Our Lives: Lesbian Personal Writings

Janet Money is Sports Editor of the Woodstock Daily Sentinel-Review.

These first-person accounts by North American lesbians are so honest it
hurts sometimes. Contributors to the anthology (which is almost all
prose, with some poetry) discuss coming out as well as hiding their
sexuality from their parents, friends, schoolmates, and even from
themselves. They write about falling in and out of love, pursuing their
dreams, having children, having careers, having it their way.

Many submitted teenage journals that might make the reader squirm,
they’re so raw and earnest. Naturally, the writing at times leaves a
great deal to be desired. Rooney has chosen to edit with the lightest of
hands so as to preserve the book’s ring of sincerity.

Because our society has for so long covered up, punished, or simply
ignored lesbians, they tend to crave one another’s stories, even in
raw form. Rooney and Second Story Press have made a significant
contribution to the growing body of first-person accounts by lesbians
with this volume.