Tide Lines: Stories of Change by Lesbians

Sara Stratton teaches history at York University.

This collection of 27 short stories from Canadian and American lesbian
writers shares the unfortunate characteristic of much lesbian and gay
writing: it isn’t all consistently good. This comes, no doubt, from
the fact that it is making up for the paucity of lesbian and gay
material in the mainstream press. Fiction is often published because it
is gay or lesbian, not because it is particularly striking.

That isn’t to say that this collection is totally lacking in quality
or interest. The theme of Tide Lines is change, and the stories trace
the different passages of life. The most compelling stories deal with
young lesbians coming to terms with their sexuality: in “Cerisy’s
Sphinx,” Brenda Brooks evocatively recreates childhood simplicity and
tragedy; Beth Follet’s “Irene,” the account of a friend’s dying
and its aftermath, is equally affecting.

These stories are highly personal, and while several authors are able
to bridge the gap between personal experience and fiction skilfully,
others aren’t; as a result, prose and dialogue are often stilted.
Although the personal connection often takes away from the flow of these
stories, the reader will leave this book with a good sense of lesbian
life in Canada. While that isn’t a definition of fiction, it is a good
reason to read on.