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The Young in One Another's Arms (1977)

by Jane Rule

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1744158,264 (3.63)1
"Make no mistake about it--Jane Rule is one of the best writers we have."--Margaret Laurence "Lesbian identity itself is not so much subsumed into the community as kept whole within it . . . not singled out as an angle of vision any more or less valid than others."--Marilyn Schuster, Feminist Studies Jane Rule's 1977 novel The Young in One Another's Arms is set at the end of the Vietnam War in and around a boarding house in the Kitsilano neighborhood of Vancouver. Ruth, a middle-aged woman accustomed to tragedy in her own life, cares for the young and changing boarders of her house as a mother and guide. First published by Doubleday and reprinted by The Naiad Press, The Young in One Another's Arms is about communities and the differences between people that allow them to come together. Race, gender, sexuality and politics are reappearing themes among the characters. Young defectors from the American war gather in the house, barely able to articulate their bewilderment at life's challenges. In Rule's sparse but generous prose, the players dance around each others' lives, moving fluidly, loving, maturing, finding solace or heartbreak, each one touching the lives of all the others. The author's passion for life and stoic sensibility are evident on every page. It's a warm, sophisticated novel celebrating life in all its diversity. The novel, one of the first ever to depict lesbians in a positive light, won the Canadian Authors Association Best Novel of the Year Award in 1978. With an introduction by novelist Katherine V. Forrest, author of Curious Wine and Daughters of a Coral Dawn. Little Sister's Classics is a new series of books from Arsenal Pulp Press, reviving lost and out-of-print gay and lesbian classic books, both fiction and nonfiction. The books in the series are produced in conjunction with Little Sister's Book and Art Emporium, the heroic Vancouver bookstore well-known for its anti-censorship efforts.… (more)
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Showing 4 of 4
i have a really hard time with jane rule, it would seem. i really don't like her writing style. at all. it feels so clunky and convoluted and i have to reread sentences to know what she is saying. then sometimes she comes out with these little moments of great writing. i want her to be consistent.

this story had potential, i felt. commune style living in the late 70's, but i never cared about any of the characters at all. i wasn't invested in any of their stories or in the community they were creating. it was unforgivable, having tom almost rape mavis. and he had been the most likable character up until that point. i don't know why she threw that in. she was trying to make this sort of utopia across gender and race (and sexual orientation, but that was mostly unmentioned), which i can appreciate. but i didn't like the book, unfortunately. ( )
  overlycriticalelisa | Jun 29, 2022 |
This characters in this novel are simultaneously mired in loss, turmoil, and the politics of the war in Vietnam, yet at their best come together, almost ethereally, to form a tight-knit family, if an unconventional one.
In the age of polyamory and gay marriage, the subtexts (and they are subtexts, this is no gay or even anti-war polemic) seem quaint. But having lived some of those years, it was easy to evoke the understated "radicalism" that underlay everyday life and conversation, the sense that improvement was possible, the starshine glitter of a deep blue sky.
Ruth is a Canadian woman in her 50's who is separated more or less from her husband, loves and supports her mother in law, and has lost both her daughter and an arm. She runs a boardinghouse, the nominal "mother", of characters most certainly on the lam from the US, another who is mentally challenged, and some student/drifters. The outside world has begun an incursion into this household as the book opens, as the home is being demolished for urban renewal.
The fast pace of the ensuing journeys, tragedy and triumphs won't give you much space to catch your balance, but the journey back into time is worth putting on the good shoes. ( )
  KarenIrelandPhillips | Apr 6, 2016 |
A moving story. Alternative family environment. A little sentimental, but not much. ( )
  Darrol | Feb 15, 2009 |
I have the hardest time determining how I feel about Jane Rule. I get the sense from reading her that maybe she didn't quite know how she felt about herself. Her novels don't ever seem to really have endings, to me, which is probably why I read them all in a row in a month--I kept trying to reach a satisfactory conclusion. That said, I this is one of my favorites, the other being Memory Board. And even though "Desert Hearts" was an appalling film, Desert of the Heart is a pretty good book. ( )
  lilysea | Jun 21, 2008 |
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In the darkened street, Ruth Wheeler might have been mistaken for a boy of middle growth, spare-bodied, light on her feet.
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"Make no mistake about it--Jane Rule is one of the best writers we have."--Margaret Laurence "Lesbian identity itself is not so much subsumed into the community as kept whole within it . . . not singled out as an angle of vision any more or less valid than others."--Marilyn Schuster, Feminist Studies Jane Rule's 1977 novel The Young in One Another's Arms is set at the end of the Vietnam War in and around a boarding house in the Kitsilano neighborhood of Vancouver. Ruth, a middle-aged woman accustomed to tragedy in her own life, cares for the young and changing boarders of her house as a mother and guide. First published by Doubleday and reprinted by The Naiad Press, The Young in One Another's Arms is about communities and the differences between people that allow them to come together. Race, gender, sexuality and politics are reappearing themes among the characters. Young defectors from the American war gather in the house, barely able to articulate their bewilderment at life's challenges. In Rule's sparse but generous prose, the players dance around each others' lives, moving fluidly, loving, maturing, finding solace or heartbreak, each one touching the lives of all the others. The author's passion for life and stoic sensibility are evident on every page. It's a warm, sophisticated novel celebrating life in all its diversity. The novel, one of the first ever to depict lesbians in a positive light, won the Canadian Authors Association Best Novel of the Year Award in 1978. With an introduction by novelist Katherine V. Forrest, author of Curious Wine and Daughters of a Coral Dawn. Little Sister's Classics is a new series of books from Arsenal Pulp Press, reviving lost and out-of-print gay and lesbian classic books, both fiction and nonfiction. The books in the series are produced in conjunction with Little Sister's Book and Art Emporium, the heroic Vancouver bookstore well-known for its anti-censorship efforts.

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