The Queen of Whale Cay
by Kate Summerscale
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 35)
Read in January, 1999
ohmiGOd, you hAVE to find this book and read it. this book is truly bizarre and awesome. it chronicles the true story of this wealthy butch lesbian who sailed boats in the earlier part of the 1900s, bought her own island to live on and was a total womanizer, but here's the best part-her companion for life was this weird little doll she named Lord Todd Wadley who she dressed in crazy outfits and did like, glamour shots with. she was obsessed with this doll and you're never quite sure if she we...more
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Read in August, 2007
The author says in the Introduction: "There were many things this book could or would not be. It would not be a book about lesbianism - Joe Carstairs was too singluar and strange to be representative of anything other than herself." Her orientation is treated matter-of-factly, far from downplayed; it's upfront throughout the book. Ms. Summerscale has done an awful lot of research on a somewhat obscure subject, to put together a fascinating potrait of such an eccentric character. I conf...more
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This is a fascinating life but it doesn't seem like the author knows what to do with it except lay down the colorful twists and gender-bending turns on paper. In the hands of someone more fluent in queer culture this could be a knock out book (or screenplay!).
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Read in June, 2008
A biography of a woman who led an interesting life of wealth and graphic adventures.
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Bought it for the great cover - read it in a day, regretted when I finished it, since I wanted the stories of the famous Joe and Lord Tod Wadley to continue, ad infinitum...
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I agree w/ the first reviewer. The author didn't seem to know what to do with such a colorful character. I mean, her best friend was a male puppet!
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I enjoyed the story of this eccentric woman, she was so strong and did so many good things for people and was quite quirky at the same time.
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Fascinating story of a woman with too much money and what she did with it. A foremother.
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