Lesbian Love Stories

Zahava, the editor of Love, Struggle, and Change , here selects 29 diverse, articulate tales. A few, such as Carol Orlock's ``Tell Me Where the Road Turns,'' highlight the perils of a closet existence, with the natural expansiveness of love falling victim to the cramped realm of secrecy. Other pieces, such as Gloria E. Anzaldua's ``Life Line,'' grapple with the especial alienation experienced by lesbian women of color. In Becky Birtha's ``In the Life''--a powerfully simple story of an elderly woman who senses her long-dead lover patiently awaiting their imminent reunion--it is not being a lesbian in a prejudiced culture but rather the very nature of love, gay or straight, that leads to loneliness and loss. The pleasures of the collection are many, from Jane Rule's understated, wickedly amusing portrait of ``A Perfectly Nice Man'' whose ex-wives are lovers, to Leslea Newman's ``The Dating Game,'' a hilarious look at how love at first sight reduces grown women to helpless adolescents. This anthology fulfills Zahava's claim that ``stories about lesbian lives are truly lesbian love stories.'' (June)