storm. . . meet sexy witch Bunny, her vampire biker girlfriend Dean, and the faerie who tries to come between them!"


Review:

Charm School is a fun, flirty, clever and fast-read graphic novel read that is chock full of amusing characters -- e.g., Fairer Than (the brazen "one part faerie.  . one part mortal and. . . one part dragon" faerie who's set her desirous eyes upon good girl Bunny); Bunny's mischievous and protective "hideous" witch "Aunties, Weirdie, Hauntie and Agoosta"; and a few of Bunny's fellow Haunted High School students, whom are somewhat mischievous themselves.

When I call Charm School "flirty" I mean that it is a PG-13 read (there is no explicit sex, though there is kissing, butch dykes and other Sapphic, gender- and sex-leaning characters). Obviously, conservative parents who are not LGBT-friendly may not be fans of this graphic novel, whose main story ("The Wrecking Faerie") ends on a cliff-hanger note.

Watasin also provides several side-backstories about the characters' pasts: "Bunny, the Good Li'l Teen Witch" (which shows how her Aunties' spell to get Bunny a boyfriend backfires in a big way), "Dr. Vanessa Leather, Monster Maker" (where Bunny, confused by her hormones and her budding interest in girls, visits a hilariously "evil scientist") and "Radiate" (a post-"Bunny" story, where Bunny's three Aunties -- with their various reactions, some of them ovary-busting -- process Bunny's coming out while meeting Dean, her girlfriend).

Charm School is a fun, smile- and sometimes laugh-inducing work, with artwork that's fetching while maintaining a curious, slapstick mix of realistic and comic-ky faces, figures and action.

Rubyfruit Jungle, by Rita Mae Brown

(pb; 1973)

Review:

Bawdy, milestone, blunt and well-written, Rubyfruit is a mainstream-ish coming-of-lesbian-age tale about a Southern girl (Molly Bolt) who realizes early on that her urges - often not considered "lady-like" - don't gibe with the repressive societal elements of the Fifties and Sixties.  It's emotional without being overly so; its points, plot and otherwise, cut across different social territories; its characters feel real and familiar.

Rubyfruit is an excellent, occasionally chatty read, one worth owning.

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This book provided the basis for the 1989 four-minute short film Me and Rubyfruit.  It was directed by Sadie Benning, who may have written the screenplay as well (the above film link doesn't say who did).

Random side note:  Brown also wrote the screenplay for the 1982 slasher film The Slumber Party Massacre (and other films).

The Days of Anna Madrigal, by Armistead Maupin

(hb; 2014: Book Nine in the Tales of the City series)


From the inside flap:

"Now ninety-two, and committed to the notion of 'leaving like a lady,' Mrs. Madrigal has seemingly found peace with her 'logical family' in San Francisco: her devoted young caretaker, Jake Greenleaf; her former tenant Brian Hawkins and his daughter, Shawna; and Michael Tolliver and Mary Ann Singleton, who have known and loved Anna for nearly four decades.

"Some members of Anna's family are bound for the otherworldly landscape of Burning Man, the art community in Nevada's Black Rock Desert where sixty thousand revelers gather to construct a city designed to last only one week.  Anna herself has another Nevada destination in mind: a lonely stretch of road outside of Winnemuca where the sixteen-year-old boy she once was ran away from the whorehouse he called home.  With Brian and his beat-up RV, she journeys into the dusty, troubled heart of her Depression-era childhood to unearth a lifetime of secrets and dreams, and to attend to unfinished business she has long avoided."


Review:

Days, the final book in the Tales series, has all the elements that made its better entries so involving and memorable: warmth, wit, a playful sense of naughtiness, a touch of mystery and a no-bullcrap tone that makes the Tales books feel less like reading and more like revisiting - catching up with - family members who may tick you off, but are (for the most part) worth seeing again.

What especially drew me into Days was Maupin's ability to seamlessly show real world parallels - similarities and progressions - between the past and the present, within his characters' lives, as well as the world around them.

Great wrap-up to a milestone series.  Worth owning, this.

Mary Ann in Autumn, by Armistead Maupin

(hb; 2011: Book Eight in the Tales of the City series)

From the inside flap:

"Twenty years have passed since Mary Ann Singleton left her husband and child in San Francisco to pursue her dream of a television career in New York. Now a pair of personal calamities has driven her back to the city of her youth and into the arms of her oldest friend, Michael 'Mouse' Tolliver, a gardener happily esconced with his much-younger husband.

"Mary Ann finds temporary refuge in the couple's backyard cottage, where, at the unnerving age of fifty-seven, she licks her wounds and takes stock of her mistakes. Soon, with the help of Facebook and a few old friends, she begins to reengage with life, only to confront fresh terrors when her checkered past comes back to haunt her in a way she never could have imagined.

"After the intimate first-person narrative of Maupin's last novel Michael Tolliver Lives, Mary Ann in Autumn marks the author's return to the multicharacter plotlines and darkly comic themes of his earlier work. Among those caught in Mary Ann's orbit are her estranged daughter Shawna, a popular sex blogger; Jake Greenleaf, Michael's transgendered gardening assistant; socialite DeDe Halcyon-Wilson; and the indefatigable Anna Madrigal, Mary Ann's former landlady at 28 Barbary Lane."


Review:

Mary Ann in Autumn is as warm, fresh, joyous, City-centric and charming as the original Tales of the City novel, with a dark mystery element (much like the original novel, More Tales of the City and Further Tales of the City).

The mystery element in this gradual-passing-of-the-torches novel isn't such a mystery (a mild disappointment), but the writing is tight and witty, and the characters still feel like family, as usual, with a welcome return to form - as much as I liked Michael Tolliver Lives, I prefer Maupin's multicharactered storylines, which structure his best novels.

Readers familiar with Maupin's work will probably recognize Gabriel Noone, who gets a mention in Mary Ann. (Noone is the main character in one of Maupin's non-Tales books, The Night Listener - further proof of Maupin's ability to seamlessly bring his otherwise disparate characters together, and making his readers smile.)

I love this book. One of my favorite entries in this series. Worth owning, this.

Followed by The Days of Anna Madrigal.

Odd Girl Out, by Ann Bannon

(pb; 1957: first book in the six-book Beebo Brinker Chronicles)

Review:

When Laura Landon first meets one of her college roommates, the popular and pretty Beth Cullison, she begins to experience feelings she's never known, or at least acknowledged, before -- the tinglings of desire for another woman. And when Beth responds in a way Laura didn't expect, it further stirs up the hormonal, emotionally-fraught soup that is equal parts restriction, youthful angst and irrepressibility.

The backdrop of the college, written and set in the socially rigid 1950s, provides an inherently potboiler-ish stew for this melodramatic (but hard to set down) tale of a secret love that's constantly being tested by oppressive and punitive (heterosexual) social codes, jealousy (on Laura's part), the confusion of youth, and divided loyalties resulting from these elements.

The characters are complex and interesting, particularly the leads: even the prudish Mary Lou, a relatively minor but pivotal character, isn't cookie cutter, though she easily could be, without the novel's effectiveness being compromised.

If the well-edited dialogue in Odd Girl Out seems sometimes melodramatic, it's because it's about the passion of first, life-changing loves, which can be quite messy to chart (a feat that Bannon pulls off admirably and unfalteringly), as well as the fact that it features no explicit sex -- hence, the het-up language, where a kiss is considerably more than a kiss (much like the "fireworks kiss" scene in Alfred Hitchcock's 1955 To Catch A Thief).

Excellent, passionate, groundbreaking pulp read, this. Worth checking out.

Odd Girl Out is followed by these five books: I Am a Woman, Women in the Shadows, Beebo Brinker, Journey to a Woman, and Who Loves a Woman.

Significant Others, by Armistead Maupin

(pb; 1987: Book Five in the Tales of the City series)

From the back cover:

"Tranquility reigns in the ancient redwood forest until a women-only music festival sets up camp downriver from an all-male retreat for the ruling class. Among those entangled in the ensuing mayhem are a lovesick nurseryman, a panic-stricken philanderer, and the world's most beautiful fat woman..."

Review:

Familiar characters -- many of them old fictional friends, by now -- continued to amuse, thrill, vex and warm the heart of this reader. Maupin writes with a sure head for evolving characters, plot and feels-like-real-life themes, many of them ongoing (the social dynamics of AIDS, coupledom and friendship, the necessity of humor in everything, et cetera).

One of more slapstick entries in the Tales of the City series. Check it out.

Followed by Sure Of You.

Babycakes, by Armistead Maupin

(pb; 1984: Book Four in the Tales of the City series)

From the back cover:

"When an ordinary househusband and his ambitious wife decide to start a family, they discover there's more to making a baby than meets the eye. Help arrives, in the form of a grieving gay neighbor, a visiting monarch, and the dashing young lieutenant who defects from her yacht. . . Babycakes was the first work of fiction to acknowledge the arrival of AIDS."

Review:

Babycakes is as warm, witty and quick-paced as the first three Tales books, with an elegiac edge (carnal betrayal, AIDS, impending middle age) sobering Maupin's life-affirming characters and storylines.

Worthwhile entry in the Tales of the City series.

Followed by Significant Others.

The Hunger by Whitley Strieber

(hb; 1981: first book in the Vampire Life series)

From the inside flap

"Miriam Blaylock, rich and beautiful, lives life to the fullest -- a house in Manhattan's exclusive Sutton Place, a husband she adores, priceless antiques, magnificent roses. But then John Blaylock, like all Miriam's past lovers, suddenly begins to age. Almost overnight, his body reveals the truth: he is nearly two hundred years old!

"Fearing the terrible isolation of eternity, Miriam stalks a new lover. She is Sarah Roberts, a brilliant young sleep researcher who has discovered the blood factor that controls aging and thus may possess the secret of immortality. Miriam desperately wants Sarah, for herself and for her knowledge. But to win her, Miriam must destroy Sarah's love for Dr. Tom Haver, who learns that his enemy is like no other woman who has ever lived. . . now or forever."


Review

Melancholy, romantic, cynical, classic vampire novel, with characters whose time-salted wounds, secret or evident, infuse their present -- often irrational -- actions. Even cool-headed, predatory Miriam is not immune from occasional irrationality, justified as experience-based logic.

The Hunger is a hard to put down, atmospheric, emotionally-restrained and -explosive read that ably mingles the sweet and the rot: it could, very likely, prove to be a stylistic, cornerstone read for readers with tragic-Goth(ic) leanings.

Check it out. Followed by The Last Vampire.

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The Hunger, the film, was released stateside on April 29, 1983.

Catherine Deneuve played Miriam. David Bowie played John. Susan Sarandon played Sarah Roberts. Cliff De Young played Tom Haver. Dan Hedaya played Lieutenant Alleggrezza. Ann Magnuson played "Young Woman from Disco". Willem Dafoe played ""2nd Phone Booth Youth". Beth Ehlers played Alice Cavender. Rufus Collins played Charlie Humphries. Suzanne Bertish played Phyllis.

Goth band Bauhaus played "Disco Group" (performing "Bela Lugosi Is Dead").

Tony Scott directed, from a script by James Costigan, Ivan Davison and Michael Thomas.

A cable series, loosely linked to the film, began airing on July 19, 1987. It ran two seasons, its final episode airing on March 5, 2000.

David Bowie appeared in nine episodes (1999-2000). Terence Stamp hosted five episodes (1997-1998).

Further Tales of the City, by Armistead Maupin

(pb; 1982: Book Three in the Tales of the City series)

From the back cover:

"The calamity-prone residents of 28 Barbary Lane are at it again in this deliciously dark novel of romance and betrayal. While Anna Madrigal imprisons an anchorwoman in her basement, Michael Tolliver looks for love at the National Gay Rodeo, DeDe Halcyon Day and Mary Ann Singleton track a charismatic psychopath across Alaska, and society columnist Prue Giroux loses her heart to a derelict living in a San Francisco park."

Review:

Another reader-charming entry in the warm, wild and briefly morbid Tales of the City series: worthwhile follow-up to Tales of the City and More Tales of the City.

Followed by Babycakes.

Further Tales of the City, the television mini-series, aired stateside on May 6, 2001. It was scripted by James Lecesne and book author Armistead Maupin (who also has a non-speaking cameo as "Man exiting Glory Holes").

Pierre Gang, who directed More Tales of the City, directed this.

Olympia Dukakis reprised her role of Anna Madrigal. Laura Linney reprised her role of Mary Ann Singleton. Whip Hubley reprised his role of Brian Hawkins (from More Tales of the City). Paul Hopkins reprised his role of Michael "Mouse" Tolliver (from More Tales of the City). Bill Campbell reprised his role of Jon Fielding.

Barbara Garrick reprised her role of DeDe Day Halcyon. Françoise Robertson reprised her role of D'orothea/Dorothy Williams (from More Tales of the City).

Mary Kay Place reprised her role of Prue Giroux (from Tales of the City).

Jackie Burroughs played Mona "Mother Mucca" Ramsey (whose character is absent from the book version of Further Tales of the City).

Sandra Oh played Bambi Kanetaka. In 2006, Oh played Anna, the grown-up version of DeDe Day Halcyon's daughter, in The Night Listener. (Anna's relationship to DeDe isn't mentioned in the movie version of The Night Listener, but it is in the book version of it.)

Joel Grey plays Guido. Parker Posey reprised her role of Connie Bradshaw Fetzner.

More Tales of the City, by Armistead Maupin

(pb; 1980: Book Two in the Tales of the City series)

From the back cover:

"The divinely human comedy that began with Tales of the City rolls recklessly along as Michael Tolliver pursues his favorite gynecologist, Mona Ramsey uncovers her roots in a desert whorehouse, and Mary Ann Singleton finds love at sea with the amnesiac of her dreams."

Review:

All the warmth, wit, bawdiness, and often-surprising twists that made Tales of the City such a joy to read are seamlessly recreated, with several of the first book's bizarre mysteries and hanging plotlines concluded in its follow-up -- even as new ones are tantalizingly offered to readers.

Vivacious, organic (as in: it reads like real-life) sequel to a landmark San Francisco-centric read.

Worth owning, this.

Followed by Further Tales of the City.

More Tales of the City, the television mini-series, aired stateside on June 7, 1998. It was scripted by Nicholas Wright, and directed by Pierre Gang.

Laura Linney reprised her role of Mary Ann Singleton. Olympia Dukakis reprised her role of Anna Madrigal. Nina Siemaszko replaced Chloe Webb in the role of Mona Ramsey. Jackie Burroughs played Mona "Mother Mucca" Ramsey. Paul Hopkins replaced Marcus D'Amico in the role of Michael "Mouse" Tolliver. Bill Campbell (billed as "William Campbell") reprised his role of Jon Fielding. Whip Hubley replaced Paul Gross in the role of Brian Hawkins. Colin Ferguson played Burke Christopher Andrew.

Barbara Garrick reprised her role of DeDe Day Halcyon. Françoise Robertson replaced Cynda Williams in the role of D'orothea/Dorothy Williams. Thomas Gibson reprised his role of Beauchamp Day.

Ian McKellen reprised his role of Archibald Anson Gidde. Paul Bartel reprised his role of Charles Hillary Lord. Parker Posey reprised her role of Connie Bradshaw. Suzanne Girard played [Brian's mysterious] "Woman at Blinds".

Book author Armistead Maupin played a "Priest".

Tales of the City, by Armistead Maupin

(pb; 1978: Book One in the Tales of the City series)

From the back cover:

"Anna: a mystical landlady, an Earth-Space Mother, the kind of woman F. Scott Fitzgerald would have kissed. Mary Ann: a child of Ohio who caught the last dream leaving Cleveland for the coast. Michael: a gay person singular who wanted another person plural with whom he could buy a Christmas tree. And Mona: a writer, a little lonely, a little looney, and a lotta lovable.

"Shooting sentiment and joy straight from the hip, Tales of the City tells what happened to reality when it moved to San Francisco."

Review:

Warm, witty, and occasionally bawdy and sad work, this. The characters come from wildly-varied backgrounds, allowing San Francisco -- which, true to the cliché, is a character itself -- to be seen from many different views.

The year is 1976. The hippie movement has largely burnt out, leaving the more street-savvy or idealistic characters (Anna Madrigal, Mona Ramsey, Michael Tolliver, Brian Hawkins) to deal with its bittersweet ashes. Idealism still abounds in the city, but it's taken a few bruises, and, accordingly, its adherents have become more practical in their attitudes, goals and methods.

Maupin wrote a celebratory, life-affirming work when he penned this. I've read this a couple of times before, and the third time was no less effective in sparking its effervescent, occasionally-shaded moods in me.

Worth owning, this.

Followed by More Tales of the City.

Tales of the City, the PBS television mini-series, aired stateside on January 10, 1994. Richard Kramer wrote the teleplay. Alastair Reid directed.

Laura Linney played Mary Ann Singleton. Olympia Dukakis played Anna Madrigal. Donald Moffat played Edgar Halcyon. Chloe Webb played Mona Ramsey. Cynda Williams played D'orothea/Dorothy Williams. Marcus D'Amico played Michael "Mouse" Tolliver. Bill Campbell (billed as "William Campbell") played Jon Fielding. Paul Gross played Brian Hawkins.

Barbara Garrick played DeDe Day Halcyon. Thomas Gibson played Beauchamp Day. Robert Downey Sr. (father of Robert Downey Jr.) played Edgar's doctor. Parker Posey played Connie Bradshaw.

Mary Kay Place played Prue Giroux. Ian McKellen played Archibald Anson Gidde. Rod Steiger played "Bookstore Owner". An uncredited Janeane Garofalo played "Coppola Woman". Paul Dooley played Herbert "Herb" L. Tolliver. Michael Jeter played Carson Callas. Paul Bartel played Charles Hillary Lord. Karen Black played herself. Country Joe MacDonald played Joaquin.

Book author Armistead Maupin, in an uncredited role, played "Writer in window".

The Girl with the Golden Bouffant, by Mabel Maney

(pb; 2004: second book in the 007½ /Jane Bond series)

From the back cover:

"When James Bond lands in the hospital with nasty facial burns (the result of an explosive encounter between a girl's fag and his hair pomade), the home office once again calls on Jane Bond, James's lesbian older sister -- aka, 007½ -- to don, suit, sneer and scars, and masquerade as the infamous 007. Her destination is the men-only International Spy Convention in glamorous Las Vegas. Her assignment: to steal a secret spy invention. As a double agent for Her Majesty's Secret Service and for G.E.O.R.G.I.E., the all-girl secret organization of she-spies, Jane must complete her mission and keep her brother's reputation intact by guzzling martinis, flirting with near-naked showgirls, and -- most important -- remembering to use the men's bathroom.

"Along for the ride is Jane's only ally in the male spy world, retired special agent Cedric Pumpernickel, and two G.E.O.R.G.I.E. gals, Bridget St. Clare and Bibi Gallini, who will attempt to blend into the tourist crowd in the Mary Quant dresses.

"But Jane's stay in Sin City becomes doubly dangerous when an American agent is thrown over the Hoover Dam and all fingers point to Jane. . ."

Review:

Maney's second Jane Bond novel isn't as good as the first novel, Kiss the Girls and Make Them Spy. There's plenty of wry humor, campy schtick and sexy slapstick, and Maney is relentless in her skewering of the different perceptions of men and women. However, all these charming qualities wear thin around the middle of the book, as the plot doesn't fully kick in until that point.

Maney favors a leisurely, character-paced approach, and for the most part, it works.

Maney -- an excellent, deadpan writer -- eventually picks up the pace and plot, with a funny finish that makes me hope she'll write another Jane Bond novel, provided it's more tightly plotted than this one.

Kiss the Girls and Make Them Spy, by Mabel Maney

(pb; 2001: first book in the 007½ /Jane Bond series)

From the back cover:

" 'What's the story on Bond?'

" 'Your man is a homicidal depressive paranoiac,' the doctor reported.

" 'I know that. I want to know what's wrong with him! And be straight with me, man. No medical mumbo-jumbo.'

" 'He's lost his nerve.'

"N. had suspected as much. After a long while spent staring at the jagged skyline of London, N. came to a decision. He had no other choice but to go through with Pumpernickel's ridiculous plan.

"Enter Bond. Jane Bond, James's lesbian twin sister and hapless bookstore employee, who steps in to masquerade as her brother at an awards ceremony with the queen. But when the dastardly Sons of Brittain (S.O.B.s), a nefarious fraternity plotting to bring the Duke and Duchess of Windsor back to power, show up, it's up to some unexpected heroes to save the day. The Powder Puff Girls -- make-up salespersons by day, secret agents by night -- step in to secure the future of Brittain while Jane keeps her brother's reputation intact. . . both in and out of the bedroom!"

Review:

Addictive, kitschy kicks abound in this homocentric skewering of Ian Fleming's most famous characters. There's little violence and quick moments of sensuality in this campy, double-entendre-laden tale that's both solid and feather-light.

Followed by The Girl With The Golden Bouffant.

The Passionate Mistakes & Intricate Corruption of One Girl in America by Michelle Tea

(pb; 1998: prequel to Valencia)

Tea's first book reads like an angry teenager's tell-all diary. Appropriately rambling, with no paragraph breaks, it starts in Boston, Massachussetts, 1987, when Michelle is an adolescent goth, dealing with clumsy boyfriends, partying, getting felt up by popular musicians (members of the band INXS and New Kids on the Block are mentioned), and fending off neo-Nazi punks.

Detailed, gossipy tales are conveyed to the reader: it's not long before Michelle becomes a politically-agitative dyke and sex worker, and takes up with a volatile lover named Liz.

There's a lot of wisdom, warmth and sadness in the blow-by-blow accounts of her experiences (some of them are sexually explicit, most of them not). While Tea's chattering tone wears thin in some parts, it's ultimately worth reading, especially the abrupt, yet tone-consistent (and satisfying) ending.

Tea has injected this spiky, entertaining read with shots of old-school, punk-ferocious veracities. It's not a great book, but it's a promising first effort.

Followed by Valencia.