The Amazon Trail

by Lee Lynch

Collected Columns

Syndicated columnist Lee Lynch covers the lesbian and gay scene from coast to coast, from inside our bookstores and our bars, from campfire to coven to careers, into and out of love.

Genres: Nonfiction, Lesbian, LGBT

Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Lee Lynch published her first lesbian fiction in “The Ladder” in the 1960s. Naiad Press issued Toothpick House, Old Dyke Tales, and more. Her novel The Swashbuckler was presented in NYC as a play scripted by Sarah Schulman. New Victoria Publishers brought out Rafferty Street, the last book of Lynch’s Morton River Valley Trilogy. Her backlist is becoming available in electronic format from Bold Strokes Books. Her newest novels are Beggar of Love and The Raid from Bold Strokes. Her recent short stories can be found in Romantic Interludes (Bold Strokes Books), Women In Uniform (Regal Crest) and at www.readtheselips.com. Her reviews and feature articles have appeared in such publications as “The San Francisco Chronicle,” “The Advocate” and “The Lambda Book Report.” Lynch’s syndicated column, “The Amazon Trail,” runs in venues such as boldstrokesbooks.com, justaboutwrite.com, “Letters From Camp Rehoboth,” and “On Top Magazine.”

Lee Lynch was honored by the Golden Crown Literary Society (GCLS) as the first recipient (for The Swashbuckler) and namesake of The Lee Lynch Classics Award, which will honor outstanding works in Lesbian Fiction published before awards and honors were given. She also is a recipient of the Alice B. Reader Award for Lesbian Fiction, the James Duggins Mid-Career Author Award, which honors LGBT mid-career novelists of extraordinary talent and service to the LGBT community, and was inducted into the Saints and Sinners Literary Hall of Fame. In 2010 Beggar of Love received the GCLS Ann Bannon Readers’ Choice Award and the ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Bronze Award in Gay/Lesbian Fiction. She has twice been nominated for Lambda Literary Awards and her novel Sweet Creek (Bold Strokes Books) was a GCLS award finalist.

She lives in rural Florida with her wife.

Reviews

[Williesun · Rating 4 out of 5]

It has gotten to the point where I mostly request lesbian books from Netgalley because well, I don't really need a reason, do I? 'An American Queer' is the collection of columns Lee Lynch wrote over decades and it was so interesting to see the evolution of a country and queer life in general.

Queer life is nothing like it's portrayed on The L Word, especially not when you live in rural America or any other part of the world that isn't West Hollywood and I bet West Hollywood isn't even like it is shown in that show. Anyway, I'm losing focus.

Lee Lynch writes about every day life and reading a personal column is kind of like reading a personal blog which is something I love. I know this comes as a total shocker but getting glimpses into other peoples lives is fascinating and even more so, when you share certain part with them or can at least relate. Now, I have no idea what it must have been like coming out in the 1960s, I can only say how it is in the 2000s.

It's interesting to see how many things have changed but also how little they have changed. There is never only one side to a story and this collection is a nice cross section of the past quarter of a century. All along I kept highlighting passages and nodding my head in agreement because I could see myself reflected in her words.

Of course it's not a novelty but somethings she just managed to put into words that I had struggled with but seemed blatantly obvious once I read it.

I also loved reading about her personal life, the glimpses of The Girlfriend and I shed some tears when she died because again, it all felt so familiar. I could go on and on, trying to explain to you why I loved this collection but the essence of it is, if you like to stick your nose in the lives of other people, then this is for you. It's honest and heartfelt. It educates baby dykes like myself about how far we have come but also how far we still have to go.  Here are some quotes that I liked:

"One becomes used to the undercurrent of oppression. I'm not sure I know how to function without it."

"We look back to our predecessors and think, how brave they were. Yes, they were, but so are we. We forget how vulnerable we are."

"Calling ourselves gay publicly is one of the most freeing and validating acts available to queers. Then there are the great semantic wars: is it okay to call ourselves queer, dyke, faggot - is it all right if straight people o? Names that decimated us not too long ago are now defiant challenges to our detractors."

"There is no way I can measure up to the impossible expectations I expect my new employer to expect of me."

[Elaine Burnes · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s easy to say wonderful things about this collection of Lee Lynch’s essays through the decades. I smiled in recognition of places we shared (Provincetown), marveled at the places she’s been, the things she’s done. Practically a Zelig, she’s been at the forefront of the gay-rights movement (though she denies much influence). More important, she’s documented what it’s been like to be a lesbian from the 1960s to today—how things have changed, how they haven’t. Heck, what it’s like to be a human in that time period.

“Caught in the Net (1995)” reminded me of Sandra Scoppettone’s Everything You Have Is Mine, set in the early 1990s, when her heroine is addicted to online bulletin boards. Hilarious. This Halloween, I appreciated “The Nice Lesbian Neighbors (2010).”

I came out in the 1980s, when Lynch began these columns, already an out lesbian for more than 20 years. I often feel I was born between times. Too late for Stonewall, too soon for complete comfort in being a lesbian. Lynch, of the same generation as me, lets me in on all I missed. I didn’t encounter her Amazon Trail columns until I found them on Just About Write online a few years ago. Sadly, they didn’t appear in my local LGBT newspapers. Being able to read so many of them now is a treat.

Older dykes will appreciate the memories, the traumatic ones hopefully tempered by time. Younger dykes don’t have to feel like this is a history lesson. As Rachel Spangler writes in the foreword, “ordinary people in ordinary circumstances can transform their world in extraordinary ways.”

Lynch is considered an Important Writer. A Living Legend. A Mentor to others. All True. And all of which could intimidate readers. Don’t worry. She’s an entertaining writer. The themes and lessons flow with humor and grace. Not much preaching here. Just simple, compelling storytelling. I enjoyed every one. I only wish they’d been longer. That not being possible, I hope she’ll publish another round of them.

[Sue · Rating 5 out of 5]

First, a disclaimer. When I ran into Lee Lynch last month at a NOW author’s fair, I was delighted. She had just moved back to Oregon from Florida with her new wife. A decade or more ago, we had shared several author tables, and I missed her. So we’re friends. She’s one of those people who make me feel good. And so do her books. I enjoyed her novels Sweet Creek and That Old Studebaker (there are many more), and I love this collection of essays, too. Lee Lynch is a lesbian and a writer for the lesbian press. She’d call it “queer.” She calls herself “butch.” If you can’t stand to read about gay life, you might not want to read this, but maybe you should. For straight women like me, Lee’s essays are eye-openers. There’s a lot I didn’t know about the discrimination lesbians face and the long fight for respect. But we are alike in more ways than we are different. Lynch treats her subjects with humor, love and delight that the closets in which she grew up have opened, not all the way, but a lot. With chapters like “Scruffy Little Dyke,” “Social Insecurity” and “My Big Butch Gay Aunt,” who can resist?

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

This very fine collection of columns by Lee Lynch, spanning the period from the 1980's to 2010, is required reading for those who want to remember and for those who are hazy or inadequately informed about LGBT history. An American Queer: The Amazon Trail is not a stiff academic text. Lynch is a passionate advocate with a quiet humor, and her columns are an entertaining yet informative read. My personal favorite was "Butch Stag Party." I don't want to spoil it by revealing any details--just read it. Read them all.

[Kelly]

Rural Oregon lesbians! I didn't expect to like this book nearly as much as I did, but Lynch's columns really do hold up over time. An elegant time capsule of twenty+ years of queer experience.

[willowdog · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of Lee Lynch's wonderfully honest columns documents the lesbian/gay experience in a very personal historical sense through the last decades of the twentieth century. Masterful. This is what blogs of today wish to do, but very few have the voice of Lynch.

[Catherine]

unread,lesbian feminism,lesbian novel

[Marks House]

2 copies

[Elisa Rolle · Rating 5 out of 5]

An American Queer: The Amazon Trail by Lee Lynch: http://reviews-and-ramblings.dreamwid... 2015 Rainbow Awards Honorable Mention (5* from at least 1 judge)