Enough of sorrow

Enough of sorrow

Karen's journey of self-discovery through love, lust, and alcohol.

154 pages

18 cm

Karen and Rae meet at the rooming house where they both live.

"It was not a pleasant place. A jukebox gave out with harsh gut-bucket blues. A long bar ran the length of the narrow room, and a handful of tables were scattered along the opposite wall. The tables were mostly empty. The bar itself was jammed. She had to wedge her way up to it and had to wait for a while before a broad-shouldered short-haired girl came out to take her order. She ordered a double shot of Scotch with a water chaser and drank it off as soon as it came.
The bar was a lesbian place. there was not a man in it, although some of the female customers were mannish enough to fool you unless you looked rather closely at them. She stood at the bar with the Scotch burning its way into her system, and she sipped the water chaser and felt suddenly very much alone, lost in the middle of a crwd. She told herself that she should not feel alone,not here of all places. After all, she was with her own kind." (p. 104)

Excerpted from: Damon, Gene. "The Lesbian Paperback." Tangents, July 1966, pp. 13-15.
One really good novel, Enough of Sorrow, by Jill Emerson (Midwood Tower), mercifully brightened a generally sad picture

Block, Lawrence. Afterthoughts. New York: Open Road, 2011.

A remarkably candid treatment of a particularly controversial theme . . .

The totally absorbing and somewhat shocking story of a beautiful young woman, elevated from the depths of despair and self-destruction by the strange friendship of another female.

Seldom has any writer so dramatically ripped away the veils of mystery that obscure the emotional and physical aspects of lesbianism.

Seldom has any writer so completely reflected an understanding and appreciation of the kind of relationship that exits between women.

Seldom has so difficult and elusive a subject been handled with such startling candor and poignant sensitivity.

Winner of the 1965 Midwood Award for Literary Excellence

The background is dark brown, with a rectangle containing the image, one-third from the top below the title. The partial face of a woman with brown eyes and bright red lipstick looks directly toward the reader through a slightly blurred window with water droplets. To the bottom centre, partially covering the main face, another figure of a brunette is seen, facing the reader, but with her eyes downcast. Her right arm is raised, bent at the elbow, with her hand buried in her long brown hair. She is wearing a dark brown slip covered by a translucent beige lounging gown. Her left shoulder is exposed. Her left hand is draped towards her right hip.