REVIEW: 'Walk Like a Man' by Laurinda Brown [ff/erotica]

I was intrigued as soon as I saw the cover to 'Walk Like a Man'. I am not a frequent reader of lesbian fiction but the idea of female masculinity is interesting to me.

My first impressions of the inside of the book weren't great. There is no table of contents and the header line just lists the title of the book (in most anthologies it would be the title of the story). I like to peruse my way through a collection rather than just take it as it comes.

As it turns out there are about 21 fairly short stories. Despite other reviews mentioning the diversity of the stories to begin with I found they felt rather similar, like different parts played by the same actor. And to begin with I was also not overly impressed with how each story was more a scenario than a narrative with a beginning middle and end.

However, by about half way through my impression completely changed. It became apparent that each story gives a snapshot of how individual women resolve their identities given the rigid categories offered of male/female, straight/gay, dom/femme. Then some of the characters returned to add another chapter to a story or tell it from another point of view.

Rather than providing a succession of independent, fully resolved stories the author comes at the issue from dozens of perspectives weaving together a commentary about how people negotiate their place in the word, their sexuality and their relationships. And sometimes what we get isn't perfect, maybe most of us don't really deserve perfect or wouldn't know it if we found it. But the most enjoyable stories are ones where love, persistence and honesty create relationships that transcend categories.

My advice would be to persist with this collection which comes into its own more from the development of larger themes than the strengths of any individual story.