The Lake Boy, by Adam Roberts. NewCon Press, 2018

This is an odd bit of storytelling. It’s part ghost story, part alien abduction, and part depiction of the perils of same sex relationships in the past.

Cynthia lives with her minister brother, who keeps a wary eye on her, as she was recently caught in a same sex relationship, which is considered a mental illness as well as a moral failure. She spends her time translating old religious texts from the Latin and forming a relationship with one of the neighboring women. There is also the distraction of strange lights in the sky, which attracts a number of astronomers, one of which disappears for several days. Oh, and the ghost, of course.

When Cynthia is caught with her lover, the lover throws her under the bus and claims Cynthia assaulted her, which leads to Cynthia being sent to a mental hospital- which is when more strange things occur. Because this story is told with Cynthia as the narrator, we can only know what she knows- and she is regarded as delusional. Is her tale true, or the work of an unhinged mind? There are a lot of things happening in the story, and they don’t all really connect with each other. I have the feeling that I missed something along the way, because in the end the whole thing just left me baffled. Three stars.

Never Anyone But You, by Rupert Thomson. Other Press, 2018

In the years right before World War One, two teenaged girls meet. Suzanne Malherbe and Lucie Schwob fall in love, which of course they must hide. Then in an odd twist of fate, one’s mother marries the other’s father, making them step-sisters. Now they are free to live together, to put their arms around each other. If this was in a work of fiction I would think it was too much; but this is not fiction, these were real people. After they leave school, they move to Paris where, as part of the Surrealist movement, they fit in, one an artist the other a writer, both adopting male names (Marcel Moore and the gender-fluid Claude Cahun). Their best known works are photographs they collaborated on.

As anti-Semitism penetrates Paris, they move to the Channel Island of Jersey. Now middle aged, no one pays them much attention. When the Nazis occupy the island, they set about their greatest Surrealistic project: subverting the Nazis. As “old women” (barely in their 50s!) they were pretty invisible to the soldiers. They would type up subversive leaflets and sneak them into pockets and cigarette packs. This went on for quite a while before the Nazis figured out it was them. They spent a good amount of time imprisoned by the Nazis, held in solitary, refusing to cooperate. Amazingly, they both survived the war. The Nazis never did believe that the two women were working alone; they felt there *had* to be a network of Resistance fighters behind them!

Thomson tells the story from Marcel’s point of view; she outlived Claude and was the more well-grounded of the pair- Claude seems to have inherited some of her mother’s mental illnesses. The prose is clear and simple, but I felt that Marcel was a somewhat distant narrator. The part of the women’s lives where they are living in Paris, mingling with all the famous people, seemed almost brushed over, as if it were an unimportant interlude, a list of famous names. Things only come to life once they begin their undercover work. Marcel’s focus was always on her beloved Claude, and so other people, no matter how famous, get short shrift. Four stars. 

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White Houses, by Amy Bloom. Random House, 2018

Most Americans are aware that Franklin Roosevelt had girls on the side both before and during his presidency, but fewer are aware that Eleanor did, too. This book of historical fiction/fictionalized biography is told from the point of view of Lorena Hickok, Eleanor’s longtime partner. Hickok was raised dirt poor, in an abusive household. She became a journalist and was assigned to cover Franklin’s first presidential campaign. The two felt drawn to each other, despite the wide differences in their personalities and upbringing.

Told from “Hick’s” point of view, the story moves between different times: Hick’s horrible childhood and early working years; the short time when Hick lived in the White House with Eleanor and FDR (and FDR’s girlfriend, Missy LeHand)- Hick was given a job in the administration; an interlude after FDR’s death; and times in between when Eleanor and Hick were separated. While it was all right for FDR’s extramarital relationships to be talked and joked about, it was a different situation for Eleanor. A shroud of secrecy envelopes the two women’s relationship at all times, save for one anonymous getaway on a camping trip.

Bloom went through more than three thousand letters as well as diaries to research this book, so it is meticulously researched, and the prose is marvelous- great descriptives! Eleanor Roosevelt has always been one of my heroes. So I don’t know why, even though I really *liked* the book, I didn’t *love* it. The women never caught fire and came to life for me. Still, definitely four stars out of five. 

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Living Large: Wilna Hervey and Nan Mason, by Joseph P. Eckhardt. Woodstock Arts, 2015

Born in 1894, Wilna Hervey would grow to be 6’4” and weigh 350 pounds, which led to her being cast as ‘Powerful Katrinka’ in the Toonerville Trolley silent movies. With well to do parents, she was very well educated and artistic from a young age, but shy and naïve. While drawing and painting were her main passions, it was as Mighty Katrinka that she was best known, even though that was a short part of her long life. And it was through the Toonerville movies, via her co-star Dan Mason, that she met the woman with whom she’d spend the rest of her life: Mason’s daughter, Nan.

Nan and Wilna had no intentions of being a couple at first; they both had men in their lives- Nan a fiancé- but they discovered they just fit together. Nan was nearly as tall as Wilna, and they shared an interest in art and found that life in the Woodstock area, in an artist’s colony, suited them very well. It was a place they could be themselves, create art, raise a huge garden, give parties, and have pets. They lived together 59 years in harmony, with a large circle of friends and fellow artists.

Fortunately, the people who ended up with the Big Girls’ (as they were known in the artist’s colony) houses after their deaths unearthed and saved piles and piles of correspondence and photographs. These all enrich this dual biography- there are illustrations on almost every page, both photos and artworks- and give a wonderfully clear picture of their lives. 

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