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3.8 AVERAGE
3.8 AVERAGE
emotional
hopeful
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
i feel!!! so strongly and positively about this book! really sweet and lots of fantastic lines i want to go back and circle some things. these women are truly living my hudson ny dream farm life.
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.
I’m finished, and I miss this book already! The extensive paratextual materials meant I didn’t realise I was coming to the end until suddenly (too soon!) it was over! This is one of my favourite reads in a long time, and I think this is what I was looking for in all those romance and SF novels I was dissatisfied with: this story is both serious and comforting, offering a sense of queer history but not as a wish-fulfillment re-skin of the present. I highly recommend reading it to anyone who is remotely interested, though I also recommend skipping most of the introduction until after you’ve read the novel itself. (It’s good, but it starts to give away too much of the story, and place it at too much of a distance.) If anyone knows more books like this one, I want them!
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.
Patience and Sarah was first self-published by the author in 1969. It became popular and eventually found a publisher and was the recipient of the American Library Association’s first Stonewall Book Award in 1971. It’s a historical novel based on the life of Mary Ann Willson, a painter who lived with her companion Miss Brundage in a log cabin on a few acres of farm land in the early 19th century in Greene County, New York.
Patience and Sarah alternates between the first person narrations of the two women. Actress Jean Smart is Patience. Her melodic, almost hypnotic voice is perfect for the refined Patience. Singer-songwriter Janis Ian is Sarah. Her voice is perfectly aligned with Sarah’s naïve and rough around the edges personality.
Patience and Sarah is a wonderful love story. The prose evokes the emotions between the two women perfectly. I liked that this novel had a generally positive atmosphere about it, although the women definitely faced obstacles. Sarah’s father beat her when he found out about her relationship with Patience and Patience’s brother asked Patience to leave town when he found out. But so many lesbian novels, especially from the period this book was published and before, never let the gay characters be truly happy because the publishers felt like the characters had to atone or be made to suffer in some way to counteract their “sin” of being gay.
I’m not surprised that this audiobook has been nominated for the Grammy award for Best Spoken Word Album. It was a pleasure to listen to. Crossing my fingers that it wins!
Patience and Sarah alternates between the first person narrations of the two women. Actress Jean Smart is Patience. Her melodic, almost hypnotic voice is perfect for the refined Patience. Singer-songwriter Janis Ian is Sarah. Her voice is perfectly aligned with Sarah’s naïve and rough around the edges personality.
Patience and Sarah is a wonderful love story. The prose evokes the emotions between the two women perfectly. I liked that this novel had a generally positive atmosphere about it, although the women definitely faced obstacles. Sarah’s father beat her when he found out about her relationship with Patience and Patience’s brother asked Patience to leave town when he found out. But so many lesbian novels, especially from the period this book was published and before, never let the gay characters be truly happy because the publishers felt like the characters had to atone or be made to suffer in some way to counteract their “sin” of being gay.
I’m not surprised that this audiobook has been nominated for the Grammy award for Best Spoken Word Album. It was a pleasure to listen to. Crossing my fingers that it wins!
Patience and Sarah, the beloved lesbian historical fiction novel originally self-published by Isabel Miller in 1969, was inspired by and dedicated to real people of whom very little is known. Miller discovered the fact of their existence, and despite her best efforts was unable to dig up more. She knew only that a Mary Ann Wilson and a Miss Brundidge lived in Greene County, New York State, in 1820, were respectively painter and "farmerette," and had a romantic attachment. Knowing so little set her free to write a lovely and deeply felt story.
In sections of alternating viewpoints, Miller has Patience and Sarah meet, discover an instant attraction and connection, be parted (violently), take a sojourn of self-discovery, reunite, form an attachment of greater and growing commitment and complexity, and determine to make an attempt at a life together. The narratives exist easily in their early 19th c. setting; Miller's prose and historical detail are attentive to this, but not at all weighed down by it. Each section has a slightly different tone and style. Bridging the matter-of-fact and anxious first half, and the clear-headed but complex road to the ending, are the middle chapters, written in second person, narrated by Patience and directed to Sarah, at a time when their lust and love are at their most rapturous; this section is a lush prose poem.
This book is a celebration of and joy-taking in women, love of women, women's bodies. Although Sarah is a boyish figure - quite literally, as she was raised by her father to be a boy because no sons were born in their large family - Patience's love and attraction for her are for her womanliness, for the fact that her mannish clothing and ways cannot hide her curves and feelings. Sarah for a time tries to pass as a young man and discovers that while her physical resemblance may be apt, the identity (though that word is never used) is in some ways antithetical to hers. There's a lovely passage from Patience about Sarah's occasional adoption of the male image:
Time enough later to teach her that it's better to be a real woman than an imitation man, and that when someone chooses a woman to go away with it's because a woman is what's preferred.
Nor is the love of women expressed shyly or coyly. The physical intimacy between the characters is relished, often and in many forms, from gazes to kisses to caresses to a somewhat evasively worded but still passionately heated beyond.
Patience and Sarah have to invent how to live their love together, having never seen an example of it, and likewise Miller had few if any instructive antecedents in crafting this novel. This latter fact lends power and beauty to the former. The reader truly feels the newness of the path being forged. There is no script to follow for the characters, or for the author. This is nothing so banal as a novelty; it's true originality. In spite of these being some of the oldest questions we have, Miller is able to credibly ask us: how do we love another person? What is the balance of me and you? How should we combine respect and deference with passion and assertiveness? How does one create a role for oneself? What is the difference between shame and caution? Are all lies bad? How much is too much worship? Why is arousal inconstant? What should I give you, and what must I stay out of?
Adding to the depth and nuance is Miller's treatment of class. Patience is fairly well-to-do, literate, educated, and in possession of some means, while Sarah is hardscrabble working class, initially illiterate, intelligent but uneducated, and penniless. These facts don't dampen the characters' feelings for one another but do shape the reactions of their families, determine the possibilities for escape, and inform how they intermix with people at large. For example, Patience's upper-class diction and comportment instill in others a respect that brings safety, whereas Sarah's speech and mannerisms mark her as poor and therefore vulnerable; discovering this, they decide that Sarah, in the company of strangers, should be silent and aloof, pretending to be too rich and important to bother speaking. (There's some comedy wrung out of this example.)
It's so beautiful that Miller, with the sparse set of facts about the Misses Wilson and Brundidge, assumed a happy existence for these women living out their private marriage. Not only because it was rare at the time of writing, before the emergence of second-wave feminism and when lesbian romance in fiction almost invariably ended in tragedy - but because of how it opened up the possibilities for the novel. It is a fresh and lovely read that belies the intricacy of its depths.
In sections of alternating viewpoints, Miller has Patience and Sarah meet, discover an instant attraction and connection, be parted (violently), take a sojourn of self-discovery, reunite, form an attachment of greater and growing commitment and complexity, and determine to make an attempt at a life together. The narratives exist easily in their early 19th c. setting; Miller's prose and historical detail are attentive to this, but not at all weighed down by it. Each section has a slightly different tone and style. Bridging the matter-of-fact and anxious first half, and the clear-headed but complex road to the ending, are the middle chapters, written in second person, narrated by Patience and directed to Sarah, at a time when their lust and love are at their most rapturous; this section is a lush prose poem.
This book is a celebration of and joy-taking in women, love of women, women's bodies. Although Sarah is a boyish figure - quite literally, as she was raised by her father to be a boy because no sons were born in their large family - Patience's love and attraction for her are for her womanliness, for the fact that her mannish clothing and ways cannot hide her curves and feelings. Sarah for a time tries to pass as a young man and discovers that while her physical resemblance may be apt, the identity (though that word is never used) is in some ways antithetical to hers. There's a lovely passage from Patience about Sarah's occasional adoption of the male image:
Time enough later to teach her that it's better to be a real woman than an imitation man, and that when someone chooses a woman to go away with it's because a woman is what's preferred.
Nor is the love of women expressed shyly or coyly. The physical intimacy between the characters is relished, often and in many forms, from gazes to kisses to caresses to a somewhat evasively worded but still passionately heated beyond.
Patience and Sarah have to invent how to live their love together, having never seen an example of it, and likewise Miller had few if any instructive antecedents in crafting this novel. This latter fact lends power and beauty to the former. The reader truly feels the newness of the path being forged. There is no script to follow for the characters, or for the author. This is nothing so banal as a novelty; it's true originality. In spite of these being some of the oldest questions we have, Miller is able to credibly ask us: how do we love another person? What is the balance of me and you? How should we combine respect and deference with passion and assertiveness? How does one create a role for oneself? What is the difference between shame and caution? Are all lies bad? How much is too much worship? Why is arousal inconstant? What should I give you, and what must I stay out of?
Adding to the depth and nuance is Miller's treatment of class. Patience is fairly well-to-do, literate, educated, and in possession of some means, while Sarah is hardscrabble working class, initially illiterate, intelligent but uneducated, and penniless. These facts don't dampen the characters' feelings for one another but do shape the reactions of their families, determine the possibilities for escape, and inform how they intermix with people at large. For example, Patience's upper-class diction and comportment instill in others a respect that brings safety, whereas Sarah's speech and mannerisms mark her as poor and therefore vulnerable; discovering this, they decide that Sarah, in the company of strangers, should be silent and aloof, pretending to be too rich and important to bother speaking. (There's some comedy wrung out of this example.)
It's so beautiful that Miller, with the sparse set of facts about the Misses Wilson and Brundidge, assumed a happy existence for these women living out their private marriage. Not only because it was rare at the time of writing, before the emergence of second-wave feminism and when lesbian romance in fiction almost invariably ended in tragedy - but because of how it opened up the possibilities for the novel. It is a fresh and lovely read that belies the intricacy of its depths.
The level of innocence here breaks my heart, as does the loss of innocence. But the story itself falls apart a little - there's such intensity based on one meeting, (but then again, U-Hauling) and both characters are super annoying, particularly with Sarah's insecurities. It's worth a read for the status as a classic.
funny
hopeful
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Very cute romance and wild story about the author at the end. Like a cozy True Grit.