false 115009 2 You don't have to be part of the emerging postpunk subculture of queer urban girls to relish this smooth ride of a novel, like Kathy Acker on Prozac on a sunny day, in which many exciting things happen without affecting much of anything, and one of the most profound moments is a mild, drug-induced insight into the meaninglessness of life. Michelle, the main character, is a person for whom blue hair is as big a style change as blue pants. She lurches between women, more in love with the idea of love than with Iris or Willa or Gwynne or Petra. Her work experiences are equally brief, although she can't bring herself to actually quit jobs. She just stops showing up. "Are you going to work?" her current lover asks one morning. <blockquote> No, I was not going to work. I was an artist, a lover, a lover of women, of the oppressed and downtrodden, a warrior really. I should have been somewhere leading an armed revolution in the name of love and no, I was not going to work. Willa didn't work. I mean, she did, but it's a stretch to call it work. She bartended at a dyke bar a few nights a week, drank free beer, and bummed all her cigarettes.... All week she was free, writing angsty brilliant poems, drawing comic books, painting gigantic painful pictures, you know, living. I wanted to live. </blockquote> Michelle Tea's characters are a peculiar fin-de-siècle blend of jaded idealists and thoughtful egotists: sex workers, poets, and mad hatters who end up making breakfast for roomfuls of stoned strangers. The occasional flash of clarity doesn't alter the basically anarchic nature of Tea's meandering narrative, so much like the tales of an incidental figure from <I>Valencia</I>, a loud redhead named Iggy who told stories "so incredible you wondered if they were true but ultimately didn't care because you were so enraptured by her grand gestures and re-enactments." <I>--Regina Marler</I> 3328451 book 1 4 2000 Valencia total:1102|5:287|4:396|3:298|2:96|1:25| 1102 4130 1402 141 3 3 false false Fri Jan 25 08:34:15 -0800 2008 Fri Jan 25 08:40:41 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 2 false false Mon Oct 27 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Oct 17 12:56:28 -0700 2008 Tue Oct 28 00:09:25 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 2 false false Sat Nov 24 07:21:50 -0800 2007 Tue Aug 07 21:13:48 -0700 2007 Sat Nov 24 07:18:32 -0800 2007 more...]]> 4 2 false false Tue May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Wed Jun 27 10:20:52 -0700 2007 Wed Jun 27 10:31:44 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 2 false false Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2000 Sat Feb 02 00:55:42 -0800 2008 Sat Feb 02 01:03:57 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 2 false false Fri Jun 22 12:42:24 -0700 2007 Fri Jun 22 12:42:24 -0700 2007 valencia she is at the absolute top of her game. dirty, shocking, subversive, with an embracing of a complex sexuality and lifestyle that n...more...]]> 5 1 false false Fri Sep 14 00:00:00 -0700 2001 Tue Jan 27 13:10:14 -0800 2009 Tue Jan 27 13:21:57 -0800 2009 more...]]> 3 1 false false Sat Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat Nov 15 21:05:27 -0800 2008 Sat Nov 15 21:21:14 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 1 false false Mon Oct 13 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu Oct 02 20:14:51 -0700 2008 Wed Oct 15 15:58:16 -0700 2008
"we will drink cocktails so sweet they pucker our mouths, and we will run through the streets in excellent danger."

this book took my breath away, and not just because it was one of the first...more...]]> 1 1 false false Sat Dec 01 09:27:09 -0800 2007 Mon Dec 03 09:17:52 -0800 2007 more...]]> 5 1 false false Tue Dec 25 10:31:19 -0800 2007 Tue Dec 25 12:25:45 -0800 2007
You've got your mother in a whirl cause she's
Not sure if you're a boy or a girl
Hey babe, your hair...more...]]> 4 1 true false Thu Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Thu Apr 19 06:17:49 -0700 2007 Thu Apr 19 07:14:23 -0700 2007 more...]]> 3 0 false false Mon Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 13 08:50:36 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 13 08:50:42 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 1 false false Tue Jun 10 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat Jun 14 23:12:21 -0700 2008 Wed Jun 25 20:59:06 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Fri Oct 09 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 09 17:28:41 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 09 17:30:01 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 1 false false Tue Apr 29 07:38:06 -0700 2008 Tue Apr 29 07:38:34 -0700 2008 5 0 false false Wed Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Feb 26 08:50:20 -0800 2009 Wed Apr 29 08:28:25 -0700 2009
VALENCIA showcas...more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Jul 29 14:29:10 -0700 2008 Tue Jul 29 15:07:21 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2001 Wed Jun 20 14:48:01 -0700 2007 Wed Jun 20 15:45:08 -0700 2007

I didn’t want this story to end. I was so enthralled by the adventures of the main character Michelle and all of her queer buddies and lady lovers--so caught up in each d...more...]]> 5 0 false false Fri Nov 28 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sun Dec 14 15:04:49 -0800 2008 Sun Dec 14 15:07:13 -0800 2008 more...]]>