Martha Moody
Susan Stinson
A speculative Western
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From Publishers Weekly
Stinson (Fat Girl Dances with Rocks) offers a dippy historical rewrite with something for everyone. Two women-one, Amanda Linger, married; one, Martha Moody, living with her disapproving father-meet and fall in love in the American West. Amanda tags along with a crowd of hatchet-wielding Carrie Nation followers who have caught a wave of anti-Satan fervor and smashed the town saloon to bits, then flees with a bottle of wine that has escaped them. She runs for safety to the home of Martha Moody, the heavy, redheaded general-store owner, and when Martha washes Amanda’s whiskey-soaked feet, the two have their first sexual encounter. Amanda begins writing fantastical (and strangely dull) stories about Martha that include some sexual detail. When her husband discovers them and slaps her around for being a ‘demon,’ her trusty cow kicks him in the head. A friend of Amanda’s also spots the poorly hidden stories and secretly sends them off to a magazine called True Western Tales-albeit with the risque parts cut out, since ‘It’s not a salacious publication.’ The stories hit print, making Amanda $100 and Martha famous, and eventually the star-crossed lovers can finally ride off into the sunset together. This is deftly written historical revision, but more than a little silly, and it asks the reader to suspend an awfully hefty dose of disbelief.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Amanda Linger is a Western homesteader’s wife given to copying Bible verses and to restless longings. Her closest emotional relationships are with Miss Alice, her cow, and Clara, her friend from the neighboring farm. Then she falls in love with general store proprietor Martha Moody. She rejoices in their hidden passion by secretly writing adventure stories casting Martha as a Paul Bunyonesque frontier heroine (sans ox) and Miss Alice as the bewinged Azreal. When her husband confronts her, she flees with her beloved bovine, living temporarily with Martha, then with Clara. Betrayal and harsh words send her back to her uninhabited farm, where, with the help of a wild-spirited neighbor girl, she assumes the challenge of survival, preparing to winter alone with only Miss Alice and her growing stack of writings for solace. Stinson’s celebration of the love and friendship of women deserves a larger audience than one made up of only lesbian feminists. Whitney Scott
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Details
| ISBN | 1883523079 |
| Genre | Speculative Fiction; Western |
| Publication Date | Oct-95 |
| Publisher | Spinsters Ink Books |
| Format | Trade Paperback |
| No. of Pages | 216 |
| Language | English |
| Rating | NotRated |
| BookID | 8109 |
