Sweat: Stories and a Novella

by Lucy Jane Bledsoe

Stories and a Novella by Lucy Jane Bledsoe.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction

161 pages, Paperback

First published August 11, 1995

About the author

Preorder Lucy's new novel, TELL THE REST, about love, rage, and redemption, at https://amzn.to/3QRyHXD. The New York Times says Lucy Jane Bledsoe's novel, A THIN BRIGHT LINE, "triumphs." Ms. Magazine calls her novel, THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE, "fabulous feminist fiction." Her 2018 collection of stories, LAVA FALLS, won the Devil's Kitchen Fiction Award. Bledsoe played basketball in both high school and college. As a social justice activist, she's passionate about working for voting rights.

Reviews

[Bri · Rating 5 out of 5]

it’s one thing to write a collection of short stories that are so funny and real and interesting but then to top it off with that gut wrenching novella!!!! nothing short of spectacular

[Kaylin Smida · Rating 5 out of 5]

I feel like I really needed this wonderful book of short lesbian stories. It is just really lovely to read about queer romance and queer longing and queer experiences. So glad this came across my desk.

[Freyja Vanadis · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of short stories by Lucy Jane Bledsoe, not all of them necessarily about sex. These stories are better than the other erotica books I've read lately. The last story in the book, "The Place Before Language", was also included in the book Afterglow, but this is a little longer and fleshes the story and the characters out more fully. And the main character/narrator Tracy is a real jerk, throwing herself at Elise and then teasingly threatening to use blackmail against her. I'm glad she didn't end up with Elise, she didn't deserve her.
Also, the story about the high school basketball coach who succumbs to the temptation and kisses one of her players in the gym after everyone else has left, really pissed me off. I know this story was written probably 20 years ago, but in this day and age of numerous cases of student sexual abuse by teachers, it's brought home the fact that it's just wrong. So when the student runs out of the gym screaming for the school principal, I was happy about that, even though the student led the coach on. I don't care what the situation was; she's an adult and should've had the common sense to refuse. She deserved whatever ended up happening to her.
Anyway, I liked the stories in this collection and I'll be keeping this book.

[Steven · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the way Bledsoe fuses sport with life in several of these stories. The stories are never just about the sport. And they are not, to use her own phrase, about the “dyke sub-text” (although they are definitely about that too), these stories center around key growth points in the character’s lives. The sports, the interactions with the other characters, all serve to get the main character past something that is holding her back. The skier that quits taking the safe route in “Solo,” and the bicyclist whose life is too full of complexities in “The Pass,” are good examples of that fusion. “The Night Danny Was Raped” blends traumatic experiences with friendships severed by both disclosure and its lack. It also uses an interesting technique of using the first sentence as a refrain at the beginning of several sections, but each time another clause is tacked on until the full story comes out. That technique really heightened the tension.

[Shari]

Sweat: Stories and a Novella by Lucy Jane Bledsoe (1995)

[Becko · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have been interested in trying this author and the series of short stories was a great way to start. Not my absolute favorite read but liked her style enough to look for another novel at the library.