The Heart's Progress: A Lesbian Memoir

Bepko's life seems not to be governed by any overriding principles, and there apparently have been no moments of epiphany to guide or inform it. From her difficult and alcoholic parents, through her Catholic schooling, her first love in college, her brief marriage and her 18-year relationship with a woman (and its eventual dissolution), the middle-aged coauthor of Too Good for Her Own Good, who divides her time between New York and Maine, takes things as they come. Unlike other books with similar subtitles, these are the memoirs not of an activist but of a woman who has had a moderately eventful and interesting life, and whose writing and narrative skills can do her story justice. Despite occasional, confusing time lapses and shifts, the book reads like a good, if unspectacular, novel, and manages a resolution as better than most. Its chief strength lies in its accessibility. Unlike many gay memoirs, and unlike with many gay activists, there is not the hint of a ghetto here. Bepko has been thoroughly integrated into society as a whole, and though this has not protected her from suffering various forms of discrimination, it does enable her to speak from a frame of reference near enough to the mainstream to give this book breakthrough potential. It is an intimate portrait, well written, well reasoned, by turns moving and distressing, only infrequently angry and always engaging. Author tour. (Apr.)