Jewelle GomezReseñas

I loved this one. And I'm fuming that nobody has ever told me "hey, here's a book about a black lesbian vampire and found family" because this is so my type of book.

It's the anti-Interview With the Vampire in every way.

The poems in Still Water amplify and illuminate the old saying “Still waters run deep.” First and foremost, these are poems about people, relationships, and self-discovery. These poems are like street maps, interconnecting families, tribes, communities and celebrating those routes that link her to each. For me, reading this book was an experience of the holy – the holy Black, the holy Native, the holy Lesbian, brought into the realms of daily life and work.

In 1850, A runaway slave hides herself in the cellar of a seemingly abandoned farm. She falls into an exhausted sleep only to be awakened by the white woman who owns the farm. But instead of throwing her back to the men chasing her, the woman -- Gilda -- hides her, provides shelter and a home for her at her brothel near New Orleans, educates the Girl as if she were family, introducing her to her lover Bird, a Lakota woman. Together, the three women form a strong bond, strong enough that Gilda decides the she has finally found the one for Bird, to replace her when she takes the true death so that Bird won't be alone in the many hundreds of years she has before her. The three head back to the farm where Gilda asks the Girl if she wants the life of a vampire and all that goes with it.

From that point, the Girl's life changes, she takes on the name of Gilda and learns from Bird and from her new, extended family what it means to be a vampire, to take a little bit of life from a human in exchange for life: pushing them to fulfill a dream or to just ease the mind. No death, that's not what the vampire family is about. Through 200 years, beginning in Louisiana, traveling through the early pioneering days in Yerba Buena, protecting friends and family from her hair salon in the South End of Boston to being hunted as the world lies in ruins due to global climate changes brought about by neglectful politicoes in 2050, Gilda strives to find herself, to uncover what it truly means not just to be a vampire, but to learn what a family really is: the people you care about and who care about you, no matter who or what you are.

What impressed me most about this novel was the humanity of the vampires. Not the typical, cut-throat blood-thirsty fiends from 'Salem's Lot nor the whiney aristocrats from Interview with the Vampire. Instead, they helped those in need, taking only what was necessary to survive, and creating their own family in a world that doesn't understand them. A great book for those who want something other than the typical vampire story.

Stunning. I know Gomez through her Gilda Stories, some of which are near-perfect. But her poetry, I was unprepared for such breadth of references literary (Audre Lorde, Gertrude Stein, Angelina Grimke, Tracy Chapman, Tennessee Williams, Gil Scot-Heron), cultural (Eleanor Bumpers, Sally Ride, Cellini), and political (Biden, Trump, Loving v. Virginia). And more: there are odes to streetcars, to a buckskin dress, to a restaurant (which is so superb, you can see, hear, feel the movement in every line). Every poem is deeply felt and gorgeously written with surprises in every stanza. The book feels like a meditation on the people, books, traditions that make Gomez who she is, a lesbian poet of color ("I love writing the words: / A coloured lesbian" p.46), of Native ancestry. There is such real feeling here, such wit and intelligence, such unexpected turns. This reminded me of June Jordan in its passion and political engagement, but, really, this book is one of a kind.½

Poetry with purpose. Each poem includes the inspiration, which I really enjoyed. It captures the sentiments of many. The poetry is precise and accessible while also poignant and powerful. A lovely collection.

I don't feel qualified to evaluate the poetry in this collection but it is diverse, recording love, loss, friendship and the kinship of womrn.

Still Water by Jewelle Gomez is wonderfully accessible with many layers of meaning, and this is a very good thing! The poems are a beautiful combination of social commentary and intimate truths. This is definitely a collection I will read over and over because I know I will see something new each time I read it.

Ms. Gomez, a lesbian of Native American and Black descent, has written powerful poems about people who have been discriminated against. Many of the poems are for particular people or mention people by name in their text. The people so named can be looked up on the web which makes the poems especially meaningful. Other people for whom poems are written are identified only a first name. Ms. Gomez features such topics as lesbianism, skin color, interracial marriage, gay marriage, observing people on public transportation, her own childhood and family relations, and aging, plus many other subjects.

Highly recommended.

(The review is based on an uncorrected proof supplied by the publisher.)½

In the Afterword for the 25th Anniversary Edition of The Gilda Stories, Alexis Pauline Gumbs calls the book: "A precise and prophetic work. A neo-slavery escape narrative. An Afro-futuristic projection." And before that, in the introduction to the work, Gomez speaks of how she was spurred into writing the book, and the 'pent-up fury' that went into it. The passion in all of this language, and the way it carefully bleeds through this long-form narrative of vampires and personal history, is absolute--and while the book may disappoint readers coming to it from a horror perspective for a tale of vampires and violence, I would answer that it is an important, worthwhile work that takes influence from classic slave narratives, classic novels such as Uncle Tom's Cabin and Giovanni's Room, and moves the narratives into a contemporary space that is at once a coming-of-age tale for a slave-turned-vampire and an examination of growth, love, and hope.

If you're reading this review, and curious about the book, I'm hope you'll read it. It feels like one which should have found its way to my hands much sooner, and one which should be far more widely known, read, and spoken of.

I'd absolutely recommend it.

If you want to read a groundbreaking feminist novel about an African-American lesbian vampire, now in its twentieth year of being in print, then what are you waiting for? Jewelle Gomez is an inspiration to me.

I can’t quite believe that this book was written and published back in 1991, and yet it undoubtedly was. Jewelle Gomez challenges the mythos surrounding vampires in culture and lore by writing her protagonist, Gilda, as a Black American lesbian - the polar opposite of the vampires popularized by authors such as Stoker, Rice, and Süskind. Gilda begins her tale as a nameless Girl, recently run away from the plantation where she was born and raised. As she runs, she is confronted by a man who wishes her harm (rape most assuredly and a return to the plantation from where she has run from or at least back to the status of slave), and she proves her mettle from the get go: waiting with preternatural patience until her hidden blade can find his heart. Bathed in blood, nameless, and having shed the painful memories of the remnants of her family that she left behind, she is reborn (literally and figuratively) under the care of Gilda, a vampire who runs a brothel, and her lover and companion Bird, a Lakota woman. As the first Gilda chooses to go into the light for the True Death, Bird completes the process of transformation, and our protagonist begins a new life after taking on the name of her creator. Gomez traces Gilda’s life through 200 years of American history, touching on so many powerful themes around the changing landscape, the face of female survival, the power inherent in Black women, the strength in female relationships (lesbian or otherwise), and created family (just to name a few) that to fully unpack this novel would take an encyclopedia. Suffice to say, that it deserves a place in the canon not just as a powerful piece of vampire literature, but also as a commentary on the evolution of American society.½

I am not going to lie, I would have considered this a 2 or 2 and 1/2 star book, had I not pushed through the first 128 pages.

For context, the book follows a touchingly moral Black lesbian vampire (who takes the name Gilda) through time. The story begins with the main character escaping both slavery and an attempted-rapist slave-catcher in Louisiana in 1850; we then follow Gilda to California in 1890, and then Rosebud, Missouri in 1921. During all of that - despite the premise being plenty compelling - Gomez's writing did not grab me, and neither did her characters.

However, once Gilda reaches the South End of Boston in 1955, things really started to sing for me. Gilda's story is all about nourishment - how to get it ethically, how to give it ethically - and the moral obligation of outsiders to nurture, respect, and protect one another. It is an unabashed celebration of Blackness and Black womanhood specifically, but Gomez's arms are wide, and the love and compassion that she has for anyone on the outskirts is outspoken and clear.

Later chapters take place in 1971, 1981, and then the near-future (the book was first published in 1991) of 2020 and 2050. Again, I can't state this enough - I am positive that this book probably speaks directly to the souls of a tremendous number of people in the world, and I love Gomez's alternative vision of a tribe of immortals who strive to sustain and reproduce themselves using a model of careful consideration and exchange, rather than through raping their prey of blood and enslaving the unwitting and unwilling ala the traditional vampire (plantation?) trope. Gomez directly addresses issues of intersectionality within the Black community about a decade before the term was in common currency. Her queer characters are numerous, varied, and in no way defined purely by their sexuality. There is a lot to praise here.

That said, the writing was...an issue for me. During the entire first half of the book, it was distracting enough that I seriously considered putting the book down. The vibrancy and explorations of the later chapters make me glad I didn't, but I doubt that I will ever go in for a re-read.

I'm so glad this reprint was published - I've been trying to get my hands on a copy of this book for ages. The directness of the writing and the careful attention to social and psychological dynamics are reminiscent of Octavia Butler - although Gomez doesn't quite have Butler's mastery of the form. The question of how to build utopic communities in the midst of dystopia is as pertinent as ever.

i don't know about this. i would normally never read a vampire story as i'm just not into them, but i surprisingly didn't mind that aspect of the book at all. i wasn't particularly bothered by anything in the book (except maybe the lack of true story arc), but there wasn't anything that i really liked a lot either. i mean, i'm glad to read a book where most of the characters are of color, and talk of race isn't central but also not shied away from. but i'm not sure there's a lot more in here. it wasn't hard to read, even with the vampires that generally annoy me. i'm not sure if gomez makes up some lore herself or if i just don't know it, but i like how she handled the vampiric aspect in that gilda was of a family that gave something in exchange for "taking the blood" and it was never an act of violence or even resulted in harm. i didn't expect that and i liked it. it really seemed that making these characters vampires was just a way for gomez to tell a series of loosely interconnected stories through different periods of time, using the same main character and side characters.

and it seemed to me that the vampiric nature of gilda and her family and community was a stand-in for any other community of people we try to find and fit in and navigate (i.e.communities of color, queer communities). i liked that aspect of it. the special connection they have, that they seek each other out in each city, that they make spaces that may be public but that are really just for each other to relax in and with others of their kind. this rang true, even as we have lost most queer spaces as societal integration moves along.

i'm just not sure of the point of the rest. it was a pleasant read; gomez isn't an outstanding writer but she's fine. i'm just left with an overall feeling of meh, or ok. i think it was probably much more important when she wrote it in 1991, and much harder to get published than it would be today.

A classic. Probably would be better with a lot more social context for white readers because we don't get that so some folks might be meh on the book. It is smart and unapologetic in its Blackness, so in conversation I could see it being super powerful to read.

Trigger warning: sexual assault

This collection of black lesbian vampire stories is more focused on the idea of immortality than vampire lore. The Girl was born a slave in the American South. She escapes and is on the run when a slave catcher finds her and tries to rape her; she kills him and is soon after found by Gilda, a woman who turns out to be a vampire. Gilda gives the Girl immortality, and the Girl takes on her name in her memory. The Gilda Stories are the stories of the Girl’s (now Gilda’s) life from 1850 to 2050.

The stories are not directly related, and the book does not have much of an overarching plot. It’s more focused on Gilda’s character and her life as the world changes around her. Gilda is immortal in a sea of mortals, and she tries to remain tied into their world rather than stand apart from it. In the two hundred years the book covers, she lives in different communities in different parts of the country, presenting through Gilda’s immortality a look at African American history and experience. The intertwining of black identity and immortality reminded me of Wild Seed by Octavia Butler, although The Gilda Stories is very much its own narrative. It’s a lot more of a literary book than I usually read, and I can see how it won the Lamda Award for lesbian science fiction.

Unfortunately, The Gilda Stories also furthers some stereotypes about bisexual people. There is only one character who is depicted as being attracted to multiple genders, Elanor. She’s an alluring, seductive redhead who takes a shine to Gilda. Gilda’s enchanted by her, despite warnings of others. As it turns out, Elanor gets off on manipulating and using people. She previously seduced both a husband and wife for the amusement of turning them against each other with jealousy. Biphobia is an issue within the queer community as well as without, so Gilda’s lesbian identity doesn’t affect the troubling depiction of bisexuality in The Gilda Stories.

The Gilda Stories is more interested in the heroine’s immortality than her dependence on blood. While Gilda’s vampiric nature is not the focus of the story, there were some interesting takes on vampire lore. Gilda’s protected from the sun as long as she has the dirt of her homeland sewn into her clothes and in her bed, a take I’ve never seen before. It’s also interesting how The Gilda Stories mixed vampires in with science fiction, through continuing the stories into 2050, when the human population is aware that vampires exist. I’m not sure if I’ve seen futuristic vampires before!

There’s a lot to love about The Gilda Stories, including it’s portrayal of queer subcultures and found families. However, it wasn’t to my taste. Primarily, the structure didn’t work for me. I tend to want more of an overarching story and wasn’t feeling the slower paced, short story like format. I also felt like there wasn’t any sort of conclusion — the book just ends. There’s nothing special about the last story; the narrative just as easily could have kept going. Throw in a biphobic stereotype and the overdone opening scene of the heroine killing an attempted rapist, and you get a book I’m iffy on.
There are reasons to recommend The Gilda Stories, but I don’t know how often I will be doing so.

Originally posted on The Illustrated Page.

A subversive and exhilarating read!

(Full disclosure: I received a free book for review from the publisher. Trigger warning for violence, including rape.)

“Why do you say others may kill and we must not?”

“Some are said to live through the energy of fear. That is their sustenance more than sharing. The truth is we hunger for connection to life, but it needn’t be through horror or destruction. Those are just the easiest links to evoke. Once learned, this lesson mustn’t be forgotten. To ignore it, to wallow in death as the white man has done, can only bring bitterness.”

###

My love is the blood that enriches this ground.
The sun is a star denied you and me.
But you are the life I’ve searched for and found
And the moon is our half of the dream.

###

That she hit him with his own whip seemed to startle him more than the pain.

###

The Girl is just nine when her mother passes away - of the flu, contracted from one of the white women she was caring for in the main house. Scared that she'll be sold off like her father, she runs away, getting as far as the state line that separates Mississippi from Louisiana before being discovered by a bounty hunter. Gilda finds the Girl in her cellar, shaking and covered in blood - and with the corpse of her would-be rapist at her feet.

As with many girls before her, Gilda takes the Girl in, offering her sanctuary in her saloon/brothel. But Gilda and her lover/business partner, Bird, take a special interest in this girl, teaching her how to read and write in multiple languages; how to grow her own food and run a business; and, eventually, in the ways of their kind. Gilda is a three hundred-year-old vampire, you see, and her days walking this earth are numbered. Tired of the war, hatred, and inequality that surrounds her, Gilda yearns for her "true death," and hopes to turn the Girl so that Bird will not be left alone in her absence.

The stories within these pages are not Gilda's, but the Girl's, who at her second mother's request assumes her name upon her passing. After the original Gilda dies, Bird stays on only long enough for the Girl to finish her lessons; then, bereft, she seeks out her own people, the Lakota (and, eventually, other native peoples as well).

Gilda, in turn, embarks on a search of her own, traveling the United States: she visits Gilda's father Sorel and his companion Anthony in 1890 Yerba Buena, California; she purchases a farm and mentors a young widow named Aurelia in 1921 Rosebud, Missouri; she opens a beauty parlor in the South End of Chicago, circa 1955, where her clientele is primarily sex workers and women of color; she buys a tenement in Chelsea and works off-Broadway (1971) and as a singer in Riverside (1981); relocates to Hampton Falls, New Hampshire, where she and her lover, Effie, watch the world sputter to an end in 2020; and, thirty years later, she tries to make her way to safety in Machu Picchu, with Hunters hot on her trail.

Throughout it all, Gilda holds the lessons taught her by Gilda, Bird, Sorel, and Anthony close: never take more blood than a person can safely give. Always leave something in return: a peaceful dream, a reassuring thought; confidence and direction. Never kill unless absolutely necessary; and then, only if you're willing to carry your victim's face with you for all of eternity. In this way, you nurture a connection to humanity, to nature, and to life.

Gilda's search for family and self-identity form the core of the story. As a young vampire, she sometimes find herself tempted to turn a human she's taken a special liking to: Aurelia in Missouri, Savannah in Chicago. Yet she's been taught that this must not be a selfish act: the would-be vampire must know what she's signing up for, have no qualms, and be well-suited to the life. Otherwise you risk creating a monster, like Eleanor and Samuel.

Gilda finds herself drawn to humanity, even as she walks apart from it. She desperately wants a family of her own, yet indecision plagues her. A young black woman who lived through slavery (and an escape); the terror of night riders; Jim Crow; race riots; and racism and sexism of every flavor, Gilda craves a connection with her people. Yet while they are black, like her, they are also human, which she is not. She is both of them and separate from them: "Her connection to the daylight world came from her blackness."

The Gilda Stories is strange and wonderful; unlike anything I've ever read, and especially anything I might have been able to get my hands on when it was first published in 1991. It is subversive and exhilarating; imaginative and yet grounded in history; and looks at what was and what could be.

The novel crosses genres in an exciting way: fantasy, horror, historical fiction, speculative fiction, coming of age - there's a little bit of everything here. As Gilda travels through space and time, the story assumes the vibe of a time travel tale - even though the narrative is linear, and Gilda lives through every one of those two hundred years, even if we're not privy to the details. While memories of Gilda's time as a slave are thankfully hazy, few and far between, I couldn't help but be reminded of another scifi American slavery tale: Octavia Butler's Kindred. (Kindred in reverse, if you will.)

There's even a bit of an ecofeminist bent to the story, which this vegan feminist just loved. Telepaths, vampires are able to communicate with both human and nonhuman animals. Of course, this requires that animals be able to think, to feel, to suffer. In a word, sentient. This is established very early on - on page 13, to be exact - when Gilda encounters a group of "satisfied, sentient horses" outside of Gilda I's establishment. It's reaffirmed time and again, whether Gilda is commiserating with the fear and anxiety felt by a pair of night riders' mounts, or bedding down with a group of benevolent wolves while traveling the wild.

While her "gifts" set Gilda apart from the species to which she once belonged, they also make her better equipped to travel among them, and offer assistance when needed; for example, rescuing a sex worker from her pimp in the South End. This seems to be what Gilda the first so struggled with: though she, too, tried to help make the world a safer place, the constant cycle of warring for freedom became too much to bear. The end of slavery was on the horizon when she took her true death - yet the world remained a dangerous place for blacks (not to mention many other minority groups, to which vampires would eventually belong), just as Gilda feared. Family, community, and compassion are central tenants of the story.

The expanded, 25th anniversary edition of the story includes a forward by the author, as well as an afterward by Alexis Pauline Gumbs. Especially interesting is the story's genesis: Gomez began the first draft after an incident of street harassment one night in Manhattan. One of many, this one was notable in that she lost her shit and raged at her harassers. Thankfully Gomez escaped unharmed, and The Gilda Stories was born. Its heroine walks a fine line between fighting the monsters in her midst, while trying not to become one herself. It's a lovely story, full of heart and intellect.

Gomez's writing is sometimes hard to follow, which is why I gave this four stars instead of five. Her transitions can be rough: one moment, Gilda is holding Anthony's hand as they converse in earnest; and in the next sentence, her coat is already on and she's at the door, poised to leave. It's almost evocative of the superhuman way vampires can move when desired: so fast it's imperceptible to the human eye. One moment you're in the doorway; the next, on your stagecoach, taking leave. Anyway, it's disconcerting at first (in the opening chapter especially), but eventually I got used to it.

That said: it's still a must read.

http://www.easyvegan.info/2016/06/17/the-gilda-stories-by-jewelle-gomez/

Vampires of color talk about the Attica uprising!!!! And Angela Davis and Black liberation (and how women got left behind by so much focus on male Black nationalism. (but then I wasn't too fond of the last two chapters)

I loved this book, and have re-read it. Jewelle Gomez weaves a tale of a Black lesbian vampire, by showing glimpses into her life at different time periods. Born into slavery, she witnesses tremendous cultural change in the US and the world - dealing with racism, sexism, homophobia, and classism. Gilda is an ethical vampire. She avoids killing, and she leaves something positive behind in exchange for the blood she takes. But what I enjoyed most about this book was the cultural observations. This is a must read for any dyke who enjoys a well-told story of strong women, and who is interested in historical change and social movement.

I had the pleasure of hearing Ms. Gomez read from the book at Giovanni's Room bookstore in Philadelphia, many years ago. It was an accident; I happened to come into the store to shop just as she was about to read from her work. I was utterly enthralled, and happily bought the book that day. Since then, I've loaned it to many of my friends, who have all agreed that this is a truly excellent read.

great for what it is (if you like that kind of thing...)

The Gilda Stories, a novel about vampires, but much more....it is a story about longing, living in the past, trying to define oneself by criteria that is inconsistent with the reality of one's existence. Gilda moves though her life, extended through vampirism, searching for a place to call home and wanting a lover who will never leave. Her conflict is her inability to leave her life as a human behind and take on the characteristics of a vampire's life. Gomez's writing is concise and gripping. I enjoyed this novel immensely.

This novel has lesbian themes, although I wouldn't necessarily label it as a lesbian novel.

I actually liked this book although is was a little slow at first. I appreciate that Gomez represents vampires in a sort of different light than they are usually portrayed. You will not find terribly violent, dark, Dracula-type vampires in this novel. One should not pick up this book expecting a ton of action, but rather a beautiful, constant and poetic story.

maybe im not a sci fi fan? i didnt like this book. only finished it b/c i wanted to know where it was going. if you liked this book, please send me a message telling me why... b/c i sho didnt.½

It's got a black lesbian vampire in it, and the stories cover bits of her life through various eras in America.