The result is a stunning collection, a compendium of words and images that provide the clearest window yet into the thoughts, emotions, and devotion of same-sex couples and their struggles and joys enroute to each other. They represent the full spectrum of contemporary gay culture, and their revelations about coming out, family reactions to their partnerships, limitations on their rights, and forging a life together are infallibly colored with caring and commitment. At a time when domestic partnerships and same-sex marriages are increasingly visible on judicial, legislative and political agendas, Couples addresses a fundamental issue of human connections with honesty, humor, perceptiveness, and great passion.
Couples is a significant addition to gay and lesbian studies.
Although this new history of same-sex desire does not offer the long, satisfying narratives of Lillian Faderman's Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers or the sweep of David Greenberg's The Construction of Homosexuality , it does provide a solid introduction to the subject. While surveying the more familiar history of gay culture in the cities, she also describes the growth of small, hidden lesbian and gay communities in places as unlikely as Salt Lake City, far removed from the urban centers of vice. Among those examined are Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, Lillian Hellman and Dashiell Hammett, Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West, and Anais Nin and Henry Miller.