A Seahorse Year
by Stacey D'Erasmo
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An extended family living in San Francisco faces the approaching breakdown of a troubled adolescent boy and the tribulations caused by the difficulties of gay parenthood.Tags
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BookshelfMonstrosity 'Sing you home' and 'A seahorse year' are domestic fiction and psychological fiction about lesbian couples.
Member Reviews
This is a solid second novel from Stacey D'Erasmo, chronicling a non-traditional family's experience of the breakdown and recovery of their teenage son's schizophrenia. Told from alternating points of view, A Seahorse Year has empathetic characterization, fluid writing, and an engaging plot. I wish there were more intelligently written novels about queer families like this book, though I must add that D'Erasmo's writing adeptly transcends the "lesbian novel" label.
I read D'Erasmo's Tea several years ago and didn't like it (I admit, I picked it up because it had a pretty cover), but I thought I'd give her work another chance when I came across A Seahorse Year at the library. The description intrigued me and I thought for sure this was going to be a book I would love. Unfortunately, I found myself remembering why I didn't like Tea and opted to not finish A Seahorse Year.
While she does make good use of imagery, D'Erasmo's writing is halting and uncomfortable to read. Also, I'm not sure how it took me so long to realize that D'Erasmo writes "lesbian fiction," for lack of a better term, but it seemed like the sexuality of the parents was forced into the forefront and took the spotlight away from the show more story that I was drawn into from the blurb on the cover. I consider myself to be rather liberal and I can count several gays and lesbians among even my closest friends, but I am still not entirely comfortable with reading the explicit passages detailing their sexual forays, especially when they seem to be peppered in with no real purpose other than to prove that the characters are, in fact, lesbians. Really, I may be a bit of a prude, but I don't particularly want to read such gratuitously graphic passages regardless of the gender(s) of those involved.
I don't expect that I'll be attempting to read anymore of D'Erasmo's novels, as they're just not my cup of Tea... show less
While she does make good use of imagery, D'Erasmo's writing is halting and uncomfortable to read. Also, I'm not sure how it took me so long to realize that D'Erasmo writes "lesbian fiction," for lack of a better term, but it seemed like the sexuality of the parents was forced into the forefront and took the spotlight away from the show more story that I was drawn into from the blurb on the cover. I consider myself to be rather liberal and I can count several gays and lesbians among even my closest friends, but I am still not entirely comfortable with reading the explicit passages detailing their sexual forays, especially when they seem to be peppered in with no real purpose other than to prove that the characters are, in fact, lesbians. Really, I may be a bit of a prude, but I don't particularly want to read such gratuitously graphic passages regardless of the gender(s) of those involved.
I don't expect that I'll be attempting to read anymore of D'Erasmo's novels, as they're just not my cup of Tea... show less
http://bookriot.com/2012/03/20/the-book-i-cant-stop-recommending-novelist-meredi...
I added this book to my to-read on the strength of this amazing recommendation.
I added this book to my to-read on the strength of this amazing recommendation.
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D’Erasmo hints at the traditional elements and humors, and also creates a new set—Blood, Breath, Bone, and String. Each of the main sections of the book is named for one of these new elements, and each connects to a moment of terror, waste, or hope.
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Good LGBT fiction for LGBT folk and friends
537 works; 50 members
Author Information
8+ Works 759 Members
Stacey D'Erasmo was an accomplished literary reviewer before making the crossover to novelist. She was Senior Editor at The Voice Literary Supplement for seven years and has written articles for Rolling Stone, The Nation, Details and New York Newsday. She won a Stegner Fellowship in Fiction based on the first forty pages of TEA and went on to show more become the first Fiction Editor for Artforum. She is currently a contributing writer for Out. She lives in New York. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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