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Patience & Sarah
Set in the nineteenth century, Isabel Miller's classic lesbian novel traces the relationship between Patience White, a painter, and Sarah Dowling, a farmer, whose romantic bond does not sit well with the puritanical New England farming community in which they live. Ultimately, they are forced to make life-changing decisions that depend on their courage and their commitment to one another.
First self-published in 1969 (titled A Place for Us) in an edition of 1,000 copies, the author hand-sold the book on New York street corners; it garnered increasing attention to the point of receiving the American Library Association's first Gay Book Award in 1971. McGraw-Hill's version of the book a year later brought it to mainstream bookstores across the country.
Patience & Sarah is a historical romance whose drama was a touchstone for the burgeoning gay and women's activism of the 1960s and early 1970s. It celebrates the joys of an uninhibited love between two strong women with a confident defiance that remains relevant today.
Features an appendix of supplementary materials about Patience & Sarah and the author, as well as an introduction by acclaimed novelist Emma Donoghue.
First self-published in 1969 (titled A Place for Us) in an edition of 1,000 copies, the author hand-sold the book on New York street corners; it garnered increasing attention to the point of receiving the American Library Association's first Gay Book Award in 1971. McGraw-Hill's version of the book a year later brought it to mainstream bookstores across the country.
Patience & Sarah is a historical romance whose drama was a touchstone for the burgeoning gay and women's activism of the 1960s and early 1970s. It celebrates the joys of an uninhibited love between two strong women with a confident defiance that remains relevant today.
Features an appendix of supplementary materials about Patience & Sarah and the author, as well as an introduction by acclaimed novelist Emma Donoghue.
225 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1969
97 people are currently reading
14267 people want to read
About the author
Isabel Miller
14 books61 followersIsabel Miller was the pen name of Alma Routsong, an American novelist best known for her lesbian fiction. She graduated from Michigan State University in 1949 with a degree in art. Her first two novels (A Gradual Joy and Round Shape) were published under her own name, with the later works under the pen name Isabel Miller — a combination of an anagram of “Lesbia” and her mother’s maiden name.
In 1969, Isabel Miller published her best known book, A Place for Us, printed in an edition of 1,000 copies paid for and sold by the author. With this title, based on a true story of a 19th-century couple from New York state, Miller began her career as lesbian novelist. In 1971, the novel won the first annual Gay Book Award of the American Library Association. Under its later title, Patience and Sarah, Miller’s novel became one of the most cherished lesbian love story of all time.
Isabel Miller died in Poughkeepsie, New York on October 4, 1996, shortly before her last novel (Laurel) was published.
In 1969, Isabel Miller published her best known book, A Place for Us, printed in an edition of 1,000 copies paid for and sold by the author. With this title, based on a true story of a 19th-century couple from New York state, Miller began her career as lesbian novelist. In 1971, the novel won the first annual Gay Book Award of the American Library Association. Under its later title, Patience and Sarah, Miller’s novel became one of the most cherished lesbian love story of all time.
Isabel Miller died in Poughkeepsie, New York on October 4, 1996, shortly before her last novel (Laurel) was published.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 390 reviews
November 28, 2010
It's not that this is a brilliant, great book. (It's not.) It isn't that the writing is brilliant or astonishing. (It isn't.) It isn't that the book is real, and kind, and loving, a rarity in any day (and it's all of the above).
It's rather that this book told a fictional history of two gay women long before it was fashionable to do so - and instead of following the path most books of that ilk trod (eg at least one if not both has to die by the end, no one can be happy, it can't be anything but unnatural), the book walks us through the stages of a relationship between two women with grace and humor, and no one dies in the end.
This was the first "gay" book I read cover to cover, because it actually had a plot. The characters felt full-formed. The setting (upstate New York) was close to my heart. It's a sweet tale, sweetly told.
It's rather that this book told a fictional history of two gay women long before it was fashionable to do so - and instead of following the path most books of that ilk trod (eg at least one if not both has to die by the end, no one can be happy, it can't be anything but unnatural), the book walks us through the stages of a relationship between two women with grace and humor, and no one dies in the end.
This was the first "gay" book I read cover to cover, because it actually had a plot. The characters felt full-formed. The setting (upstate New York) was close to my heart. It's a sweet tale, sweetly told.
December 8, 2012
I didn't know this was self-published until I'd finished it, and it made me love the book all the more. I came upon it when looking at books that supposedly influenced Sarah Waters, and I bought it out of curiosity.
This is by far the best lesbian novel that I have ever read, and it ties with Night Watch by Sarah Waters as my favorite. I find that most of the LBGT novels I pick up are very coy about actual sex, or tremendously over written but this book is lovely because it has the starkness of prose that I love, as well as an innocence of language that doesn't hide anything, but which perfectly suits the characters.
That's an unbearably hipsterish way of saying that the language is straightforward, and the emotions are clear.
My favorite character was Sarah, as I found Patience a little conniving and catlike sometimes. But their love story was beautifully written, no longer than it needed to be, and stylishly put together.
I will never let this book leave my shelves.
This is by far the best lesbian novel that I have ever read, and it ties with Night Watch by Sarah Waters as my favorite. I find that most of the LBGT novels I pick up are very coy about actual sex, or tremendously over written but this book is lovely because it has the starkness of prose that I love, as well as an innocence of language that doesn't hide anything, but which perfectly suits the characters.
That's an unbearably hipsterish way of saying that the language is straightforward, and the emotions are clear.
My favorite character was Sarah, as I found Patience a little conniving and catlike sometimes. But their love story was beautifully written, no longer than it needed to be, and stylishly put together.
I will never let this book leave my shelves.
February 16, 2018
"Patience and Sarah" has the distinction of being the only lesbian book I read in my early 20s that felt positive throughout. Back then, I spent a couple of years scouring the libraries and book stores for lesbian fiction and only found depressing reads or ones that had me thinking "wtf?" because they were so weird. Thank goodness things have changed since then. I can only imagine what a buoy this was when it was published in the 1960s since it was such a relief to me in the 1990s.
This time around I listened to the audiobook version and it was a nice refresher.
The book is about two women in the early 1800s that are still single and in their 20s, 22 and 29, when they meet. Sarah has been groomed as a boy in a family full of daughters so she can help her father on the farm and Patience is a spinster sister, living in her own lodging under her brother's eye. Both are outside the norm of society.
The tale is really about them finding each other, exploring their feelings, and what occurs when their families find out. They make decisions that deeply impact the other for better and worse but, as readers, we're not put in agony and get a sweet love story out of it all.
Sarah isn't exactly butch but she's definitely tomboy. She can go between the two genders due to Patience's guidance and depending on what is needed of her. Sarah, growing up on a farm, is very rough around the edges and is a rather raw person with strong emotions, no education, and an initially naive view of the world.
Patience is all lady. She's educated, refined, and the more mature of the two. She acts as the rudder in the relationship.
They each have their strengths, grow as individuals, and do complement each other well.
The author does a great job of taking us back to the 1800s, in description and in peoples daily lives and attitudes. Though the book is positive, it doesn't put rose colored glasses on the situation and it feels realistic to the time. The book is actually based on a real lesbian couple so that adds extra authenticity.
Jean Smart and Janis Ian narrate the book, trading off when the perspective changes. Jean Smart is Patience and Janis Ian is Sarah. The first part of the book, Jean Smart starts it off and I thought her narration was a little rough for whatever reason. Janis Ian's is more fluid. But, when Jean Smart comes back, her delivery at that point is executed really well.
Overall, a pleasant read and a nice story to listen to.
This time around I listened to the audiobook version and it was a nice refresher.
The book is about two women in the early 1800s that are still single and in their 20s, 22 and 29, when they meet. Sarah has been groomed as a boy in a family full of daughters so she can help her father on the farm and Patience is a spinster sister, living in her own lodging under her brother's eye. Both are outside the norm of society.
The tale is really about them finding each other, exploring their feelings, and what occurs when their families find out. They make decisions that deeply impact the other for better and worse but, as readers, we're not put in agony and get a sweet love story out of it all.
Sarah isn't exactly butch but she's definitely tomboy. She can go between the two genders due to Patience's guidance and depending on what is needed of her. Sarah, growing up on a farm, is very rough around the edges and is a rather raw person with strong emotions, no education, and an initially naive view of the world.
Patience is all lady. She's educated, refined, and the more mature of the two. She acts as the rudder in the relationship.
They each have their strengths, grow as individuals, and do complement each other well.
The author does a great job of taking us back to the 1800s, in description and in peoples daily lives and attitudes. Though the book is positive, it doesn't put rose colored glasses on the situation and it feels realistic to the time. The book is actually based on a real lesbian couple so that adds extra authenticity.
Jean Smart and Janis Ian narrate the book, trading off when the perspective changes. Jean Smart is Patience and Janis Ian is Sarah. The first part of the book, Jean Smart starts it off and I thought her narration was a little rough for whatever reason. Janis Ian's is more fluid. But, when Jean Smart comes back, her delivery at that point is executed really well.
Overall, a pleasant read and a nice story to listen to.
July 10, 2017
Oh. Oh I didn't expect this to be so perfect. It's the lesbian story I've been longing for -- where "The Well of Loneliness" was too chaste and too painful and "The Price of Salt" too prickly and too sad, "Patience and Sarah" heals and delights. I am not trying to dismiss those other lesbian classics when I mention them, but to say that "Patience and Sarah" is altogether a warmer, happier, more optimistic book than any either of them. Set in the 1810s, in puritan New England, the characters certainly face hardships, oppression, and loss, but they also find solace in one another and in building a life for themselves. Told in alternating first person POV, both characters, Patience and Sarah, have a unique and arresting voice, and thought they are well-matched, they are very different people. From the first, Miller absolutely captured me, and I was desperately rooting for their love. They are so kind to one another and so determined to be good to one another. Miller has a wonderful ear for dialogue, both internal and external, and creates fantastically believable conversations, quarrels and jokes between Patience and Sarah. She is also a very sensual writer, and her writing about erotic love is both moving and delightful. This book reminds me of the important of love -- of the determination of lesbian women everywhere, and how proud I am of the relationships we have had with one another, despite the adversity we face.
I did not read this book, though I knew of it, for a long time, because I was a story about lesbians set in 1810 would depress me. How wrong I was! This book is a solace and an affirmation, and I recommend it without question.
I did not read this book, though I knew of it, for a long time, because I was a story about lesbians set in 1810 would depress me. How wrong I was! This book is a solace and an affirmation, and I recommend it without question.
August 6, 2017
this is a weird one. it's very charming in parts, very readable. it's absolutely fascinating as a touchstone of 20th century lesbian literature. but it's difficult to look past the reality that the goal of the women throughout is to start a farm in cheap newly "opened up" land, i.e. on the frontiers of colonialism. the original title of the novel was "a place for us" and that's its central preoccupation; finding a place patience and sarah can live and love as they choose. I'm fascinated by this insight into the genealogy of the fantasy of the rural lesbian utopia.
the USA in particular has as its foundational myth the idea that there is a vast, open land, not owned by anyone, where people are free to create an intentional community protected by isolation from persecution by those who don't understand their value system and lifestyle. I'm talking about the Puritans but other small communities have also internalised this dream. lesbians and queer women especially, I think, dream of going back to the land to this day. but of course there is no untouched wilderness, no fresh ground; if there appears to be, people lived there, and they were displaced. the central characters of this novel are all white. while it touches briefly on the existence of slavery, native americans are entirely absent from the story. it's an absence that speaks.
as a white queer settler who prefers city life, it's incumbent on me not to project all of the sins of colonisation onto rural life. it's all stolen land. having said that, I think the fantasy of untouched land, of freedom to build your own life, of treating rural land in a colony as if it's as untouched by other people as mars -- this specifically should be challenged. let's look at the historical reality behind this story.
the novel is based on the life of mary ann wilson and miss brundage who lived on a farm in early 19th century greene county, new york state -- mahican land. as in the novel, they had moved there from deeply religious Connecticut. at the time, native americans in new york state were being forced off their land by the state and by aggressive settler real estate interests (source more). most (not all! but most) native americans still living in the area were forcibly relocated to wisconsin in the 1830s. in other words, the "place for us" was not only stolen land, but very recently stolen land, still being actively fought over.
my heart aches, of course, for real life 19th century lesbians escaping Puritan families. it also aches for the author, a longtime gay activist who sacrified a lot for the freedoms I have today (biographical notes). her yearning for some kind of respite seeps through every page. but I have to ask: what was the purpose of writing this particular story in 1969? what was its function? and are we still so ruled by fear that the best thing we can dream for ourselves is to get a girlfriend and whisk her away to a place of total isolation built on genocide?
the USA in particular has as its foundational myth the idea that there is a vast, open land, not owned by anyone, where people are free to create an intentional community protected by isolation from persecution by those who don't understand their value system and lifestyle. I'm talking about the Puritans but other small communities have also internalised this dream. lesbians and queer women especially, I think, dream of going back to the land to this day. but of course there is no untouched wilderness, no fresh ground; if there appears to be, people lived there, and they were displaced. the central characters of this novel are all white. while it touches briefly on the existence of slavery, native americans are entirely absent from the story. it's an absence that speaks.
as a white queer settler who prefers city life, it's incumbent on me not to project all of the sins of colonisation onto rural life. it's all stolen land. having said that, I think the fantasy of untouched land, of freedom to build your own life, of treating rural land in a colony as if it's as untouched by other people as mars -- this specifically should be challenged. let's look at the historical reality behind this story.
the novel is based on the life of mary ann wilson and miss brundage who lived on a farm in early 19th century greene county, new york state -- mahican land. as in the novel, they had moved there from deeply religious Connecticut. at the time, native americans in new york state were being forced off their land by the state and by aggressive settler real estate interests (source more). most (not all! but most) native americans still living in the area were forcibly relocated to wisconsin in the 1830s. in other words, the "place for us" was not only stolen land, but very recently stolen land, still being actively fought over.
my heart aches, of course, for real life 19th century lesbians escaping Puritan families. it also aches for the author, a longtime gay activist who sacrified a lot for the freedoms I have today (biographical notes). her yearning for some kind of respite seeps through every page. but I have to ask: what was the purpose of writing this particular story in 1969? what was its function? and are we still so ruled by fear that the best thing we can dream for ourselves is to get a girlfriend and whisk her away to a place of total isolation built on genocide?
June 28, 2023
So, I read this as a part of Bethany's book club where we are slowly working our way through some classic lesbian romances. I can admit that it is monumental for it's publication time; however, I'm was not impressed with the overall story.
Patience & Sarah follows two characters who live in a small town and eventually realize that they have a romantic attraction towards each other. Unfortunately, their families weren't as supportive of their pending relationship with each other so they are forced to leave town to make a home of their own.
What I Enjoyed: Honestly, not much. There was some interesting information about the author and the origins of the book, but other than that I really struggled with this book. I liked Sarah as a character as long as she wasn't dealing with Patience.
What I Didn't Enjoy: There was so much hinting at incest in this book and I'm not exactly sure why it was considered to be relevant to the plot of this novel. If anyone knows me then they know that I draw a hard line with the inclusion of incest in any narrative. Unfortunately, I also wasn't invested in the relationship between Sarah and Patience. Patience was a piece of work that attempted to control every facet of their relationship. She also sought to change Sarah into that type of queer woman that she was most attracted to which disgusted me. While the author may have intended to illustrate the romantic relationship between two women, there wasn't a romance to invest in.
Overall, this was a disappointing read. I can appreciate it's historical place in the world of literature, but it isn't one that I enjoyed.
Patience & Sarah follows two characters who live in a small town and eventually realize that they have a romantic attraction towards each other. Unfortunately, their families weren't as supportive of their pending relationship with each other so they are forced to leave town to make a home of their own.
What I Enjoyed: Honestly, not much. There was some interesting information about the author and the origins of the book, but other than that I really struggled with this book. I liked Sarah as a character as long as she wasn't dealing with Patience.
What I Didn't Enjoy: There was so much hinting at incest in this book and I'm not exactly sure why it was considered to be relevant to the plot of this novel. If anyone knows me then they know that I draw a hard line with the inclusion of incest in any narrative. Unfortunately, I also wasn't invested in the relationship between Sarah and Patience. Patience was a piece of work that attempted to control every facet of their relationship. She also sought to change Sarah into that type of queer woman that she was most attracted to which disgusted me. While the author may have intended to illustrate the romantic relationship between two women, there wasn't a romance to invest in.
Overall, this was a disappointing read. I can appreciate it's historical place in the world of literature, but it isn't one that I enjoyed.
June 24, 2023
The first published historical lesbian romance, Patience & Sarah is really interesting from the perspective of queer history, but it also holds a timeless quality. Published in 1969 it follows two women based loosely on real historical figures living in the 1800's who find love and overcome the odds to make a life for themselves. Definitely worth a read. The prose is straightforward and the characters feels relatable, with an interesting approach to considering gender. I want to add though (as other reviewers have rightly pointed out) that this is ultimately a story premised on colonization since the land they are interested in was only vacant by forcing indigenous people to relocate. I'll admit I wasn't thinking about this while reading, but it's an important contextual point.
Updating to add some content warnings. I think this book is probably drawing on ideas about sexuality from the time by people like Kinsey but there are a few nods to incestuous attraction from side characters. Also there is physical abuse by Sarah's father because of her sexuality. And upon reflection and discussion, I do like this less than I did initially. Check here for a panel discussion on the book that admittedly goes off the rails after awhile: https://youtube.com/live/POwGvk-mb9s
Updating to add some content warnings. I think this book is probably drawing on ideas about sexuality from the time by people like Kinsey but there are a few nods to incestuous attraction from side characters. Also there is physical abuse by Sarah's father because of her sexuality. And upon reflection and discussion, I do like this less than I did initially. Check here for a panel discussion on the book that admittedly goes off the rails after awhile: https://youtube.com/live/POwGvk-mb9s
June 28, 2016
A sweet love story that takes place in the early 19th century. There is Patience who in her late 20s, a spinster by choice and a well-educated painter was left an inheritance such that she didn't "need" to get married. And there was Sarah from a poor farm family, uneducated and raised as if she was a boy in an all daughter household to help her Pa on the farm. They fall in love and strive to live together despite not knowing any women like themselves and the distain of the puritanical society of that time.
I read the audio version with Jean Smart as Patience and Janis Ian as Sarah. They were nominated for a Grammy in 2016. It was well-deserved. I can't be sure, but I don't think I would have enjoyed this book as much, if I read it rather than listened to it. The book sections alternates POVs of Patience & Sarah. Both were excellent, but Ian as Sarah really stood out to me. Ian portrays Sarah, though uneducated and unsophisticated as having dignity, courage, loyalty, and intelligence. She could have easily gone too far with a country bumpkin type portrayal.
Highly recommend the Smart & Ian audio version. I bought the Kindle/audible combo which was cheaper than Audible alone.
I read the audio version with Jean Smart as Patience and Janis Ian as Sarah. They were nominated for a Grammy in 2016. It was well-deserved. I can't be sure, but I don't think I would have enjoyed this book as much, if I read it rather than listened to it. The book sections alternates POVs of Patience & Sarah. Both were excellent, but Ian as Sarah really stood out to me. Ian portrays Sarah, though uneducated and unsophisticated as having dignity, courage, loyalty, and intelligence. She could have easily gone too far with a country bumpkin type portrayal.
Highly recommend the Smart & Ian audio version. I bought the Kindle/audible combo which was cheaper than Audible alone.
September 24, 2013
I found this book when I was in the sixth grade. It had been accidentally shelved on the juvenile section. I read it and loved it, even though it would be another seven years before I understood that the two women were lovers, and didn't just bunk together because they only had one bed. As a bookworm of a sixth grader in a very conservative little world, it gave me a half-understood hope that widowhood wasn't the only family configuration for me.
May 30, 2012
This is a great “American” novel; a love story, an odyssey and a chronicle of two remarkable lives. In this short novel Miller paints a large portrait on a relatively small canvas and with Patience and Sarah she has created two indelible characters. There is a perfection of expression mixed with an eloquent, economical prose style. Here is the heroic depiction of a love that refuses to remain unrequited or diminished by the provincial standards of a morally pious society.
Set in Connecticut circa 1816, we are introduced to Patience, a spinster (by choice) in her late twenties; she is a woman of means. By contrast, Sarah (22) is a farmer’s daughter, uneducated and raised as a boy to assist with the arduous tasks of farm life. One day Sarah delivers a load of firewood to the property Patience shares with her brother Edward and his wife Martha. Call it kismet, but from the moment the two women clap eyes on one another their destinies are married. Miller adroitly articulates the myriad of feelings experienced by our heroines as they traverse love's often rocky landscape.
Besides the titular characters, Miller has thoroughly fleshed out the conflicted Edward, bitter Martha, and Sarah’s brutally moral father. Best of all is Parson Peel, a defrocked clergyman now writer and bookseller who travels the back roads in a gypsy caravan and picks up the vagabond Sarah. Peel mentors her, teaches her to read and provides a warm bed, all the while believing her to be a young man named “Sam.”
Originally self-published in 1969 with the title “A Place for Us,” and subsequently issued in 1971 by a main-stream publisher, “Patience and Sarah” holds the distinction of being the first recipient of the American Library Association’s Stonewall Book Award
Set in Connecticut circa 1816, we are introduced to Patience, a spinster (by choice) in her late twenties; she is a woman of means. By contrast, Sarah (22) is a farmer’s daughter, uneducated and raised as a boy to assist with the arduous tasks of farm life. One day Sarah delivers a load of firewood to the property Patience shares with her brother Edward and his wife Martha. Call it kismet, but from the moment the two women clap eyes on one another their destinies are married. Miller adroitly articulates the myriad of feelings experienced by our heroines as they traverse love's often rocky landscape.
Besides the titular characters, Miller has thoroughly fleshed out the conflicted Edward, bitter Martha, and Sarah’s brutally moral father. Best of all is Parson Peel, a defrocked clergyman now writer and bookseller who travels the back roads in a gypsy caravan and picks up the vagabond Sarah. Peel mentors her, teaches her to read and provides a warm bed, all the while believing her to be a young man named “Sam.”
Originally self-published in 1969 with the title “A Place for Us,” and subsequently issued in 1971 by a main-stream publisher, “Patience and Sarah” holds the distinction of being the first recipient of the American Library Association’s Stonewall Book Award
January 14, 2022
Story is believed to be a remake of true lovers and what a wonderful tale. We are taken to the 1800s, get acquainted with the MCs and how they met. And from there taken along on a journey... sharing their fears, trials and ultimately their joy(s). Simple joys I might add but ones I find so beautiful- 'Just want to live'.
September 21, 2014
This was just wonderful! When I was about 10 I developed a serious infatuation with Laura Ingells Wilder. I started watching Little House and then discovered she was a real woman who wrote real novels. I remember buying the full set from a school reading club and devouring them. I remember being really sad at the end when I saw a picture of her and her husband and realised that the woman I'd fallen in love with was not beautiful like Melissa Gilbert. I wish that then I'd been able to find this book and read it. It was exactly what I wanted to be reading then.
This is a story of two women in the very early 19th century who fall in love and want to make their home together. It's told beautifully. The trials they face are more due to sexism than homophobia but they fight for what they want regardless. The story is told by both characters in the first person switching back and forth. They both have very different voices and perspectives and it makes it interesting. One thing that I liked about the book was that it wasn't a fairy tale romance but they lied to each other and felt guilty and angry and made mistakes because they didn't know what the other one wanted or were too insecure to believe things would work. I also loved how not everyone was against them but they met people in their journeys who were sympathetic to them and who helped them. To me that made it much more believable. Even the minor characters stood out as real people with their own motivations and tragedy. In the end it is a very sweet and powerful story. It's one I wish all young queer girls could read. I borrowed a copy of this from the library but as soon as I finished it I bought my own copy as I just adored it.
This is a story of two women in the very early 19th century who fall in love and want to make their home together. It's told beautifully. The trials they face are more due to sexism than homophobia but they fight for what they want regardless. The story is told by both characters in the first person switching back and forth. They both have very different voices and perspectives and it makes it interesting. One thing that I liked about the book was that it wasn't a fairy tale romance but they lied to each other and felt guilty and angry and made mistakes because they didn't know what the other one wanted or were too insecure to believe things would work. I also loved how not everyone was against them but they met people in their journeys who were sympathetic to them and who helped them. To me that made it much more believable. Even the minor characters stood out as real people with their own motivations and tragedy. In the end it is a very sweet and powerful story. It's one I wish all young queer girls could read. I borrowed a copy of this from the library but as soon as I finished it I bought my own copy as I just adored it.
November 12, 2023
In a time when lesbians were considered sinful abominations, Patience White and Sarah Dowling made their own way in New York’s Hudson Valley in 1817; and in 1969, when American authors rarely wrote about such forbidden love, Isabel Miller (a pen name of Alma Routsong) self-published the book that was originally titled A Place for Us. That title’s a much better assessment of this award-winning novel.
Patience and Sarah meet when the latter delivers wood to the White home. Dressed as a boy, Sarah’s been brought up to be the “boy” for her father, who has only girls. She and Patience fall in love, but in 1816 rural Connecticut, such relationships were kept on the down-low. When someone betrays them, the pair struggle might to live a life together on their own terms. It’s a one-of-a-kind romance, which I thoroughly enjoyed, a miracle of perseverance and courage in the 19th century; Miller also taught me a great deal about a time when Connecticut and the Hudson Valley were considered the wild frontier.
The best way to enjoy Patience and Sarah is by reading the Audible edition, which won a Grammy Award in 2016 — and no wonder! Who would expect anything else from Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Janis Ian and Emmy-winning actress Jean Smart?
Incidentally, Miller based this story on a real-life couple, artist Mary Ann Willson [sic] and her companion, known only as Miss Brundridge. Both lived quite openly in Greenville in the 1820s.
Patience and Sarah meet when the latter delivers wood to the White home. Dressed as a boy, Sarah’s been brought up to be the “boy” for her father, who has only girls. She and Patience fall in love, but in 1816 rural Connecticut, such relationships were kept on the down-low. When someone betrays them, the pair struggle might to live a life together on their own terms. It’s a one-of-a-kind romance, which I thoroughly enjoyed, a miracle of perseverance and courage in the 19th century; Miller also taught me a great deal about a time when Connecticut and the Hudson Valley were considered the wild frontier.
The best way to enjoy Patience and Sarah is by reading the Audible edition, which won a Grammy Award in 2016 — and no wonder! Who would expect anything else from Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Janis Ian and Emmy-winning actress Jean Smart?
Incidentally, Miller based this story on a real-life couple, artist Mary Ann Willson [sic] and her companion, known only as Miss Brundridge. Both lived quite openly in Greenville in the 1820s.
September 12, 2020
Oh, we were begun. There would be no way out except through.
One of those books that's enjoyable just as much for the writing as it is for what is written. This one needs no introduction; a classic historical tale of two women daring to find a place for themselves. It was one of the first f/f novels with a happy ending. There's so much poetry here, so much loveliness in the writing, so many meaningful ruminations on love, on loving women, on freedom, on independence, on living in a patriarchal world. It was just really lovely, very naked in its passions. It wasn't overly fairytale-esque, and I loved that it saw them through big rough spots and little rough spots, showing all the work it takes to make a relationship work, but also showing how effortless and sweet love can be. I did think it got a tad bit too slow, or that might just be me; my interest flagged a little near the middle.
There were a bunch of great little extras in this edition; a wonderful introduction by Emma Donoghue, an afterword from Miller's former lover that talks about how and why she started writing the book, and other interesting titbits.
I've been meaning to read this for years, literally (added to my want-t0-read shelf in 2012) and I'm super happy that I finally did.
One of those books that's enjoyable just as much for the writing as it is for what is written. This one needs no introduction; a classic historical tale of two women daring to find a place for themselves. It was one of the first f/f novels with a happy ending. There's so much poetry here, so much loveliness in the writing, so many meaningful ruminations on love, on loving women, on freedom, on independence, on living in a patriarchal world. It was just really lovely, very naked in its passions. It wasn't overly fairytale-esque, and I loved that it saw them through big rough spots and little rough spots, showing all the work it takes to make a relationship work, but also showing how effortless and sweet love can be. I did think it got a tad bit too slow, or that might just be me; my interest flagged a little near the middle.
There were a bunch of great little extras in this edition; a wonderful introduction by Emma Donoghue, an afterword from Miller's former lover that talks about how and why she started writing the book, and other interesting titbits.
I've been meaning to read this for years, literally (added to my want-t0-read shelf in 2012) and I'm super happy that I finally did.
April 25, 2012
This was the first lesbian book I ever read, in 1988, aged 18, in the summer holidays after leaving school. I was in love with my teacher and heart-broken, so reading my first lesbian book made quite an impression. It was beautiful.
March 7, 2019
Thank you Annie on My Mind for helping me finding this book.
You can get a light vibe from this. It was really optimistic. Like they get to live together even though they were in 19th century and the outcome make people at that time believed that they would be okay in the end. Because love wins.
You can get a light vibe from this. It was really optimistic. Like they get to live together even though they were in 19th century and the outcome make people at that time believed that they would be okay in the end. Because love wins.
October 20, 2015
I have to thank Aleksandr Voinov for bringing the beauty of audiobooks into my literary world. The first few attempts I made were merely okay, but I certainly wasn’t won over by any of them. Then the soothing and graceful voice of Matthew Lloyd Davies forced me to quickly change my tune. I wasn’t bored. I wasn’t sleepy. I wasn’t….uncomfortable. I was captivated, engaged, and rapt with every word. It took on a completely new form of entertainment; similar yet so unlike the visual absorption of words on paper. Eager to find something else to listen too, I scrolled through the Audible app on my phone and viola, I found my next adventure.
And adventure it was. Outlandish for me really, this book, or perhaps it was my selection of this book that was so far off the beaten path of my normal book attraction that I didn’t recognize myself.
Historical. I don’t do historical. Okay okay, I just told you how much I LOVED Skybound, but that doesn’t count. That story does not fit in any of the standard categories or boxes; it’s in a league of its own.
Lesbian love stories. It’s not that I don’t seek them out because I don’t like them- it’s simply there are so few to choose from. The very few I have read either fared little or decent marks but nothing spectacular. This fable reaches infinitely higher in terms of great love stories.
Patience and Sarah possess stunning and determined love that refuses to be denied. In a time when it was not only improper and offensive but unimaginable that two women could be romantically involved, they found it anyways.
My head is so full, I’m not certain where to begin. First it should be noted that I know I would not have enjoyed this story to the same degree if I hadn’t listened. The dual narrators were fabulous. There are five books that complete the story and both Sarah and Patience alternate the telling of the story. I preferred one voice slightly more than the other, but both did a phenomenal job.
Set in 1816 in New England the descriptions are like flipping through a history book. Religion is oppressive in this era, but not in the book. It is definitely in the background but I never found it a focal point. Feminism however, is strong and prominent throughout.
Patience is destined to be a spinster sister and aunt. A gifted painter, a sharp mind and an heir of wealth and prosperity, she has always set her own course. As much as she was permitted that is. When her Father passed away he left a very detailed will to allow her to continue with the comforts that he provided her with, without having to take a husband. Her brother Edward was to see her to a lifetime of easy living. She had a place of her own, connected to her brother’s home and assisted with his family when she cared to.
One wintry day a load of wood was delivered by an intriguing woman….dressed as a man. This is the day the stars change for Patience. Maybe she was set on the wrong course all along?
Sarah is twenty-one and defies all expected norms of society. She wears britches for heaven’s sakes! Can you imagine! *wink* Patience is mortified with the disregard and rude behavior of her sister-in-law and invites Sarah into her part of the home. Patience has suddenly found everything that she never knew she was missing. She has found Sarah, Sarah with her proud chin, strong shoulders and loving hands. The feeling is mutual because Sarah decides then and there that she wants Patience and nothing will stop her.
Out of all of Sarah’s sisters, she is closest to Rachel. Rachel is just like her and when Sarah begins her voyage into frontier land, she’s taking Rachel with her. Sarah breaks the news to Rachel that she can’t take her anymore because Sarah has found her mate. Rachel is crushed and without thought tells her Pa. Pa refuses to allow Sarah to scorn the family so, and make all her sisters unmarryable…so, he forbids it. Sarah is relentless in her attempts to reach Patience are suffers greatly. Patience is stricken with fear and cannot risk their lives for love. She refuses to go with Sarah. Sarah can’t bear to stay so she goes on alone. She has only one choice to survive, which is to become a boy. She cuts her hair and becomes Sam.
Sam is strong, in body, spirit and will. Sam has no light left, for he left it back home. Sam encounters a peddler man, a book peddler, and joins him for the summer. They have great adventures and he begins to teach Sam to read. Something happens (can’t tell you what)….and Sam can no longer stay. Sam heads back to Connecticut.
Patience missed Sarah more than she thought was possible. She is desperate for the opportunity to leave now. She quickly realized her mistake in surmising to her fears and she wants the life they dreamed of. She doesn’t want a half life anymore. However, Sarah returns changed. Her spirit is dimmed, her reckless desires controlled, and she is prepared to settle. Settle for whatever life she must life to have Patience nearby. She can no loner be foolish because Patience is now a fool in love. One of them must be sensible, right?
Patience convinces Sarah to find her wild abandon once again and they begin their voyage to New York. New York City in the early 1800’s? Wow….it truly was a sight to see. The odds are very much against them. How can they survive in a man’s world without a man?
I was anxious and excited.
I was delighted and sickened.
I was blown away by the power of their love. I found many of the descriptions during their love scenes…odd. But they were all fade-to-black and easy to dismiss. If you must know, there is a happily ever after. It involves a journey up a thorny mountain to get there, but the heaven on earth they find is unlike any I’ve ever seen.
And then….to my utter surprise, it may not be entirely all fiction after all. *jaw drops*
This book was the first book awarded and I believe the reason for the Stonewall Book Award. In the early seventies it was awarded the honor and I can definitely see why.
I believe Sarah did say it best…
I challenge you to pull yourself out of your comfortable grooves in the road you’re traveling. Take a chance. Not necessarily on this, but with something unexpected and unlike you.
Be courageous and free….and you might find yourself among the clouds too.
*4.5 take-me-by-surprise-take-my-breath-away stars*
And adventure it was. Outlandish for me really, this book, or perhaps it was my selection of this book that was so far off the beaten path of my normal book attraction that I didn’t recognize myself.
Historical. I don’t do historical. Okay okay, I just told you how much I LOVED Skybound, but that doesn’t count. That story does not fit in any of the standard categories or boxes; it’s in a league of its own.
Lesbian love stories. It’s not that I don’t seek them out because I don’t like them- it’s simply there are so few to choose from. The very few I have read either fared little or decent marks but nothing spectacular. This fable reaches infinitely higher in terms of great love stories.
Patience and Sarah possess stunning and determined love that refuses to be denied. In a time when it was not only improper and offensive but unimaginable that two women could be romantically involved, they found it anyways.
My head is so full, I’m not certain where to begin. First it should be noted that I know I would not have enjoyed this story to the same degree if I hadn’t listened. The dual narrators were fabulous. There are five books that complete the story and both Sarah and Patience alternate the telling of the story. I preferred one voice slightly more than the other, but both did a phenomenal job.
Set in 1816 in New England the descriptions are like flipping through a history book. Religion is oppressive in this era, but not in the book. It is definitely in the background but I never found it a focal point. Feminism however, is strong and prominent throughout.
Patience is destined to be a spinster sister and aunt. A gifted painter, a sharp mind and an heir of wealth and prosperity, she has always set her own course. As much as she was permitted that is. When her Father passed away he left a very detailed will to allow her to continue with the comforts that he provided her with, without having to take a husband. Her brother Edward was to see her to a lifetime of easy living. She had a place of her own, connected to her brother’s home and assisted with his family when she cared to.
One wintry day a load of wood was delivered by an intriguing woman….dressed as a man. This is the day the stars change for Patience. Maybe she was set on the wrong course all along?
“I’m Pa’s boy; he couldn’t get a boy the regular way. Keep getting girls. So he picked me out to be boy cuz I was biggest.”
Sarah is twenty-one and defies all expected norms of society. She wears britches for heaven’s sakes! Can you imagine! *wink* Patience is mortified with the disregard and rude behavior of her sister-in-law and invites Sarah into her part of the home. Patience has suddenly found everything that she never knew she was missing. She has found Sarah, Sarah with her proud chin, strong shoulders and loving hands. The feeling is mutual because Sarah decides then and there that she wants Patience and nothing will stop her.
Out of all of Sarah’s sisters, she is closest to Rachel. Rachel is just like her and when Sarah begins her voyage into frontier land, she’s taking Rachel with her. Sarah breaks the news to Rachel that she can’t take her anymore because Sarah has found her mate. Rachel is crushed and without thought tells her Pa. Pa refuses to allow Sarah to scorn the family so, and make all her sisters unmarryable…so, he forbids it. Sarah is relentless in her attempts to reach Patience are suffers greatly. Patience is stricken with fear and cannot risk their lives for love. She refuses to go with Sarah. Sarah can’t bear to stay so she goes on alone. She has only one choice to survive, which is to become a boy. She cuts her hair and becomes Sam.
Sam is strong, in body, spirit and will. Sam has no light left, for he left it back home. Sam encounters a peddler man, a book peddler, and joins him for the summer. They have great adventures and he begins to teach Sam to read. Something happens (can’t tell you what)….and Sam can no longer stay. Sam heads back to Connecticut.
Patience missed Sarah more than she thought was possible. She is desperate for the opportunity to leave now. She quickly realized her mistake in surmising to her fears and she wants the life they dreamed of. She doesn’t want a half life anymore. However, Sarah returns changed. Her spirit is dimmed, her reckless desires controlled, and she is prepared to settle. Settle for whatever life she must life to have Patience nearby. She can no loner be foolish because Patience is now a fool in love. One of them must be sensible, right?
Patience convinces Sarah to find her wild abandon once again and they begin their voyage to New York. New York City in the early 1800’s? Wow….it truly was a sight to see. The odds are very much against them. How can they survive in a man’s world without a man?
“I began to wonder if what makes man walk so Lord-like and speak so masterfully, is having the love of woman. If that was it, Sarah and I would make Lords of each other.”
I was anxious and excited.
I was delighted and sickened.
I was blown away by the power of their love. I found many of the descriptions during their love scenes…odd. But they were all fade-to-black and easy to dismiss. If you must know, there is a happily ever after. It involves a journey up a thorny mountain to get there, but the heaven on earth they find is unlike any I’ve ever seen.
And then….to my utter surprise, it may not be entirely all fiction after all. *jaw drops*
This book was the first book awarded and I believe the reason for the Stonewall Book Award. In the early seventies it was awarded the honor and I can definitely see why.
I believe Sarah did say it best…
“you can’t tell a gift how to come.”
I challenge you to pull yourself out of your comfortable grooves in the road you’re traveling. Take a chance. Not necessarily on this, but with something unexpected and unlike you.
Be courageous and free….and you might find yourself among the clouds too.
*4.5 take-me-by-surprise-take-my-breath-away stars*
May 17, 2022
Joyful story of the love between two young women in early 19th century America. Patience is a wealthy and educated woman, whose father has left her half the house in which she lives with her Puritan brother Edward and his wife Martha. Patience and Martha were once friends, but years of drudgery and childbearing have made Martha bitter and snappy. When Patience meets Sarah Dowling, a farmer’s daughter who has been raised as a boy to help her father work the land, their attraction is immediate and grows into love despite the opposition of family and society. They decide to take a bold step and find a place of their own where they can live their life to its fullest.
This book isn’t written in a literary or philosophical way, its charm lies in the open and cheerful way it reveals the thoughts and feelings of the two protagonists. Sarah was the more likeable character for me - full of enthusiasm, often clumsy in her expressions and behaviour but genuine and honest. Patience is more sophisticated and is older, she can sometimes be calculating and manipulative, but she is also protective and caring. I enjoyed how their relationship grew and changed, it seems very authentic and not sensationalised.
I also enjoyed the New England setting and the descriptions of the land, and the secondary characters were all carefully chosen to add something to the story. This was a charming and enjoyable book.
This book isn’t written in a literary or philosophical way, its charm lies in the open and cheerful way it reveals the thoughts and feelings of the two protagonists. Sarah was the more likeable character for me - full of enthusiasm, often clumsy in her expressions and behaviour but genuine and honest. Patience is more sophisticated and is older, she can sometimes be calculating and manipulative, but she is also protective and caring. I enjoyed how their relationship grew and changed, it seems very authentic and not sensationalised.
I also enjoyed the New England setting and the descriptions of the land, and the secondary characters were all carefully chosen to add something to the story. This was a charming and enjoyable book.
June 15, 2022
Not quite 5 stars, but certainly a high 4. It’s not often that I read a book in which the protagonists aren’t given much in the way of obstruction, but this lovely, sweet novel of a lesbian relationship in the first half of the 19th century is beautiful. Author Isabel Miller originally self-published and hawked the book on street corners and lesbian group meeting until, two years later, she finally found a small press willing to take it on.
The story alternates the first person voice between the two protagonists, each taking a few chapters of the story. Patience is from a relatively well to do landed family, whose father has died and split the inheritance between she and her brother. Unmarried, intelligent , capable, independent and in her late twenties, she lives in her half of the house, helping out when she wishes with her sister in law, but mostly she wants to paint, but being a woman of moderate means she also isn’t allowed by respectable society to take paid employment.
Sarah, from lower class stock, is a rough and tumble tomboy with an overbearing father and a gaggle of younger sisters and a quiet mousey mother, who has been raised to do everything a boy can do in order to help out with the family businesses.
The two meet when Sarah delivers a sledge full of firewood to the house on a night of cold wretched snowy weather. Patience is aghast when her sister in law won’t invite Sarah into the house to warm herself, because she is scandalised by the very fact that Sarah is wearing trousers!
Patience instead invites Sarah into her own kitchen with its fire and tells a servant boy to unload the firewood. And so starts their awkward love story, made more touching for the sheer lack of examples they have in how to conduct their relationship.
After a false start, when Sarah leaves for the frontier disguised as a boy, and Patience finds herself lacking the courage to stand against society’s disapproval. They eventually find their farm and start their life.
It was a really nice book. Although, it seems the internet STILL doesn’t know what a “firpin” is (from context it’s some item of underwear, but Miller seems to have made it up).
The story alternates the first person voice between the two protagonists, each taking a few chapters of the story. Patience is from a relatively well to do landed family, whose father has died and split the inheritance between she and her brother. Unmarried, intelligent , capable, independent and in her late twenties, she lives in her half of the house, helping out when she wishes with her sister in law, but mostly she wants to paint, but being a woman of moderate means she also isn’t allowed by respectable society to take paid employment.
Sarah, from lower class stock, is a rough and tumble tomboy with an overbearing father and a gaggle of younger sisters and a quiet mousey mother, who has been raised to do everything a boy can do in order to help out with the family businesses.
The two meet when Sarah delivers a sledge full of firewood to the house on a night of cold wretched snowy weather. Patience is aghast when her sister in law won’t invite Sarah into the house to warm herself, because she is scandalised by the very fact that Sarah is wearing trousers!
Patience instead invites Sarah into her own kitchen with its fire and tells a servant boy to unload the firewood. And so starts their awkward love story, made more touching for the sheer lack of examples they have in how to conduct their relationship.
After a false start, when Sarah leaves for the frontier disguised as a boy, and Patience finds herself lacking the courage to stand against society’s disapproval. They eventually find their farm and start their life.
It was a really nice book. Although, it seems the internet STILL doesn’t know what a “firpin” is (from context it’s some item of underwear, but Miller seems to have made it up).
January 26, 2024
Tenevo la mano di Sarah e sentivo l’antico mare e le nuove ruote portarci verso una vita per cui non avevamo modelli, che nessuno di coloro che conoscevamo aveva vissuto, che dovevamo inventare per noi sul filo di un rasoio, e allora rovesciai indietro il capo e cantai tre alleluia.
Fin troppo spesso la vita ci pone di fronte a delle scelte in grado di cambiare radicalmente la nostra esistenza, anche se sono piccole, anche se le riteniamo facili, anche se non ci accorgiamo della loro importanza campale se non dopo aver attraversato quel confine invisibile tra ciò che eravamo e ciò che siamo diventati.
Fin troppo spesso la società ci chiede di scegliere tra ciò che siamo, tra ciò che sentiamo, e ciò che ci si aspetta da noi. Le convenzioni sociali, lo status quo imperante, le nostre famiglie, la paura di affermarsi: tutto ci spinge al conformismo, all’inattività; tutto ci sprona a seguire la strada più semplice, a non deludere coloro che ci circondano, ad agire seguendo un dettato morale imposto dall’esterno e non ciò che la nostra anima desidera.
Si può decidere, così, di rinchiudersi in una vita che non sarà mai del tutto nostra, dalla quale spesso fantasticheremo di liberarci, ma che rimarrà come una gabbia invalicabile dalla quale non potremo e – non vorremo – più uscire, così abituati alla cattività da non riconoscere più il colore e il sapore della libertà. Diverranno per noi familiari solo le claustrofobiche quattro mura nelle quali cerchiamo di muoverci, di ritrovare qualcosa di noi nel riflesso allo specchio, nelle azioni e nelle parole che tracciano i confini dell’esistenza.
Continua a leggere qui: https://parlaredilibri.wordpress.com/...
Fin troppo spesso la vita ci pone di fronte a delle scelte in grado di cambiare radicalmente la nostra esistenza, anche se sono piccole, anche se le riteniamo facili, anche se non ci accorgiamo della loro importanza campale se non dopo aver attraversato quel confine invisibile tra ciò che eravamo e ciò che siamo diventati.
Fin troppo spesso la società ci chiede di scegliere tra ciò che siamo, tra ciò che sentiamo, e ciò che ci si aspetta da noi. Le convenzioni sociali, lo status quo imperante, le nostre famiglie, la paura di affermarsi: tutto ci spinge al conformismo, all’inattività; tutto ci sprona a seguire la strada più semplice, a non deludere coloro che ci circondano, ad agire seguendo un dettato morale imposto dall’esterno e non ciò che la nostra anima desidera.
Si può decidere, così, di rinchiudersi in una vita che non sarà mai del tutto nostra, dalla quale spesso fantasticheremo di liberarci, ma che rimarrà come una gabbia invalicabile dalla quale non potremo e – non vorremo – più uscire, così abituati alla cattività da non riconoscere più il colore e il sapore della libertà. Diverranno per noi familiari solo le claustrofobiche quattro mura nelle quali cerchiamo di muoverci, di ritrovare qualcosa di noi nel riflesso allo specchio, nelle azioni e nelle parole che tracciano i confini dell’esistenza.
Continua a leggere qui: https://parlaredilibri.wordpress.com/...
June 4, 2018
This book was a bit frustrating because it starts out really good, but kind of peters out as it gets near the end.
Patience and Sarah are two women that live in the early 1800s. They meet, fall in love, and have to contend with their disapproving families. Intermixed with all of this are some travelogues as one or both of the women go on journeys at various times looking for a better life.
This early/middle part of the book was great and very engaging. Toward the end, however, the main plot is pretty much resolved and yet we kind of just hang out and watch people go about their lives. If the book had ended a bit sooner-or if the main characters had a few more interesting things to do in the last quarter of the novel-then it would have been a much tighter narrative.
Patience and Sarah are two women that live in the early 1800s. They meet, fall in love, and have to contend with their disapproving families. Intermixed with all of this are some travelogues as one or both of the women go on journeys at various times looking for a better life.
This early/middle part of the book was great and very engaging. Toward the end, however, the main plot is pretty much resolved and yet we kind of just hang out and watch people go about their lives. If the book had ended a bit sooner-or if the main characters had a few more interesting things to do in the last quarter of the novel-then it would have been a much tighter narrative.
June 25, 2023
Post live show review to add some CW.
Historically import work but IT IS A READ. Like you need to be prepared for some wildness around incest, some weird manipulation between our characters and heavy boobs all the time as a 😉😉 to banging.
Historically import work but IT IS A READ. Like you need to be prepared for some wildness around incest, some weird manipulation between our characters and heavy boobs all the time as a 😉😉 to banging.
December 31, 2020
I don't think I've ever read a sweeter, more tender little romance.
Beginning in 1815, this book tells the story of two young women from the stern, Puritan farmlands of the Housatonic valley who fall in love and strike out west with hopes of homesteading in the expanding territories of the young United States. Their voices are delightful and distinct, their romance sweet and bold. Sarah is physically strong, boyish, naive, compelled by her instinct to pamper Patience and protect her. Patience is older, better educated, and of a higher social class. She is also, notwithstanding her name, impulsive and visionary. Thus, control of the driver's seat in their relationship passes back and forth between them in an always compelling and delightful interplay of sex roles, class, and innate personality. Their dynamics are a delight.
They are also wonderfully sexy. Without ever veering awkwardly mechanical, Miller conveys the intense desire that surprises both these girls, their joyful exploration of it, and ultimate mastery of it for their own considerable pleasure. Prepare to loosen your collar right from the start. It's delightfully, achingly, brilliantly hot.
Sarah Waters cites this book as a strong influence on her, and there's no surprise in that. Waters shares Miller's sense of humor, and carries forward her ability to create fun, gutsy women who love each other, playfully and sensually, without the burden of existential angst about it, regardless of how unfavorable their historical circumstances might be. What Waters can sometimes do, however, that Miller does not do here, is be cruel to her characters. That's not a criticism; Patience & Sarah is a romantic fantasy, in which the lovers encounter relatively little resistance to their striving for independence and expression of their love, in which they have friends who understand and support them, in which even the Puritan patriarch who tosses them out of his home does so with love and a chunk of money. And a delightful fantasy it is, a pure delight.
[Fun note: Patience has a gift for painting, and given her Puritan upbringing, what she paints are Bible scenes, including lots of Old Testament scenes. I feel the descriptions of these paintings are all a setup for a laugh at the very end, where she makes a painting called "Whither thou goest I shall go," of Ruth and Naomi left behind on the threshing floor as Boaz recedes in the background. She meant to hang this in their parlor, Patience says, but as it turned out Ruth and Naomi's embrace wasn't chaste enough for company. Nudge nudge, wink wink.]
Beginning in 1815, this book tells the story of two young women from the stern, Puritan farmlands of the Housatonic valley who fall in love and strike out west with hopes of homesteading in the expanding territories of the young United States. Their voices are delightful and distinct, their romance sweet and bold. Sarah is physically strong, boyish, naive, compelled by her instinct to pamper Patience and protect her. Patience is older, better educated, and of a higher social class. She is also, notwithstanding her name, impulsive and visionary. Thus, control of the driver's seat in their relationship passes back and forth between them in an always compelling and delightful interplay of sex roles, class, and innate personality. Their dynamics are a delight.
They are also wonderfully sexy. Without ever veering awkwardly mechanical, Miller conveys the intense desire that surprises both these girls, their joyful exploration of it, and ultimate mastery of it for their own considerable pleasure. Prepare to loosen your collar right from the start. It's delightfully, achingly, brilliantly hot.
Sarah Waters cites this book as a strong influence on her, and there's no surprise in that. Waters shares Miller's sense of humor, and carries forward her ability to create fun, gutsy women who love each other, playfully and sensually, without the burden of existential angst about it, regardless of how unfavorable their historical circumstances might be. What Waters can sometimes do, however, that Miller does not do here, is be cruel to her characters. That's not a criticism; Patience & Sarah is a romantic fantasy, in which the lovers encounter relatively little resistance to their striving for independence and expression of their love, in which they have friends who understand and support them, in which even the Puritan patriarch who tosses them out of his home does so with love and a chunk of money. And a delightful fantasy it is, a pure delight.
[Fun note: Patience has a gift for painting, and given her Puritan upbringing, what she paints are Bible scenes, including lots of Old Testament scenes. I feel the descriptions of these paintings are all a setup for a laugh at the very end, where she makes a painting called "Whither thou goest I shall go," of Ruth and Naomi left behind on the threshing floor as Boaz recedes in the background. She meant to hang this in their parlor, Patience says, but as it turned out Ruth and Naomi's embrace wasn't chaste enough for company. Nudge nudge, wink wink.]
October 21, 2007
Written in the late sixties under a pseudonym, an underground phenomenon at first, this is a minor lesbian classic I've been meaning to read for ages. Isabel Miller/Alma Routsong discovered an American folk painter from the early nineteenth century who lived her whole life with her female companion, and this inspired Routsong to write the book, in which two young women living in a rural community during that period meet, immeditely fall for each other, decide to go off and homestead together, and, in the end, get the log cabin of their butch/femme dreams. It doesn't all go smoothly, there are pious brothers, angry fathers, bitchy sisters-in-law, and of course their status as women without men to deal with, but they meet a lot of kindness. And there's no self-loathing. It must have been a great antidote to all the previous texts in which the gay character dies/kills themselves/goes to jail/loses their lover -its like the book you should read right after The Well of Loneliness. And just before Tipping the Velvet or Fingersmith; apparently Sarah Waters was inspired by this book, but her historical lesbian fiction (which queers English Victoriana just as this book queers straight nationalist American narratives about the pioneering life) plays around a lot more with discourses about same-sex love from the historical periods she looks at; Waters' characters tend to understand themselves and their desires through things like vaudeville traditions of cross-dressing and pornography, wheras Patience and Sarah just recognize what they want and don't bother about what that might mean about who they are or how they fit into their society--which feels slightly unrealistic. But maybe not, who knows what it was really like in the past! Its a sweet, sometimes funny book written in piquant language that is occasionally cloying but also occasionally sexy.
November 11, 2025
Basically 'Little Butch On The Prairie' and I loved it.
May 23, 2024
As a lesbian, I’m very picky about books and their representation of lesbians. I read this years ago and revisited it as an adult. This is probably the one book I can see myself in. I connect with Patience as a character. I love the descriptions of love and sex. Everything flows. There is beauty everywhere, and this book makes me proud to be a lesbian.
October 28, 2015
Outstanding narrative, dripping with beauty. This book will move you beyond words, it's an incredible love story in a time when women didn't love other women. Only, they did.
Not only is it a great book, narrators Janis Ian and Jean Smart bring it alive with their narration as each of the women. This audiobook has stayed with me many weeks after I finished it. Listen to it. It'll touch you & change you.
Not only is it a great book, narrators Janis Ian and Jean Smart bring it alive with their narration as each of the women. This audiobook has stayed with me many weeks after I finished it. Listen to it. It'll touch you & change you.
July 29, 2022
Wonderful/charming love story, in which Patience and Sarah (duh!) meet, work out their feelings for each other , then do something about it! Told in alternating first-person POV's, the clear, honest voices of P&S carry the reader through on an engaging/sympathetic/touching wave.
March 25, 2019
I've read this many times, still love it! It's an all time favorite of mine.
January 7, 2008
One of the first "gay" books I ever read ... loved it! (my version has a different cover, tho)
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