Benediction - Softcover

"A highly literary alternative to stock coming out novels...captures the wondrous highs and debilitating lows of first love...Salvatore's gifts as a writer - realistic dialogue, honest and empathic characterizations, solid storytelling - promise great things...Benediction goes a long way in establishing a literary middleground. It will please readers looking for escape and those looking for literature." --Lambda Book Report

"In her compelling maiden novel, Salvatore...paints a moving portrait...a fast-paced page turner about growing up and coming out...exhilarating, poignant and appealing...bound to be a lesbian classic. Salvatore is a passionate and creative novelist, with remarkable insight into the lesbian psyche. Her future in fiction is bright." --Deneuve

"Salvatore...has reached inside her soul to create this masterpiece of lesbian fiction...A coming out story, light years beyond most of its colleagues in this over used genre...well crafted and literate...by a woman who knows what she's talking about. It is said that everyone has a great novel inside herself. Benediction is Diane Salvatore's great novel. It would be hard for her (or anyone else) to top it." --The Weekly News, Florida

An empowering...gratifying...read... Her characters are real. No matter when a woman comes out, there are universal emotions that accompany that process. Salvatore wonderfully portrays these feelings... --Chicago Nightlines

This bittersweet coming-out story has great charm...insight...compassion. --Small Press

Teens and preteens who are confused about their sexuality may derive comfort from the exploits of this first novel's protagonists, but adults will wince as they stumble on inept prose, particularly the infelicitous metaphors ("Her stomach was churning like a washing machine in the heavy-load cycle"). At a retreat sponsored by her Catholic girls' high school, Grace, a sophomore, is perturbed when she eavesdrops on what is obviously a lesbian lovers' quarrel between the school's most popular seniors. She becomes agitated, too, when her best friend, Anne, confides that she is planning on losing her virginity with a boyfriend. Put off by her own boyfriend Glen's "hormonal outbursts," Grace guiltily discovers that it's "amazingly terrific" to kiss Meg, a classmate for whom molestation is an ingredient of family life, and the pair embarks on a sexual relationship. Grace clashes with her parents and the Church; bitterly learns that some gays will "do anything to pass as straight"; and is gradually politicized (a lesbian mentor tells her, "The kind of prejudice and discrimination you'll face as a gay person, Grace, is totally different from the kind any other minority faces. People can insult you to your face because your difference doesn't show. That's either a blessing or a curse. You'll have to decide which"). Salvatore is a senior editor at Redbook magazine.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.