Getting Wet: Tales of Lesbian Seductions

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

This collection of 22 stories and 4 poems is introduced as a Canadian
contribution to the growing field of lesbian sex literature. Editors
Allain and Elwin attribute the emergence of this field to a desire to
make public what has so long been suppressed: lesbian sexuality. Many
lesbians, in or out of the closet, are starved for representations of
themselves in art, music, and literature.

Low availability combined with high demand can compromise standards.
Even plainly trashy lesbian novels are snapped up in women’s
bookstores across North America; they’re better than nothing. This
collection, though it includes some wonderful stories, is uneven; some
stories fall flat in attempts to be humorous, while others are simply
boring.

Wanda Winfield’s “The Tale of Bad Becky O” (her first published
story) is one of the best of this bunch. Set in 1842, it combines a
stagecoach holdup, by a female outlaw, with a seduction scene; Winfield
writes with an appealing lack of self-consciousness. Carolyn Gammon’s
“Brown Cows and VapoRub” uses storytelling as part of the story of
two friends who discover that they may become more than friends.
“Gloria & Me” (Ellen Symons) has the same friends-become-lovers
plot, told in the voice of the charmingly humble object of a friend’s
affections/lust.

As a contribution to this literary field, Getting Wet is better than
many such collections. Most of the contributors are Canadian, and it’s
encouraging to see Women’s Press providing a forum for their writing.