Not Telling Mother: Stories from a Life
Diane Salvatore
Celia and Renee are on a Provincetown vacation with two other couples when Renee learns that best friend Edie has begun an affair. Edie’s call upon Renee’s loyalties sets into motion an unexpected chain reaction.
Celia’s parents live next door to a couple who believe the Virgin Mary will soon appear to them. Celia’s discovery that her supposedly skeptical father is secretly interested uncovers a deeply affecting new truth about him…
At work, Renee is out of the closet and accepted apparently. What does she do when she’s invited to a company cocktail party, without Celia?
And why is a baby, which has brought joy into the lives of friends Chrissie and Elaine, bringing doubt and questions into Celia and Renee’s relationship?
And much, much more. About a wedding that is anything but what it appears. About the woman who was in love with Renee’s mother. About a nun. About gay-baiting, about the closet. About choices, about life’s sheer unpredictability.
From Publishers Weekly
These mostly interconnected stories get off to a bad start with Salvatore’s clumsy imagery (‘prone-on-the-potholed sand days’). But the collection soon turns into a spirited kaleidoscope of lesbian life. Three couples gather for a vacation in Provincetown, but infidelity lurks within the sextet, and the resolution threads its ways through several stories. Renee, the central character, needs some resolutions, too, of her past and present. She ponders her early role as the ‘first in a series of outrageous stunts and bizarre activities’ of a former love, Roseanne, who gets married. Wistfully, she recalls her girlhood crush on Penny and later realizes that her own mother was loved by a cousin who entered a convent to smother that silent passion. Along the way we meet other characters, like Mike, the vindictive husband of Chrissie who runs off with Eileen, and Tess, whose idea of a turn-on is to whisk a waitress to the back of a restaurant for a ‘test drive’ before a date. Salvatore ( Love, Zena Beth ) adds new twists to the themes of coming out and homophobia, and shows unrequited love, jealousy, betrayal and exploitation as the unhappy flip side of all forms of love, gay and straight.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. –This text refers to the Paperback edition.
From Library Journal
In these brief stories, Salvatore examines the dilemma of whether to hide or reveal one’s identity–in this case, being a lesbian. If a woman tells the truth about her life, what price will she pay? Will she lose her mother’s love and emotional support? In the title story, this is exactly what Renee agonizes over. Other characters worry about ridicule or physical harm. It appears that Salvatore has lived through similar situations and has met women like the ones she portrays, because none is unbelievable or phony–though occasionally they are irritating. Too bad the author didn’t include women from diverse races or ethnic backgrounds or even economic classes; almost all fit into the yuppie category. And because the stories move so quickly, none goes into great depth. Though starting with a good premise, the collection as a whole is choppy and uneven. A disappointing effort from a writer whose first book, Benediction ( LJ 10/1/91), was nominated for a Lambda Book Award.
– Lisa Nussbaum, Euclid P.L., Ohio
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. –This text refers to the Paperback edition.
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Details
| ISBN | 1931513422 |
| Genre | Fiction |
| Copyright Date | 1993 |
| Publication Date | Oct-03 |
| Publisher | Bella Books |
| Format | Trade Paperback |
| No. of Pages | 176 |
| Notes | |
| Language | English |
| Rating | NotRated |
| BookID | 8992 |
