Girlfriend Number One: Lesbian Life in the 90s

Stevens (freelance writer and former editor of Out/Look ) culls stories, cartoons and graphics from ``the lesbians of Generation X'' to offer a fresh and irreverent collection for and about women who have come of age under such contradictory influences as Audre Lorde and Charlie's Angels . Penny D. Perkins investigates the elusive definition of the lesbian date, using case studies to establish such amusing maxims as ``a lesbian date is something that is interrupted by pets.'' Masha Gessen explores the personal ads subculture, ranging from the all-too-common search for someone with whom to walk the beach to the deadly specificity of a San Francisco ad which begins ``The worst of it is that I take books to the dinner table and hustle literary theory, have been seen dressed like Laura Petrie gone amiss in Bohemia . . .'' Women's bathroom graffiti becomes an engaging narrative when E. G. Crichton contributes four montages that cover sex, sexuality, racism, war and other subjects as visitor after visitor adds comments to the continually evolving discussion. Stevens herself takes an unrestrained, vengeful look at meeting her ex-lover's new girlfriend Alice at a dinner party. After deciding Alice is hopelessly stupid when she can't identify Camille Paglia, Stevens decides to act as ``dramatic and irrationally rational'' as Paglia would and handcuffs Alice to a pipe in the bathroom, later throwing the keys (Lorena Bobbitt-style) out the window of her car while driving down the freeway. (Mar.)