Without Wings

Janet Money, formerly the sports editor of the Woodstock Daily
Sentinel-Review, is a freelance writer and editor in London, Ontario.

Jackie Manthorne’s first collection of short stories, Fascination and
Other Bar Stories, involved a group of Montreal lesbians and their bar
adventures. Without Wings features the same characters (again in related
stories), both in and outside of the lesbian bars.

The characters have passing acquaintance with one another, and
occasionally are involved in each other’s adventures (the collection
could almost be a novel). Manthorne draws these characters well.
Particularly memorable is Jock, the young virgin desperate for a
girlfriend and hopelessly (it seems) in love with her childhood friend
and college roommate, Jo; Jock’s angst is very convincingly portrayed.
At the other end of the spectrum is Oats, a 50-ish philanderer who is
forced to reconsider her habits when she is stricken with a heart
attack. Kate, a nurse on Oats’s care team, struggles after being raped
by her girlfriend. This story, “A Night to Remember,” is challenging
reading but important for lesbian communities, which are gradually
acknowledging that they are not immune from relationship violence.

There’s areal likability to Manthorne’s community of characters
that calls to mind Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City. One can only
hope that Manthorne will continue to spin these tales of her city.