Missing, culty book about lesbian or queer couple published between 1910s-1940s?

[T]

This entire thing is going to be full of spoilers. Does anyone know of a book about a love affair between a woman and another person whose sex is only alluded to and guessed at for most of the book. It was apparently quite lewd and people used to debate whether the two characters (one of whom is famous and an actress I was told, the other a politician-to-be or something like it in training of sorts to take power including finishing education, and they’re many years apart in age) were having strap-on sex in one scene, ‘anal’ sex in another (sorry if that’s shocking: it was body-to-body sex, it’s revealed, and it’s only mentioned in brief relatively sensual and not obscene descriptions), etc and the ungendered (it talks about their body several times including the shape of their breasts, ‘running the length of their chest’ and small, making them very thin and androgynous rather than potentially male) partner is supposed to be manipulative and appears abusive, though the other character finds that erotic or appealing. It was not pulp fiction, necessarily; it was more like ‘The Price of Salt’. Throughout, they/them pronouns are used for the 2nd partner, veiling their actual gender even more.

It may have been pulled from the market after a scare about a body care product containing the ingredient alpha-hydroxy-acid being mentioned in one of the paragraphs, humourously enough (mentioned as the reason for the woman’s youthful appearance, plus vitamin A treatment on her skin — which led to women using Vitamin A powder for a while; she’s in her 50s and her kind-of-terrible romantic partner is not yet out of her 20s). It manages to hide the sex of the 2nd partner ‘til the end, despite one of the final scenes where it sounds like they’re definitely having lesbian sex; it was still endlessly debated whether they were or not two women or a lesbian couple, without much drama about it. Their relationship ends because someone has it out for the actress (the soon-to-be politician is all-powerful by comparison, thus the dominant and abusive dynamic) and they happen to be third cousins (I think?). It’s implied that it’s ruining the (non-binary?) person’s life and could end their political ambitions and the actress is hated for presumably preying on them/her (using her age and glamor against them), and it’s swept under the rug by power players.

It was taken as a mass-market romance / drama and was quite popular with a variety of people and this must have been around the 1910s-1940s? Older folks might remember it if it was indeed taken off the market for any reason? My friend, who was born at the tail end of Gen X, told me about it and called it obscure now but with a cult following and having been pulled off the market for whatever reason, including homophobia.

Now that I think of it, the clever-sounding hiding (merely hinting at but never directly naming) of the gender of the 2nd partner might refer to the secrecy of their relationship or be an attempt to get past censorship laws or both.

[Rainbowheart]

I'm pretty familiar with vintage gay and lesbian lit, and I have to put my thinking cap on.

I don't think there's any way it's as old as the 1940s. I also suspect the pronouns would more likely be the second person 'you' rather than 'they' which is a much newer linguistic invention.

Written on the Body is from 1992 and has a main character whose biological sex is never revealed. Could it be that?

[T]

It is not, but it’s interesting that that novel uses the same character… conceit. Idea? This novel was described differently; as just hiding the sex of the character then revealing it at the end to anyone who is really noticing, perhaps to leave them with the impression of someone who is non-binary but AFAB (or butch/femme and highly androgynous, whose position as perhaps left them in the envious position of being seen as essentially genderless without reproach, or masculine, unlike other people, and unlike the actress, whose job would have been highly sexualized around the time and keyed to their femininity).

It sounded a little pulpy (although the plot as described to me sounds like some capital-R contemporary romance, the genre; just a little tawdry and a slightly over-the-top plotline) so it’s definitely not like Winterson.

[T]

Someone on Reddit gave me the answer ‘Nightwood’ by Djuna Barnes and it is not that! Also ‘The Well of Loneliness’, which it also isn’t. Thought GoodReads would be a great place to ask — thanks for the response!

[Rainbowheart]

What year did your friend come across the book?

Protagonist's biological sex is never revealed

There is a thread for books with this topic, but I don't think yours has been mentioned.

[T]

They said they read a copy in the mid ‘90s but noted it had definitely been pulled from the market, maybe more than once and for different reasons, albeit she was based in Canada. In the United States it caused a health scare a few years after release and that initially got it pulled it from the market, then it was re-published before being pulled again for ‘obscenity’ (or because of homophobia, with a stated emphasis on the queered gender aspect as being deviant and “unacceptable”), according to her recollection

So this one’s pretty deep.

No, I don’t see it on your list there. This one’s more of a twist, I suppose; especially as feminine and often straight readers continue reading and enjoying it more, they get a shock at the end, but she said it’s played casually. Note that I can’t edit misspellings or posts here: ‘enviable’ for ‘envious’, ‘has’ for ‘as’, etc. I found the description shocking since honest descriptions of queer sex in books seem hard to come by, and this was published and embraced by ordinary people initially so very long ago.

[Becca]

If it was published 1910s-1940s, it might be included in Marion Zimmer Bradley's Checklist: A complete, cumulative Checklist of lesbian, variant and homosexual fiction, in English or available in English translation, with supplements of related material, for the use of collectors, students and librarians., published in 1960. It's available on Project Gutenberg - https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/39184. The descriptions for each book are brief, but something might ring a bell for you.

There's also a Lesbian novels from before 1990 list here on Goodreads.

Fingers crossed someone recognises it from your description, though!

[T]

Thanks! I’ll be taking a look at both

[Rainbowheart]

Might want to check the Best Gender-Bending Books list, too.

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

T, you need to add plot details to your topic header which is vague. We close threads with vague headers !!!