The Girls in 3-B by Valerie Taylor
Valerie Taylor is a classic lesbian lit writer, from the golden age of lesbian pulp in the 1950s. She put the torrid, pre-Stonewall lesbian romance on the map, along with Ann Bannon and Tereska Torres.
The Girls in 3-B is a good peek at what it was like for single women to live together during the 1950s. It reminded me a little of the Valley of the Dolls, because VOTD is also about three young single women and what happens to them when they try to strike out on their own in the Big City, but with a defiantly anti-heteronormative twist.
The novel has searing plot twists on sexual abuse, infidelity, the glass ceiling, and getting way too high-- check out the three-page peyote trip that could show Carlos Casteneda a thing or two!
Narrated by Julie McKay, my favorite newcomer actor this year... what a find!
-Aretha and Susie Bright
