No one dies in Beebo Brinker, which is a good thing, and different from most of the gay books of the era from what I’ve heard. There’s also casual bi-phobia, the women that sleep with men are all evil/super fucked up, but they are also the most interesting characters so I will let it slide. For example, the gay man that took Beebo in didn’t really openly come out to her until they knew each other for weeks. It was really interesting to see the way that queerness was talked about back then. It is pulp, and was a breeze of a novel, but it is no romance novel (though there are some romantic subplots). Also, seeing as Beebo basically “comes out” publicly in this novel I can’t imagine what the other novels cover (though I will probably read them at some point).Īnyway, once I got past the ridiculous name (maybe I could find out why she has that silly name in those books? That would maybe be worth it) I enjoyed reading this book. Beebo Brinker is the 5th book in a series, though I didn’t even realize this until now and I didn’t really feel like i missed anything by not reading the previous ones. Beebo Brinker was written in 1962, at a time when queerness was rarely talked about, and when it was there were inevitably awful consequences (usually death) to the poor “afflicted” souls. If you are not familiar with Ann Bannon (Ann Weldy), she is the grande dame of Lesbian Pulp. Chronicling the reality of 1950s lesbian life through Ann Bannon's dreamy butch, Beebo Brinker is an astounding and engaging read.
Sexy, dangerous, and often touching, Beebo Brinker's search for love takes her from password-protected 1950s lesbian bars to the glamour and ritz of Hollywood and back.
Overwhelmed with her discovery, Beebo is infatuated in turn with the vixen Mona Petry, the sweet femme Paula Ash, and the famous actress Venus Bogardus. She never knew what she wanted until she came to Greenwich Village and found the love that smolders in the shadows of the twilight world. Befriended by the gay Jack Mann, a father-figure with a weakness for runaways, Beebo sets out to find love. With Beebo Brinker, Bannon introduces the title character, a butch 17-year-old farm girl newly arrived in New York after she is driven from her Wisconsin home town for wearing drag to the State Fair. Unlike many writers of the period, however, Bannon broke through the shame and isolation typically portrayed in lesbian pulps, offering instead women characters who embrace their sexuality against great odds. Designated the "Queen of Lesbian Pulp Fiction" for authoring five landmark novels beginning in 1957, Ann Bannon's work defined lesbian fiction for the pre-Stonewall generation.
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