Switch

by Carol Guess

Carol Guess's lyrical and accomplished second novel, set in small-town Indiana, is poised on the tension between the surface cheeriness of the waitresses at the M&H Diner and their dark inner lives. Caddie and her friends each have a secret and, through years of hiding and watchfulness, they have developed a wary alertness to what other people are withholding. Since her lover Jo skipped town, no one escapes Caddie's attention or the brief focus of her shifting desire. She learns that shallow, selfish Gwen, the new girl at the diner, has a surprisingly rich singing voice, "as if all the things she knew she kept hidden in her throat," and that Selena, her long-time ally, cares little for people, but will kiss a $50 bill when she thinks no one is looking. Suffering makes Caddie compassionate, as well as needy, and she unhesitatingly adopts the small orange cat that shows up on her doorstep one rainy night. Here at last is something to love, someone to listen to her dangerous confidences. But why does the cat remind her of her lost lover? And where does the cat disappear to when the lover finally returns? Switch is a complex, haunting novel with mystical overtones and a mastery of narrative voice. --Regina Marler

Genres: Fiction, LGBT

Paperback

First published June 1, 1998

Reviews

[Kat · Rating 5 out of 5]

A "pansexual anthem," perhaps. This book is beautiful and not in print anymore and will always be pigeonholed as a lesbian novel, and it is that, and also a working-class-Middle-America, getting-by-through-relishing-small-pleasures, everyone-has-secret-lives-and-loves novel. Knocked my proverbial socks off.

[Bib]

Did not finish reading.

[Lina Ahrens · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very weird. Maybe too weird? The author’s writing is beautiful, sensual, touching - the incest chapter was a bit too strange for me maybe. But oh well

[Ryan Mishap · Rating 3 out of 5]

This odd novel is set in Cartwheel Indiana and most of it takes place in people's heads. Different characters speak, which I always like in a novel, but the main one is Caddie who works as a waitress in a unique diner. She falls for a womin living as a man. Guess is very good at giving us a peak into people's thoughts and emotions, and adept at presenting the unsettling in an ordinary manner, as you'll see when the book takes twists and turns unexpected.

[Keisha · Rating 4 out of 5]

addicting

[Kali · Rating 2 out of 5]

The desolate, lost-in-nowhere, heteronormative small town America setting was so bleak that I couldn't get into the plot & gave up about half way through.

[Christina]

I like her writing style but decided to put it down because it wasn't fitting my reading mood at the time. Maybe someday I'll get back to it.

[Zane Carey · Rating 4 out of 5]

A world wind of a read