Posted in Pulp

Loving Her by Ann Shockley

Loving Her

Ann Shockley

The groundbreaking story centers on Renay, a talented black musician who is forced by pregnancy to marry the abusive, alcoholic Jerome Lee. When Jerome sells Renay’s piano to finance his drinking, she leaves her destructive marriage, and flees with her young daughter to Terry, a wealthy white writer whom she met at a supper club. Terry awakens in Renay a love and sexual desire beyond her erotic imaginings. Despite the sexist, racist, and homophobic prejudices they must confront, the mutually supportive couple finds physical and emotional joy. When Jerome discovers the nature of Renay and Terry’s friendship, he beats Renay nearly to death and, in a drunken rage, kidnaps his daughter, who subsequently dies in a car accident. Grief stricken and guilty about her love for Terry, Renay feels that God has punished her and breaks off their relationship to atone for her ‘sins.’ In the end, she returns to Terry and a renewed life.

For the time it was published (1974) Loving Her was well ahead of its time. The book is as all-encompassing as it could be. While not a sexually explicit or edgy book, it is pretty racy. The author explores the interracial relationship between Renay and Terri. Loving Her also explores the coming out of a black lesbian in the 1960’s. Moreover, Renay was a black mother taking her child to live with her white lover. Pretty controversial stuff. As another reviewer mentioned to have a black protagonist, a lesbian one at that, was ground breaking. To this day, there are very few (if any) other bw/ww lesbian romance novels or lesbian novels that feature a black female lead. In that respect Loving Her is an extremely valuable piece of literature for the LGBT community.

Check for it on:

Details

ISBN 9780380389353
Genre Pulp
Copyright Date 1974
Publication Date 1978
Publisher Avon
Format Mass Market Paperback
No. of Pages 205
Notes Avon 38935

Grier Rating: A***
Language English
Rating Great
Subject Lesbians – Fiction
BookID 7795
Tweet
Share
Pin
Share
0 Shares

Author: LFWBooks