The Microcosm
Maureen Duffy
This novel, which opens and closes at a London club for the gay girls, is an expository, explicit, communal, interior view; while it occasionally refers to the state as a ”common darkness and loneliness,” it never indulges in regret; and through Matt, a butch boy, who usurps control of the book, it adaptively attempts to find ”a system, a scheme that’ll fit it all in.” The novel is handled in alternating episodes in the first person of Steve, who teaches school; Sadie and his/her Jonnie– they’ve been together four years; Cathy who runs away to London to find someone who is like her, takes a job as a bus conductor (these girls prefer uniforms– gas station attendants- army- etc.); Marie who tells her story in the freeform of total disassociation– ”sick o i am sic… wordslip wordshift”; and a number of others who are ”butch or femme or just a little in-between.” Miss Duffy’s book, which is written with a good deal of technical competence, is unequivocal; as Matt says, ”We’re part of society, part of the world whether we or society like it or not. ~ Kirkus Review
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Details
| Genre | Fiction; Grier Rated |
| Publication Date | 1967 |
| Publisher | Panther |
| Format | Mass Market Paperback |
| No. of Pages | 272 |
| Notes | Panther 2312 |
| Language | English |
| Rating | Great |
| BookID | 8267 |
