Permafrost: Eva Baltasar
Great read, though I loved Boulder more...
Like her Boulder, which I reviewed last week, ‘Permafrost’ is another short sapphic, first person novel with beautiful prose. The prose - the narrator/main character’s voice - is different from Boulder - in that the character sounds younger, much more brittle and given to emotion while also fearing emotion, intimacy, and running from place and lovers. The book feels somewhat immature, in the way that Qiu Miaojin (another sapphic writer) does … but it also argues beautifully for the pleasure and presence of sapphic women. An enjoyable read overall, just that reading Boulder so soon before inflated my expectations.
The outdoor shots are from the National AIDS Memorial Grove in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. One of the most beautiful areas in the park, and a reminder that homophobia can have wild-spread and devastating consequences.