Godmother Night

by Rachel Pollack

Almost a set of short stories, this novel breaks into discrete episodes, centered on identity, love, and death. Jaqe has no identity until she meets Laurie, introduced and named by Mother Night; in that moment, she knows herself, and that she loves Laurie. But once Mother Night has become part of their lives, Laurie and Jaqe and their daughter Kate cannot live as other people do. Knowing Death, inevitably each of them seeks to use the knowledge, to bargain with Death, and to change the terms in the balance of life and death in the world.

Pollack's characters, major and supporting, living, dead, and divine, are memorably human. As she transplants myths and folklore into a modern setting, she gives new life to old tales and a deeper meaning to a seemingly simple world.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, LGBT, Queer, Speculative Fiction, Lesbian, Feminism

355 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1996

About the author

Rachel Grace Pollack was an American science fiction author, comic book writer, and expert on divinatory tarot. Pollack was a great influence on the women's spirituality movement.

Reviews

[Bradley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a novel that's kinda hard to review. It did win the World Fantasy Award in 1997 and it's absolutely perfect for anyone interested in witchy 90's lesbian fiction (which pretty much sums it up) but it is also a bit more than that.

I would have loved this more coming down from a 90's Sandman high, hunting for anything Death related, getting my candles out, and reading passages of the Celestine Prophesy to my tolerant friends. :)

If you get what I mean, you'll probably enjoy this novel as a trip down a certain nostalgia path. For everyone else, and I mean anyone who wants a thoroughly, thoroughly lesbian-centric trip, I think you might something of value here.

For me? Well, I've gotten slightly more nuanced in my taste for LGBTQ literature over the years. This one smacks of goddess worship, going down the hardcore lesbian politics route, and a personal journey shining through the filter of fiction. Unfortunately, I've read my fair share of similar books, and while this one isn't particularly bad and it really SHINES when we get to Kate's story (much farther than half-way into the novel) it really reads more like a series of events with small smatterings of magic.

Aim for getting a THEME out of this and you'll be better off.

[Kathryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! I crammed in the last hundred pages of this book in one hour because I had to return it to the library. My very own copy is now in the mail and I plan on savoring it. This book is brilliant, and will take on more and deeper meaning with re-reading. Rachel Pollack packs in references to lesser-known Grimm's tales, to Neil Gaiman comics, and to probably many other things that I didn't catch. The engrossing story follows the relationship ups and downs of two generations of "women-loving women" and how Death (Mother Night) plays a part in their interactions. The writing is simultaneously realistic and fantastic, with the bonus of truly hot sex scenes.

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A modern-day fairy tale filled with love, magic and heartbreak. The writing is gorgeous and the images stunning. A beautiful and unforgettable story!

[Quinten · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a very interesting book. Pollak writes in a very naive style, one that reminds me of a narrated story told to one's child at bedtime more than a novel. This is the only book by her that I've read, so I'm not sure if it's an affectation or if it is her normal voice. I'm also not completely sure if I find the style distracting or if it enhances this "adult fairy tale."

The story is compelling, and follows a clear arc. However, the pacing is uneven. Pollak narrates events, and it is not always clear which events are important and which are distractions. Whole chapters appear to be wasted. Much is implied rather than said outright, and perhaps it is relying on cultural cues that don't always come across, but at times in the story this seems to be over-writing, as the importance of the event doesn't always match the tone of its description. Admittedly, the greatest strength of the book, despite these flaws, is probably in conveying the mood and feeling of falling in love, and some of this may be in these overwritten passages.

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I started Godmother Night about a year ago. And then I stopped. No real reason. I got about halfway through, then returned it to the library.

A couple weeks ago, in some weird midnight thought process, I decided to place a hold on it.

Completely forgetting that the library had been working diligently to transport GN to my on-the-way-to-the-middle-of-nowhere local library, I was quite surprised to see it waiting for me when I went in to use their slightly faster internet connection on Saturday. When I say slightly faster, what I mean is that I only had to wait 3 hours instead of 5+ hours for the music I bought to download. So, in that time, I started reading GN on and off in-between bouts of getting mesmerized by teh internetz.

Apparently, when I stopped reading a year ago I was almost to the good part...

I finished Godmother Night last night. It was good. Confusing at times, but good. I didn't get all of the allusions to things, but I know that they're there. Maybe I'll read it again in 20 years and understand it better.

Anyway, after finishing it, I cried for a while. I remembered things from my past that I haven't thought about in a long time for whatever reasons. Then I felt better. I felt good. I still feel good.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish I could give this book a higher rating. It grabbed me right away with the very specific tone, a strong voice and point of view. But then came the bucketfuls of information in a single chapter, then came the jerky time jumps, then came the dozens of plot decisions/details that I began to suspect would never be backed up as anything more than arbitrary. By the end, this story had nothing big to say, had no great climax or poignant anticlimax. It's sort of like, "Here - look at these interesting characters and these random plot details I chose for reasons you'll never know. Interesting, right? Here - look at this person's life I made up, how her parents met, how she was born, how she grew up and fell in love and died. Interesting, right?"

...Sort of. I guess. Way to write a novel where all the main characters are lesbian. But what else? Sadly, I walked away with little more than that.

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my absolute favorite books. I originally found it for $1 at Half Price Books, but since then I have lent it to friends and purchased more copies. It's out of print but worth searching for. I want to read it again and again.

[Olga · Rating 3 out of 5]

poorly written but engrossing guilty pleasure witchy queer girl chick lit

[Linh Nguyen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pollack's story-telling style is perfect: beautiful, mysterious and reminiscent of something ancient, long forgotten. The first part of Jaqe and Laurie, which kinda reminds me of Lips Touch: Three Times, is more enjoyable than Kate's part, though now and then I could not quite get my head around what has happened (I didn't even suspect Mother Night is the Death until the second half).
After finishing this alternative fairy tale, I don't know what to feel. Probably confused, but mostly just sad. I wonder which is more tragic: losing your love one at the happiest, or the most unhappy stage of your time together. Either way, there leaves behind only regret.
(And btw Melissa is sooo sexy and adorable, I totally have a thing for nerdy scientist xD)

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Die Lebensgeschichten eines lesbischen Paares und ihres Kinds, mit einem stark fantastischen Einschlag, weil der Tod die Patin des Kinds wird. Durchaus gut lesbare Aneinanderreihung aus Episoden aus den Leben, aber ich bin nicht ganz schlau geworden, was das Ganze zusammenhalten soll.

[Sharon · Rating 3 out of 5]

CW: sexual assault, attempted rape, lesbophobia, homophobia, pregnancy, death of a parent, blood, violence, antisemitism, medical content, injury description, (discussed) car accident

This was a very interesting book, but not the one I originally signed up to read.

[Stephen Poltz · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a tear-jerker. I had tears streaming down my face at the end. I had to walk around a bit to chill before writing this review. It’s a modern-day fairy tale told in a somewhat naïve voice about the personification of death in the lives of a lesbian couple and their daughter. Despite its simple language, the prose is wonderful and the plot is inventive. It poses the question of what death would be like as a godmother.

Come visit my blog for the full review…
https://itstartedwiththehugos.blogspo...

[Kirk Macleod · Rating 4 out of 5]

Godmother Night asks the question (sorry for the mild twenty-year-old spoiler) of how well would the personification of death do as a Godparent. The story follows two young women, and later their daughter through their lives as Mother Night (their world's version of Death) becomes directly involved in a young girl's life.

The story works best as a grown-up fairy tale (and yes, there are some very grown-up scenes in the book), and works as a series of vignettes focusing on two generations of a family and their loves, lives and deaths. A really fascinating book and one I was glad to finally check out!

[Brook · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was quite an interesting read. It was full of intriguing ideas--Mother Night, of course, being the foremost. But it felt a little disjointed, even for magical realism. A lot of what happened seemed arbitrary and random, and while that has its place in magical realism, usually that all ties back into something larger. There really wasn't a sense of that here.

I found the emotional climax to be fairly well done, but... there are too many dead lesbians in this book for me to truly enjoy or recommend it.

Still, it was an interesting world, with interesting characters, and I didn't have trouble getting through it. I just wish there had been a bit more tying it all together.

[Brian · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was fine. I added it to my "to-read" list a decade ago and I was a different person then. My tastes have changed and I am not as interested in lesbian witch fiction. But, I listened. It was okay. I made it through Part One and then I made it through Part Two. It probably couldve ended somewhere around there. But there is a Part Three! I listened to Part Three for a few chapter snad then the audiobook went silent. There were still about 2 hours left of the book, but all the tracks were blank. I couldve looked into it further or tried to find a different copy. But I didnt.

The book ended without resolution, and I was fine with it.

[Lance Schonberg]

My rough ride with WFA winners continues with another DNF.

Nothing wrong with the writing here, but 100 pages in and I'm struggling to wrap my head around why the characters got together and why they're still together. Plus, the world they're living in feels a bit dated.

And the speculative touch is so light as to be almost non-existent. Magical realism isn't normally my thing, and in this case I have a hard time sliding it into even that level of fantasy so far.

There may be things to like here, and probably I would have found them reading the book 20 years ago, but there isn't enough to hold me to what's supposed to have been a genre story that won a major award.

[Cnidy · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is a certain 90s lesbian feel to this book that I found strange. I was also left wondering why the characters loved each other. Where did this intense and crazy passion come from? I am pretty sure that if K read it again (not in the 90s he would not be so enamored with it). Although the magic/mundane mix was fun at times.

[Esther G. Recuero · Rating 4 out of 5]

Historia muy lograda que combina el mundo espiritual con el nuestro, en el que dos muchachas se enamoran e intentan conseguir una vida estable, mientras que la mujer que las presentó, "Madre Noche", no para de interferir en sus vidas, modificándo sus destinos y convirtiéndo sus vidas en algo extraño y, a veces, demasiado duro.

Muy recomendable, me ha fascinado.

[Jen · Rating 5 out of 5]

- one star for late '90s White Feminism (tm) that has not aged well.
- one star for massive amounts of cultural appropriation, with no real attempt to include any people of color.

Still, an engrossing modern fairy tale about identity and our relationship with death.

[Dancce · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simply excellent. I have nothing else to add.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I adore Rachel Pollack and her work about symbolism and the Tarot. I picked up her fiction work because I was really curious how she might incorporate some of these elements in her work. Overall, this was a great story of development and understanding oneself. But, it also felt a bit disjointed at times and almost numb when there were tough lessons (albeit: this is realistic. How often do we run away or hide when life is tough?) I think she does well in keeping her stories short, but I thought she did a better job of this in Fissure King, where each story could really stand on its own. In this, I had a harder time relating to the main character and wanted her to engage and offer more to those she loved. Overall: still a great and unique story filled with amazingly different female archetypes.

[Fee · Rating 5 out of 5]

With the incomparable Rachel Pollack nearing the end of her incredible life, I'm re-reading some of my favourite works of hers. This book was so meaningful for me as a teenager, and I was comforted to find that my opinion of it hasn't really changed nearly thirty years down the line. Nineties goddess-centric lesbian fiction at its very best.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing!

This book takes my breath away. This has given me an entirely different way to see death. As someone who works with people who are facing death - this story has been a gift of going much deeper into how one can face it. You are an amazing storyteller Rachel Pollack!

[Sue Chant · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tiptree shortlist 1996

[Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

another book i was too young for (i'm saying that because i know i didn't understand some things back then), but wonderful and mystical. i think the only other place i encountered this particular feeling is later in gaiman's works

[Spiegel · Rating 2 out of 5]

This has too much everyday life to really grab my attention. It's not badly written or anything.

[Adri Joy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Weird and tragic (like, all the queer tragedy, be warned) but also kind of amazing.

[Jane Routley · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a bit slow

[Carlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve never read a book quite like this. It was very intriguing and unique, and a real pioneer for the time period.

[Susan Herring · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting tale - magical and powerful.