Gaudi Afternoon

Cassandra Reilly #1

by Barbara Wilson, Barbara Sjoholm

Following the author's earlier Pam Nilson mysteries, she now introduces a new heroine - Cassandra Reilly, the wry, globetrotting translator and amateur detective. This comic thriller is set in Barcelona. Cassandra is soon on the trail of her friend's husband, a foot therapist and a sax player.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Lesbian, LGBT, Queer, Crime, 20th Century

Paperback

First published October 1, 1990

About the author

Barbara Wilson is the pen name of author and translator Barbara Sjoholm. Her mysteries, written under the name Barbara Wilson, include two series, one with printer Pam Nilsen (Murder in the Collective) and one with translator-sleuth Cassandra Reilly. Her mysteries include the Lambda-award-winning Gaudi Afternoon, made into a film of the same name. She was a co-founder of Seal Press and in 2020 received the annual Trailblazer Award from the Golden Crown Literary Society for her contributions to lesbian literature. Her books have been published in England and translated into Spanish, Finnish, German, and Japanese.

Reviews

[Madeline · Rating 1 out of 5]

Thus far, I have enjoyed or at least appreciated all the books I've been assigned to read for my detective novel class this semester. Or at least, I did - and then Cassandra Reilly and her associated foolery stomped into my life.

In hindsight, I suppose the description on the back of the book should have tipped me off. First it informed me that this book has won "a British Crime Writers' Association Award for Best Mystery Set in Europe and a Lambda Literary Award for Best Lesbian Mystery." Best Lesbian Mystery? That's like saying that you've just won a Pacific Rim Emmy - the award is just a basketball trophy with some wings glued on. Then there was the plot description itself, some of which goes like this: "Cassandra is soon on the trail of the elusive Ben, as well as a mysterious foot therapist named April Schauer and a sax player reputed to be from Prague."

As my friend said after reading that description: "It's like a Mad Lib."

That's my main problem with this book - Wilson is just trying too damn hard. Once she finds a plot device, she reuses it over and over because she figures that if once was good, three times is gold. Near the beginning of the story, we learn that one of the characters is actually transgendered. Twist! It was interesting and thought-provoking. Then it happened with another character. Odd, but I was still on board. Then it happened again, with a third character. For fuck's sake, Wilson.

Similarly, there is a small child involved in the plot, and she gets kidnapped towards the middle of the book. I was concerned, and involved. Then the child is found. And kidnapped again. I was amazed at this child's bad luck, but still interested. Then the kid gets found, and kidnapped a third time, and all I could think was, "This is getting stupid."

Note to all aspiring authors: when a child's disappearance only causes your audience to be annoyed, you're doing something wrong. It was also hard to care about the kid because none of the characters did. This little girl gets passed around between characters like she's an object, and people squabble and worry over her disappearance with the same level of detachment. It was weird, and sad.

As if that weren't all bad enough, there was the fact that I didn't care about any of the characters. They all wanted Cassandra Reilly's help, but I didn't want her to help them, because they were all shallow and stupid and utterly unlikeable. For that matter, I didn't much care what Cassandra did either because she was similarly unlikable. She's mean and snippy and devoid of charisma. Also she's a total snob. Every few pages she's like, "Ooh, I love to travel, I hate staying in one place, I've had all these awesome adventures and it's so cool being me." At one point Cassandra's sort-of girlfriend (I'm not even going to get into that) tries to convince Cassandra that she'd like to come along on the bitchy sleuth's adventures, saying, "I like to travel, too." In response, Cassandra sneers at her, "No, you do not, Ana. I mean, a trip to Rome or Paris for two weeks is not the same as a six-week trek through Mongolia." Fuck you, Cassandra - just because she doesn't have the resources or time to devote to aimless wandering doesn't mean Ana doesn't like traveling.

Cassandra's real job, by the way, is translating. During her adventures in this story, she's working on translating a Spanish book into English, and spends a lot of time mocking the author's romantic, magical realism story. But I was, honestly, a lot more engrossed in that book than I was in Cassandra's story. Authors, take down another note: when the reader is more interested in the fake novel - the novel your protagonist consistently makes fun of - you're doing something wrong.

Read for: Social Forces in the Detective Novel

[Ana · Rating 2 out of 5]

At about the 40% mark this book turned a little sour for me. Until then I was enjoying getting to know Cassandra, the beautiful city of Barcelona and the odd, gender-bending mystery she had gotten involved with. But I became really annoyed with the never ending kidnapping theme and the book's humor just wasn't for me. I'll probably read the next book because it's set in Transilvania, but I hope the author gets better at plot progression.

[Althea Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for a review. Thanks to NetGalley and Open Road Media for the book!

I did assume that this was a new book, and requested it solely based on it being a mystery set in Barcelona. I hadn’t heard of it before, and didn’t know that there’d been a movie based on it. So I came to the book without preconceptions.

It’s very much a light, breezy mystery – nothing dire or upsetting here. If anything, I’d describe it as a comedy of gender.

Translator Cassandra Reilly (who seems to bear some resemblance to the author herself) is approached by a friend-of-a-friend and offered what seems like an easy job: someone fluent in Spanish is needed to accompany her to Barcelona to help locate her estranged husband, who needs to sign some legal paperwork. Since she’s got friends in Barcelona, loves the city, and hey – free trip! – Cassandra jumps at the chance. But once in Europe, it turns out that not everything she was told – or, possibly, anything she was told – is true.

The plot moves along at a good clip, and kept my interest – but I have to admit, at several points, I had to say, “Why is Cassandra still involved? At this point I’d’ve washed my hands of the lot of them, and called the police!” But, assuming that Cassandra is just a natural busybody who is swayed by her infatuations more than a woman of her age probably should be, her involvement in a quite dysfunctional family and their feud over child custody is quite engrossing. Sjoholm (aka Wilson) has a nice feel for language, and while the perspective of Barcelona shown is strictly a tourist’s viewpoint, not an insider’s or a resident’s (having visited Barcelona, I recognized most of her scenery, and have no doubt that the author visited as well); it comes through vividly.

It did feel slightly dated. Feminism and gender politics have changed since 1990. It probably shows my own age and perspective that I found the portrayal of the queer ‘scene’ here to be familiar, almost comforting. I felt that there were a good number of insights into gender and identity here, without the book entering the realm of politics. Mostly, however, the gender question is used as a recurring plot device.

One thing I felt was peculiar… when I did discover that there was a movie made of the book, I was half-way through. I looked at IMDB, and noticed that Juliette Lewis played the character of April. April is described as ‘ample,’ her skin is referred to as ‘brown,’ she has dark eyes and ‘frizzy black hair.’ I said, ‘huh? Juliette Lewis is a skinny white girl!’ Then, in the book, April reveals that her heritage is Czech and German!?! I dunno, I’d been seeing her as black.

Other issues – I kind of wished that the frequent ‘excerpts’ from the (fictional) novel that Cassandra is working on translating more directly informed the main storyline. While entertaining, they seemed rather random. There’s also a ‘red herring’ that seems quite shoehorned-in.

Still, quibbles aside, this was a quick and enjoyable read, and I’d certainly read more by this author.

[Philip · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having watched the Susan Seidelman (Desperately Seeking Susan) film adaptation for Gaudi Afternoon, I'm thrilled I finally sat down and read the book. Barbara Sjoholm's light mystery novel set in Barcelona is the first of her Cassandra Reilly Mysteries. It's breezy with an emphasis on lesbian and trans characters. Cassandra's disinterest in relationships and settling down in general have a funny way of attracting this brood of mismatched family. The suspense reads more as hijinks than anything dangerous or evil. Instead Sjoholm helps you fall in love with her characters by creating a magical world in Barcelona. Makes me want to book my plane ticket now!

[KOMET · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gaudi Afternoon I found to be a delightful and richly entertaining novel to read. Cassandra Reilly is a globe trotting, Irish American lesbian translator and amateur detective working in London on a translation of a best-selling novel by a woman Venezuelan writer when she receives a call from Frankie, an American actress. Frankie was put in the know about Cassandra from Cassandra's friend Lucy in San Francisco, where Lucy keeps watch over Cassandra's place and correspondence there whenever Cassandra is on her far flung travels. Frankie requests a meeting with Cassandra in London upon arriving there the next day to better explain herself and why she needs Cassandra's help.

Though showing a reluctance to take on Frankie's case, Cassandra is intrigued. Besides, the initial show of money Frankie offers for her services is tempting enough. So, the two meet in London and Frankie explains that she needs to track down her estranged husband Ben, whom she suspects is in Barcelona. Where exactly in Barcelona, she's clueless. Nor does Frankie speak Spanish or Catalan. But Cassandra, given her fluency in Spanish and previous contact with Barcelona (where she has 2 close friends, Ana, who is a conceptual architect, and Carmen, a lesbian hairdresser with a very strong personality and spirit) makes use of the phone numbers Frankie provided her with, and is able to gather a fairly good idea of where Ben is in Barcelona.

Once both Frankie and Cassandra are in Barcelona, the story becomes more convoluted, colorful and intriguing with lots of unexpected twists and turns. Some of the main characters prove to be different from what they at first show themselves to be. That's all I'll say about that.

Notwithstanding the roller coaster nature of the novel, Gaudi Afternoon was very well written and fun to read.

[Megan]

This is a hard series not to like. Not only is it professionally written, with an interesting storyline and quirky characters, but it’s almost half mystery, half travelogue. In this book, Cassandra Reilly, who makes her living translating South American literature into English, is asked by the friend of a friend to find her missing husband in Barcelona, Spain. Well, Cassandra needs the money so she can go to Hungary to see some old friends (see Trouble in Transylvania, below). But come to find out, the man she is looking for is not a man at all, nor is the woman who hired her really a woman.

All of the characters are, well, unusual to say the least. Carmen the hairdresser that Cassandra has a crush on is a Catholic and won’t go all the way. Ana, whom Cassandra is staying with, is an architect who builds special, portable rooms designed specifically to a client’s needs. Ben is a butch dyke with a young daughter who is always getting kidnapped. Frankie is a male-to-female transsexual who is Ben’s ex-husband. Then there is April Showers, a foot masseuse whose presence in Barcelona seems suspect. Add to this the fact that some of these characters speak English, some Spanish, and some Catalan—the native language of Barcelona—and you have traveler’s stew.

The title is tip of the author’s hat to Dorothy L. Sayers, who penned the exciting Harriet Vane mystery, Gaudy Night, but there is no other similarity. While Sayers’ story was set in a woman’s college, Wilson’s takes place on the streets and in the buildings of Barcelona. Gaudi is Antoni Gaudi, an early 20th Century architect whose incredible structures dot Barcelona like sprinkles on a donut. The descriptions of these structures were so awe-inspired that I had to stop reading and Google as many Gaudi images as I could call up.

For a change, there are no murders in this book. No deaths at all, in fact. Just a series of misunderstandings and a lot of walking around, sitting in clubs and restaurants and apartments, and discussions of sexuality. But Wilson does this in a way that keeps you interested and wondering what will happen next. Cassandra, who at 46 is one of the oldest protagonists in the initial offering of a mystery series, even manages to get laid, although off camera. At the end, we know everything we want to know and more—even where Cassandra will travel next.

BONUS REVIEW: Gaudi Afternoon (The Movie)
I was excited to learn that there was a film of Gaudi Afternoon, directed by Susan Seidelman. I ordered it on Netflix and watched it the day after finishing the book. It was pretty dreadful. There are a lot of reasons why, and no real excuses.

To start off with, Cassandra (played by Judy Davis), is not identified as a lesbian. Instead, the movie focuses on the odd gender reversal roles exhibited by Frankie (a pre-op male to female transsexual) and Ben (a butch dyke) as father and mother respectively of the young Delilah. This is pretty heady stuff, it’s true, but Seidelman chose to play it primarily for its comic value and leave the social issues aside. Save for the part of Hamilton, who was terrific, the movie was badly miscast. I suppose Davis could have played a pretty good Cassandra, but decided (or was directed) to portray her as alternately angry and bewildered. Frankie and Ben were given some of the right lines, but didn’t have the right actors to say them. April was played by Juliette Lewis as gorgeous, thin, and young (none of which attributes April had in the book, except through lusty Cassandra’s eyes). The young girl, Delilah, is given such horrible lines that you wish she had stayed in San Francisco.

As you might expect, Cassandra doesn't have any girlfriends in this movie, unless you count the times that April inexplicably makes a move on her. Ana, the architect of small rooms, doesn’t make an appearance at all and Cassandra’s eventual in-book lover, Carmen, appears in the movie as a mother of three with a no-good boyfriend.

So why did Seidelman choose not to express Cassandra’s lesbianism? Nor her lust for April nor her nights with Carmen? Cowardice, I guess. And box office expectations, although I doubt this movie got more than a handful of viewers in the theater. The movie would have been far more effective it she had stuck to more of the book, using the camera for panoramic shots of beautiful Barcelona—including the Gaudi constructions, which appeared only briefly. If she had retained Cassandra’s sexual nature, the movie would have at least had a shot of being an underground lesbian classic, watched by like-minded women for generations to come. Well, you make your choices and have to live with the results—and sometimes the negative reviews.

Note: This review is included in my book The Art of the Lesbian Mystery Novel, along with information on over 930 other lesbian mysteries by over 310 authors.

[edvardoalb · Rating 2 out of 5]

I give it 2 starts instead of 1 since the story did grab my attention as it progressed. However, I would not recommend reading this book.

As for its strengths, Gaudí Afternoon’s play with gender is interesting. This book is an easy read which you can finish in a day or two.

However, the ending feels too plain. I got bored when Delilah was kidnapped for the 3rd time. It just seemed so out of place and a way for the author to reach a certain number of pages. Likewise, all of the characters are highly unlikeable, I simply did not care about anyone in the book. Delilah felt like a simple object that went from one’s hands into another’s hands (and also Delilah was weirdly fine with it despite being a 6 year old; I constantly got the feeling that the author did not a good job representing how a 6 year old would react to this situation). Lastly, Hamilton’s motive for kidnapping Delilah seemed too plain to me, which only made me dislike even more the characters.


Overall, I feel like Gaudí’s Afternoon falls short.

[Kiarita · Rating 2 out of 5]

menudo circo

[Annette Gisby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cassandra Reilly is a Spanish translator, working on an epic South American novel when she gets a call from her friend, Lucy, whose other friend Frankie is in a bit of a pickle.

Frankie's ex-husband Ben has absconded to Barcelona and Frankie needs to see him to sign some urgent paperwork, but she doesn't speak a word of Spanish. Cassandra is reluctant at first, but the money Frankie offers is too good to be true and it would be no hardship for Cassandra to finish the translation of the book in Spain.

But as it turns out, Frankie didn't tell her the whole truth and Cassandra, like the reader takes a while to figure it all out.

The pages just flew by, Ms. Wilson's writing flowed so well. It's not a murder mystery, but more asking the questions - who are we? And do how other people see us define who we are or who we would like to be? There is genderbending aplenty in this novel, with mistaken identies and mistaken genders galore, which lost a bit of its sparkle after the third of fourth time it happened.

Some things were a bit dated, such as cameras with film which needed to be devoloped rather than digital, which most people would use nowadays. I suppose professional photographers might still use film for some things, but Cassandra was definitely not a photographer.

I've never been to Barcelona, but the author described it so well that I almost think I have been. It was a fun, light-hearted read despite some of the subject matter and the parts of the other novel Cassandra was translating were hilarious. I was very disappointed though near the end, when the secret of Raoul's black bag was about to be revealed, and Cassandra's briefcase got stolen so we never found out and neither did Cassandra.

An enjoyable jaunt with a very likeable narrator and I just adored Carmen, the Spanish hairdresser who is Cassandra's on-again/off-again lover, she was just so vivid and vivacious.

Review copy from Netgalley courtesy of the publisher.

http://booksandtales.blogspot.co.uk/2...

[Adriene Oliveira · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed the book - easy read, a few plot twists (maybe repeated more often than advisable) and quite a bit of humour. Made me laugh out loud more than once, I especially appreciated the line: “In any other country it would have been spring, but England keeps its own counsel about the weather, and had decided a few more weeks of sleet, hail and freezing winds were good for the English, the only people on earth who think you should feel damp and chilled inside as well as outside.” I also thought that, for a 1991 book, the subjects of gender, sexuality and maternity were discussed in an very organic way.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had been meaning to read this forever, but finally got it as a used copy from the library.

It's pretty good. Not perfect. It's lightish and the travelling bits in Barcelona are very nice to read. And Cassandra's fun and it's humorous.

Has a few things to say about gender and motherhood. But it's not overwhelmingly so.

So, I've found a new author and I want to rush right out and go through her Cassandra books. But I only think there are three of them. Bummer.

[Susan Mills · Rating 5 out of 5]

Favorite light read, good for reading several times over a period of several years. Light and fun, full of LGBT issues, before such initials came into common use. absorbing story, good suspenseful plot, low on violence.

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This review originally published in Looking For a Good Book. Rated 3.0 of 5

Cassandra Reilly works as a translator. She's an American, living in London, when a friend (of a friend), Frankie Stevens, calls and asks for her help. The friend (of a friend) needs someone who is fluent in Spanish to accompany them to Barcelona to locate her missing husband, Ben. Cassandra sees this is an easy assignment and jumps at the chance to go to Barcelona on someone else's dime for some simple translating work. But it doesn't take long for Cassandra to realize that she may have been lured to the job under false pretenses as truths about the situation may have been withheld or obfuscated altogether.

While finding herself caught up in the search for Ben amid the lies and deceit, Cassandra finds herself reconnecting and caught between two former lovers, Ana and Carmen, making her Barcelona visit anything but the fun adventure she was expecting.

I thought that the beginning few chapters of the book, the set-up of our central characters ("Frankie reminded me of a young Irish Setter, Leggy, friendly, frisky") and the plot, was interesting and definitely had me looking forward to reading on. But the further I got into the story, the less cohesive it became. The character of Cassandra, who at first was quite interesting, and who has the potential to be a fascinating, quirky amateur detective, doesn't seem to stay focused enough to be worth following.

I didn't think anything of the lesbian relationships between Cassandra and Ana and Carmen. It did not feel gratuitous and was actually an interesting sub-story. I think, though, if I had picked up this book BECAUSE of the lesbian or LGBTQ theme, I'd have been disappointed. I guess, in large part, I can't imagine reading a book, or NOT reading a book, because of the character's sexual orientation (unless, of course, one is reading porn or erotica, in which case it probably makes a difference).

Overall, despite a great start, I was quite underwhelmed with this book. I see that there's a series of five Cassandra Reilly books and I'd likely read one or more of them if I happened to have a copy, but I wouldn't go out of my way to look for another book.

I see, also, that a movie was made of this in 2001. Haven't heard of it? That probably should tell you something.

Looking for a good book? Gaudi Afternoon by Barbara Wilson is a light mystery with a light LGBTQ connection. It is not exciting in any sense.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

[Cindy · Rating 3 out of 5]

First of all, this is a fast-moving mystery that does not involve any murders! It's a romp in Barcelona, truly one of the world's great cities. It's a gender-bending, fun, fast, often-silly book.

Also, though, it was published in 1990 and so many of the words Ms Wilson uses are very dated, now in 2023. Two of the main characters are trans women, but the book uses terminology that probably was common in 1990, even in the queer community (I can't remember 33 years ago). One of the characters, a gay man named Hamilton (can you tell he is rich?), is the only one who is absolutely clear in stating the fact that he uses the pronouns that are chosen by the people to whom he is referring. The tone is overall respectful, despite the use of terms that would be shocking to hear in 2023.

There is a child in this, too, who is repeatedly kidnapped but doesn't show any sign of being traumatized by this. She is angry, though, about all the fighting going on around her. It is all resolved by the end, though, and in exactly the way that Frankie wanted. Frankie came to Cassandra Reilly asking for help in finding her husband in order to get some legal papers signed. She offers Cassandra, a Spanish translator and also investigator, a lot of money to help her find the husband, Ben, in Barcelona. She makes it sound like she needs Cassandra's help only because she doesn't speak Spanish (she also doesn't know that Barcelona is in Catalunya, where people speak Catalan as well as Spanish). However, Frankie is a trans woman, her 'husband' Ben is her ex-wife, Bernadette, the mother of her child Delilah, and Ben is traveling with April, a woman with whom Ben is obsessed (and thinks it's love). April has never told Ben she is a trans woman, and doesn't want to do so now that she sees how intolerant she is of Frankie's transgender identity. Meanwhile, Cassandra is navigating her way between her friends in Barcelona, Carmen and Ana; she loves them both, but in different ways. Everyone but Delilah is queer, gay, lesbian, or trans-- and Delilah is only 8 or 9 (I forget).
As the characters wander, run, and take taxis or moto rides all over Barcelona, the beautiful city also is a character. I loved that!
I read a review here that talked about the movie, which sounds like it was NOT at all true to the book. Cassandra apparently isn't even a lesbian in the movie, which seems like it would strip out so much of the color of the story. Jeez.

[Judy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite honestly, I downloaded this because I had just read another story set in Barcelona, and was interested to see how this one described Gaudí's work. So, I had no preconceptions about what the book was about, and thus was rather confused until I realized that the narrator was a lesbian and the person she had been talked into helping find her husband in Barcelona was actually looking for an ex-wife because her client was transgendered. Once I finally got all that straight I began to understand the story better! But the gender bending did lead to confusion as no one could decide whether to use "she" or "he" for the transgendered person who was actually trying to find her/his daughter whom the ex-wife had brought with her to Barcelona. Confused yet? There was a lot of kidnapping of the little girl back and forth which was almost funny if you didn't think to much about the fact that it was a little girl they were dragging around. Also embedded in the novel was a story which the narrator, who was also a translator from Spanish to English was translating in her spare time. Midway through the book I was thinking it really wasn't for me, but then when I finished it, I ended up downloading the next book in the series, which is set in Transylvania. So, apparently I liked it better than I thought. It will be interesting to see how that one goes.

[Emily Davies (libraryofcalliope) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cassandra Reilly works as a translator to fund her adventures travelling all over the world. When the mysterious Frankie employs her help in assisting her to track down her ex husband in Barcelona, things get somewhat out of hand. This book introduces the amateur detective and embroils her in the plot of custody battles, kidnappings, cross dressing and questions around who can be a mother. I’m definitely interested to read more of this lesbian detective but there were some definite flaws with this book. The plot was so dedicated to high stakes and twists that the author tended to use the same conventions again and again and again and it didn’t really add anything by repeating them. This book also features two trans characters as well as men who just enjoy wearing dresses and the narrative makes a clear distinction between the two but it was written in the 90s so some of the language and understanding was definitely outdated. Overall it was an interesting book, especially as a mystery novel without any murders. It was more about the characters’ relationships with each other and that was definitely it’s strong point.

[Nightwitch · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm surprised by the lukewarm reviews - Cassandra, to me, was very much in the mold of polarizing literary sleuth, no more obnoxious than say Inspector Morse (book version, not TV), and the plot felt no more over-the-top than other mysteries from the 90s (and in some ways significantly less, since I'm more than willing to believe in complicated, obnoxious people being bad at co-parenting and romantic relationships, in contrast to say over-the-top serial killer plots which rely on omnicompetent, unremorsefully evil menaces to society roaming the back alleys). I really enjoyed it.

[Drini · Rating 1 out of 5]

Van het begin was ik niet verkocht, maar besloot toch om een derde van het boek te lezen. Het kon mijn aandacht niet houden en het verhaal was niet interessant genoeg. Veel aandacht op queer toestanden die mij ook niet liggen. Ik heb het einde van het boek opgezocht en dit is duidelijk geen detectiveverhaal, maar eerder een boek over relaties tussen mensen en genderidentiteit. Zeer vooruitstrevend voor een boek uit de jaren ‘90.

[Pam · Rating 2 out of 5]

A little more Gaudi and a lot less drama!!!

[Bridget · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story had it's real ups and downs, unfortunately.

[Susan Welch]

Didn't get very far in this one before quitting. It started out promising but really shows its age in transphobia. No thanks.

[vic · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5

[Madeline Puckett · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Rounded up in stars bc it's a fun read)

https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews...

[Haley Davenport · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book definitely wasn’t what I was expecting based on its synopsis, but not bad. The book also had a lot of twists and turns but sometimes it was a little much tbh.

[Marie-Anne · Rating 2 out of 5]

What I liked best about it was learning more about Gaudi architecture in Barcelona. That was great.

[Anne Green · Rating 5 out of 5]

Twisty Travel Tale

Read this on a trip to Barcelona. I always enjoy reading books set where I’m traveling and this has been one of the better ones I’ve read! Lots of discussion of motherhood. And some twists I will not reveal. Give it a try!

[Penny · Rating 3 out of 5]

I chose this because it is set in Barcelona and references Antonio Gaudi's architecture which I happened to be studying. About half way through I realized that I was officially reading "lesbian literature"... not my normal genre. Regardless, it was decently written and actually pretty interesting. What would you do if your father became another mother and then left your mother for another woman?

[Wayne Spiceland · Rating 2 out of 5]

kind of a shame, really. After all, Wilson writes really, really well. Unfortunately, the repetitiveness of the plot and the shallowness of almost all the characters undermines her narrative skills. As events repeat again and again, I began to feel as if I were reading a Tom Stoppard play. Cassandra is the only character I had an sympathy for at all. That this novel won a Lambda boggles my mind.

[Jo · Rating 2 out of 5]

This novel has not aged well. I can imagine why it stood out when it was first published in 1990 - Cassandra's an out and proud, intelligent and cosmopolitan protagonist who has open relationships; there's transgender representation. Sadly, it was a difficult read - the pacing, dialogue and plot couldn't hold my interest.

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have read this before and liked it, but am reading it again - I'd forgotten how much I like everyone's shifting perceptions of each other's gender identities. I really enjoy the character of Cassandra Reilly.