Whether the relationship is sexual or passionately platonic, the bonds between women can be unbreakable. This is a quite good (and a little exhausting) survey of the variety of women's relationships as presented in literature. It's probably a bit too academic for a general audience but a must have for women's or lesbian studies. ( )

I probably would have given this book four out of five stars had it only been written ten years ago. As it is (and forgive my sighs), this perennial fascination with lesbian archetypes and motifs is getting a little old.

Don't get me wrong, though. As far as this sort of thing goes, Donoghue presents a highly readable and entertaining account of what she considers to be the top six lesbian motifs within western literature. Unlike other other studies (c.f. Terry Castle and Lillian Faderman), Donoghue features a much stronger showing of pre-18th century examples of lesbian experience in literature. (Strangely, though, she also misses some later offerings that every other collection also seems to ignore. What of Woolf's "The Years" or Mallet-Joris' "The Illusionist"?) The problem with all of these books that hone in on lesbian archetypal schemes is that they end up lacking in hardcore literary interpretation. Plot synopses and how literary works generally fit into a storytelling trend aren't cutting it any more for readers who are hungry for interpretation and not just classification. I think that is what makes Patricia Juliana Smith's "Lesbian Panic: Homoeroticism in Modern British Women's Fiction" a standout from the rest of the crowd populated books like Donoghue's Inseparable.

That said, this is still a worthy, if less than profound, approach to what is becoming a well-worn topic. ( )