Tea

by Stacey D'Erasmo

Stacey D'Erasmo will be a familiar name to anyone who reads the Village Voice. During the years she worked at that quintessential alternative weekly, her beautiful, trenchant essays were among the paper's real drawing cards. Writing on a wide variety of topics--from the brainlessness of certain "do me" feminists to the arrest of ex-'60s radical Katherine Ann Power--D'Erasmo always managed to distill her response into a few devastating elements, her prose driven by quiet rage and an impatient, electric poetry. Like the political writing of Joan Didion, these have proven to be unforgettable essays that deserve to be collected soon. All of which brings us to Tea, D'Erasmo's first work of fiction. Essentially a coming-of-age tale, it's divided into three periods in the life of one Isabel Gold--from girlhood through her early 20s. The first section, "Morning," is weakest, full of the familiar tropes of damaged the beautiful suicidal mother, the passive, clever narrator who keeps staring out the car window. But as the book picks up, D'Erasmo sharpens her focus, and Isabel's world takes on a vibrant particularity and humor. Here, for instance, is a slyly hilarious description of a film project she and her girlfriend are working

Their film was experimental; it incorporated all the theories they both knew about film, but, they both felt certain, went beyond those theories.... It didn't have a title yet; they couldn't find the phrase that encompassed, or referenced, all the myriad things their film was. It was political. It was nonlinear. It was diffuse. It made use of film as film.

Passages like this call to mind the early-1990s film Go Fish, which also took place in an East Coast world of smart, gay women just out of college who are settling into an urban subculture and making homes in a city where their desires can be easily expressed and absorbed. Fans of that film's liberal-arts-grad realism will welcome Tea. But readers who have anxiously followed D'Erasmo's work may chafe when coming across details such as Pier 1 rattan chairs, La-Z-Boy recliners, and Hill Street Blues--specifics that can date and sometimes diminish this intermittently powerful work. --Emily White

Genres: Fiction, Queer, LGBT, Lesbian, Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction, Contemporary

Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Stacey D’Erasmo is the author of the novels Tea, (a New York Times Notable Book of the Year); and A Seahorse Year (a San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year and a Lambda Literary Award winner). Her writing has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, the New York Times Book Review, and Ploughshares. She is currently an assistant professor of writing at Columbia University.

Reviews

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am sitting cross-legged on the floor of my living room, sipping tea out of a mug with a farm scene on the front--a barn and a silo and green fields and a farmhouse, canopied by huge, beautiful night stars. It is my third cup of the day and has gone cold twice already. To me, this tea is a thing of permanence. A reminder of my father before me and his mother before him, and I suspect it will be a reminder of me to my children, if ever they are to be born. I have no memory of tea tasting new and adventurous, because it has always been. It is infinity, spherical, and permanent. I do, however, have fond and strong memories of the ever-presence of tea in this little life of mine. Drinking cup after cup, a bag at a time, when I worked in Rhode Island. Me in my little rehearsal studio with strong, sweet cups of tea in round, white mugs with an apple painted on the front. The caffeine kept me awake for hours. Today, thinking back to a sentiment from years ago, I resurrected the teapot my father bought me when I went away to college. I hope this teapot never breaks--I am sure I couldn't recover from the loss. If I were to visit my father today, he would be drinking the largest cup of tea known to mankind. A 64oz mug that my mother made a few years ago when she took a pottery class. My father's tea is weak--one generic Target brand tea bag--and scalding hot. He will microwave this tea over and over again throughout the day, and when his mug is empty, he'll start all over again. He is a chain-drinker.

Tea does not remind me of my mother.

There are other things that remind me of my mother--Harry Potter, New England beach vacations, Pennsylvania, a potter's wheel, Girl Scouts, veterinarians, my dead grandmother, the sci-fi channel, and infinite other things. After 317 pages, I can't tell you what reminds Isabel of her mother. Perhaps it's intangible. But, I don't think it's tea.

I'm not sure I can think about this book in any solid terms. It is an ok story, but I can't pull much depth from its pages. It will not speak to me for years to come. It will only hover in the atmosphere for the next few hours or days, until something else covers it over for good.



I've finished my tea. No more today.











~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Books mentioned in this book:
The Diary of Anais Nin, 1931-1934
Nicholas Nickelby
David Copperfield
Great Expectations
Pickwick Papers
No Exit
The Way We Were
Love and Death
The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea
Nashville
Brigadoon
The King and I
On the Waterfront
A Midsummer Night's Dream
The Little Foxes
Equus
Marat/Sade
The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-In-The-Moon Marigolds
Othello
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
A Streetcar Named Desire
Godspell
The Miracle Worker
Guys and Dolls
My Fair Lady
I Can Get It for You Wholesale


These are mostly plays, since Isabel was a theatre person.

[Marvin · Rating 1 out of 5]

This one had no discernible plot in the first 75 pages; it was just preoccupied with trivial details of domestic dysfunction.

[Heidi | Paper Safari Book Blog · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tea is a very strange novel. Broken down in Morning, Afternoon and Evening it tells pieces of the life of Isabel Gold. The beginning of the book deals with her family, her strange, and depressed mother, her born again best friend who calls God on her shoe phone as they re-enact scenes from Get Smart and her realization that she is frightened that her mothers mood will wear off on her if she touches her. The middle of the book deals with Isabel's coming of age, realizing that she is a lesbian and finding her way through life in the 70's and becoming an actress. At the end of the book we find Isabel living in Manhattan struggling in her relationship with a depressed girlfriend who reminds me of her mother when she is in her dark moods.

I guess it would be like glimpsing different aspects of any ones life. Isabel seems extremely ordinary to me. Sure she had a tragic childhood event but the rest of her life seems pretty mundane. When she was 8 she buries notes and things in yards so that in the future people will dig them up and know about the people who lived where she is, sort of like this novel, glimpses of her mundane life thrown together in a book. I thought that the the death of her mother would make more of an impact but it was just a blip on her radar. It doesn't even really seem to come up except at strange moments, like on her birthday when she imagines what her mother would have given her as a gift.

If you like character analysis and not plot driven books than this is one for you. Personally this was not one that will make my list of recommended books.

[Sps · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's still historical fiction if it's set in the '60s through '80s, yeah? Hiphuggers and Jane Fonda. Smoking indoors.

Other literary novelists were enchanted by this, at least according to the book jacket, but I found it heavy and self-conscious. I could name half a dozen traits assigned to Isabel, the protagonist, but at the end of the book realized I still didn't know her at all. The prose was dull, with occasional weak 'writerly' effects like repeating phrases. The coming of age plot held no particular appeal. D'Erasmo's portrayal of panic attacks (if that's what "the dry dark" was supposed to be) was unconvincing, but maybe that's more a secondary effect of her poor characterization. Also, were readers supposed to laugh at Isabel's internal dialogue and journal entries? I mean were we supposed to feel condescending--like Isabel still had a lot of growing up to do--when concerns such as having or not having the "pure spirit of an artist"(233) came up? Because phrases like 'pure spirit of an artist' have an immediate effect on my eyebrows.

At the same time I guess I feel like there should be more glbtqq books of every variety, even the mediocre Bildungsroman variety, so this has a place there. Maybe I'd give it to an angsty young artiste, if I knew any.

Oh um also if anyone is reading this book for sex tips, don't.

[Rita · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m giving this 4 to bring the rating up, but I do think it’s a 3.5. I quite liked the writing, but it depressed me. If you don’t like books where not much happens, don’t read this. With that said, the characters were interesting and whole and I wanted to know more about each of them. The subdued narration, though, made me feel very far away from them, like they were blurry people in a dream. As you can tell, I feel conflicted about this book. But I can confidently say I’m glad I found it on the $4 book rack at second story.

[michelle]

definitely among the better stoopbooks I've held on to

[Bitsy Kemper · Rating 3 out of 5]

It might be a style issue but the book felt like one, long, run-on sentence. I wasn't invested in any characters. Other than a few charming references to Dr Scholls and earthshoes to 'prove' the story took place at a certain time(s), it felt like a modern day story that was just put in different time periods for variety. Not a waste of time, but not a book I'll ever think of again.

[Bill Marshall · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I saw Stacey D'Erasmo's 2000 novel Tea A Novel on the shelf of inexpensive books my library was selling I remember thinking that the last thing I needed was another book, especially one by an author I'd never heard of. But after I gave the first page a glance and saw that it took place in a Philadelphia suburb, which is where I live, I bought it. The price was nearly nothing and I always have room for more books on the shelves.
I'm glad I did. Tea is a coming of age story and the girl whose story it tells is my age, i.e., early 60s. It starts with that character, Isabel, hitting adolescence and ends when she's twenty-two. It's in three parts and its 317 pages fly by. (It's physically a small book, about five by eight inches.)
If you're wondering what the life of a girl who loves the theater and goes from living in a distant suburb to New York City, where she and her girlfriend live in a funky apartment, cut each other's hair, and fight over the screenplay to a cockamamie movie you know will never get made, this is the perfect book.

Nothing was as beautiful as Philadelphia, where everything was old and modern at the same time. Nothing was so fantastically loud, reverberating inside Isabel's head all week long as she idled behind the counter at Pier 1, not really there, not really anywhere as she waited, suspended in motion, to get back to Philadelphia. Isabel wore her hair in the new way all the time now. She stopped eating candy bars out of the basket. She smoked more cigarettes than ever. She began going to The Well not only on Saturdays and Sundays, but on Wednesday nights, too. Riding on the bus, she watched Philadelphia flow by: its few ornate buildings, its row houses, its peeling billboards flashing then disappearing as the bus curved through the low, hot, brick city. Once she saw a man running with a baby in his arms, dodging cars to get somewhere, frantic. That was a poem.

[Kay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hmm.

This got on my list because a 60-something lesbian English professor, who I met at a bar in Point Reyes in the period immediately following my lesbian pulp book club era, suggested it when I asked for queer books that made an impact on her. The book is newer than I thought, given my correspondent’s age and how long she has been gay.

However, she is probably very close in age to the central character Isabel, whom we follow through her life in three visits: one around age 10 in 1968, one at 16, one in her early 20s in 1982. So I imagine that explains the affection for this one.

I liked the age-16 visit, with all the budding artistry and train-riding and messy teen revelations. The others left me a little cold. Nothing wrong with them, I just didn’t feel very interested in what was going to happen next with these people. The story is in part a meditation on grief, and the strangeness of not knowing your parents, taken to the extreme case of a parent dying by suicide at a young age. I don’t know that the meditation really brought me anything new. It did feel like D’Erasmo was sort of throwing out some dots for me and waving at them, but all I saw was dots.

Nothing that grabbed me too much, but I generally liked the prose.

The physical format of this paperback is slightly unusual and excellent. The pages are good paper and something like 5 inches by 8 inches - a good size.

With how lukewarm I felt about this one, it’s entirely possible I wouldn’t have finished it otherwise. But it was very comfortable to hold, and I have been in transit from Pensacola all day, so here we are.

[Cyd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Michael Cunningham called this book "ravishing," and it is. It is also disturbing in the way that Marilynne Robinson's Housekeeping is--almost too true, too possible. My heart pounded at times because the bottomless despair Isabel falls into felt so familiar. I see and am trying to hold onto the hope, the slow self-discovery, of the ending.

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

I chose this book based solely on the title. Tea does play a role in the book, but the book primarily offers a glimpse into the life of a girl as she discovers who she is. The writing is okay, but I did not like the strong adult language and sexual content.

[Becko · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story kept me engaged and caring about the main character Isabel. Occasionally I would have to reread passages since they were too wordy and slightly confusing.

[Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a Cat's Eye artistry book. Evocative and oddly cathartic. It feels like new beginnings and hopeless directionlessness at the same time.

[Enia · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a strange tale, yet it was captivating. The character took us inside her life, and I'm glad that I read it.

[Catherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Parts of this book were over-wrought, like someone trying too hard to be profound. Other parts were so beautifully written I had to read them two or three times before turning the page.

[Carrie Vaughn · Rating 2 out of 5]

When I started this book, I was deeply reminded of some of the games I used to play with childhood friends, a game played with the son of family friends and games I still wish, in a way, I could play. The book seemed to progress from the mind of the child to the adolescent to the young adult and the language flowed along with it, which was both comforting and unsettling at the same time. There were times I was pulled from the book when the timeline and chronology seemed off (which, with research, in fact, were not) and at times the story seemed centered in modern times instead of the 70s and 80s when the book was set.

All in all I found Isabel to be a rather vapid character with no real direction or aim in her life. Her goals to be an actress seemed superficial at best and a pipeline dream. She was plain and simple and pretty easy to understand and, in the end, sympathetic. How many of us have gone through most of our lives with no ideas, no plans, only a vague idea of what would be nice? I know most of my life was filled that way, flitting around from one thing to another until I finally landed somewhere that seemed right. Is it still? Will it be permanently? Who knows?

In the end, the book left me with a feeling of sadness without closure. It seemed like I picked up on Isabel's sense of wanting and it has carried through with me. It has, however, given me the urge to write my own book with the lines that have been haunting me since I first started reading.

I would definitely recommend the book. It's a quick read and the plot is just enough to keep you following along to the end. The writer does a great job of letting us into Isabel's headspace and the subtle cultural references keep things in perspective.

Also, if anyone reads or has read, I would be interested in discussing the book with you. I still feel, even though I've read it, that I'm missing something important.

[Terese · Rating 3 out of 5]

(Pt1) Morning; Isabel the Child. This was my favorite part of the book. I cared for young Isabel, I enjoyed her emotional life and the outside world she was reacting to. The writing was stunning, if maybe with a few too many similies for my taste.
That said I could buy the book only to re-read this section of the book. It was moving and haunting in that not much really needed to be said. (4 stars)

(Pt2) Afternoon; Isabel the Teenager. Entertaining enough, convincing in terms of teenage emotionality. Somewhat predictable though. Didn't match up to "Morning" though it was a nice follow up. (3 stars)

(Pt3) Evening; Isabel the Adult. Kind of lost my patience with Isabel here. It felt like too wide of a gap perhaps. I felt a bit lost in terms of who she was and who the people around her were. It was easy enough to figure out, but the emotions behind it were lost to me, i.e. in this part I didn't care for any of the characters. Isabel included. They all felt hollow somehow. Couldn't wait to just get through it in order to finish the book. Quite a shame since the opening section was so strong. (1 star)


In conclusion it should be read if only for "Morning", it works as a stand alone short story and it's the one I'd like to share with friends. Might buy the book as mentioned just for the sake of this first part.

[Evan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book felt kind of vague to me. Although it was a little over 300 pages it could've been shorter. Nothing really happened. The main character, Isabel, I didn't really get a good idea of. The book focuses on her life at three separate times: 8, 16, & 22. At 8, her mother commits suicide and this of course makes a lasting impression on her. At 16, she joins a theater troupe and has a crush on the stage manager Rebecca. She also has a silly argument with her best friend Lottie and neither will call the other to make up so their relationship falls apart. At 22 she has graduated from college and moves to New York with her girlfriend Thea where they work on a script and try to make a movie. There's the obligatory trip home at Hanukkah. The obligatory other girl Thea meets (Cricket) who is more passionate about the movie than Isabel now is. I don't know I couldn't really care about any of the characters. Not one popped off the page as interesting. No interesting ideas in the book. This book came recommended and had great blurbs by writers I like. Maybe it's more of a writer's book. One who writes novels might like this one.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had no prior knowledge of this author. I heard a laudatory New York Times Book Review podcast of Ms. D'Erasmo's third book. I decided to start with her first book. The book is the coming of age story of Isabella Gold told in three sections: Morning, Afternoon, Evening and the three different girl friends who are close to Isabella at the respective time. In the beginning, Isabella is observes her mother and the obvious unhappiness the former actress suffers from. After her mother's suicide, Isabella continues to dissect what she knows of her mother's life (her mother's ever present cup of "tea", did her mom have pearls, the clippings and ticket stubs from theater productions). Isabella develops theatrical inspirations and a realization she may be a lesbian.
Although very well written, I did not appreciate the explicitness of Isabella's sexual relationships. It matters not whether the sex is cross gender or not. I'd prefer if she just closed the door and left the bedroom scenes to my imagination.

['Nathan Burgoine · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a bit of a mixed bag. I liked it, let me say that before anything else, but I can see how many wouldn't. It is character driven to the point of being nearly plot-less, so if you're looking for some sort of complete story, it isn't here.

The tale follows the life of Isabel whose mother almost in passing, expresses a death wish. When Isabel's mother then commits suicide shortly thereafter, it spins Isabel's life in a new direction. Alternately free and flighty, grounded and lost, Isabel's life unfolds in sections titled after a day: Morning, Afternoon, and Evening.

Tea is a theme, but not so central a one as to make the title self-evident. The others in Isabel's life seem nearly void of self confidence or self esteem or even self control at varying times, and her outsider point of view is both eloquent and sometimes infuriating. The book is written beautifully, and I found myself enjoying the way it was written more than the story itself.

A difficult review of a difficult book to pin down, but like I said, I did like it.

[Babette · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was a New York Times Notable Book, maybe that is what put it on my reading list. In any case, I looked forward to something that would touch my emotions and expand my understanding of the human condition. I was sorely disappointed. This was not a bad book, but I kept waiting for it to get better, to give me more of the characters and their relationships. I felt I was looking at a surface, but the depths were murky. Perhaps that is because the characters were murky. Isabel is searching for answers, for the right future. But she doesn't confront the things that keep her from finding them. I didn't have the sense that she was afraid, I felt that her character was not developed enough in the story. We see glimpses of relationships, but not enough of any of them to understand the dynamics. The end of the book really surprised me; it was unexpected and made no sense.

[sisterimapoet · Rating 4 out of 5]

A gift from a friend who clearly knows my reading tastes.

I really enjoyed this. Lots of other reviewers seemed to struggle with the not much happening, but that was the books main appeal to me.

I thought the central character felt very real. I felt like I had a priviledged glimpse into her life and thoughts.

I liked the way the lesbian content was present without being a weighty agenda. I like D'Erasmo attention to the little details. Like the plastic turtle in the childrens playground.

I'd been keen to read more by D'Erasmo.

[Melody · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were some really good parts but the ending was too abrupt. It seemed like the author got tired of writing and decided to go the "circular route" where the ending goes back to the beginning and you realize that the main character is going to now tell the story you've just read. The book is written in three sections, each telling about a particular period of the main character's life. I enjoyed the middle section called "Afternoon" the best but wish the relationships had been more developed.

[Lydia · Rating 1 out of 5]

I simply could not get into this book. The long passages of narrative and unexciting writing were simply too much to overcome.

I went back and tried to read this book again and managed to get through it. Written in a very literary style, the sections of this book are Morning, Afternoon, and Evening, the three stages of Isabel's life (until the age of 22). I still did not particularly like the non-plot feel of this novel. I am not opposed to literary work, but feel the writing must be superb and did not find the quality I hoped for.

[Purlewe · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book had so much potential. Daughter makes her mom a cup of tea and waits for her downstairs, while her mom commits suicide upstairs. The rest of the book is her life without her mom, either as a hole in her life, or as a mom shaped place in her mind. She finds herself feeling love for both men and women, and how she finds that was lovely, but could have been fleshed out more. The end of the book was devoid of emotion. And could have given the reader a stopping point, but didn't. This isn't worth being on my shelf.

[Alison · Rating 1 out of 5]

It just wasn't quite what I expected. I remember reading the synopsis online and being really intrigued, of course when I actually began to read it, it turned out to be pretty boring in my opinion. I guess it's a coming of age story for this girl, but even at the end of the story I don't feel as if the character has really grown.

[Nanci · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was given to me by someone who only made it to page 69 and just wasn't "feeling" the characters or the story. I'd heard of it and thought I'd give it a try. It wasn't so bad but not amazing. I was curious as to what would happen to the main character and even though the end did circle back to start of the novel, it just wasn't enough to matter.

[Katie M. · Rating 2 out of 5]

After all the hubbub about Stacey D'Erasmo's A Seahorse Year (which, to be totally fair, I haven't read), I was totally underwhelmed by this mostly-forgettable series of vague and disjointed episodes in the life of its protagonist.

[Meg - A Bookish Affair · Rating 1 out of 5]

Meh, I didn't like this book. It's supposed to tell the coming of age story of Isabel, a girl whose mother kills herself when Isabel was very young. The author misses a key place to tell a story about how children cope when parents commit suicide (something that unfortunately happens entirely too much). Isabel is cliched and never really moves much.

[Jenifer Hardie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this book was well written, I liked how the author divided her life into 3 parts- morning, afternoon and evening- all of our lives could be divided into these 3 same parts. I did not choose this book, my mom had it and I was looking for something to read, I found I enjoyed it, even though it was not really what I expected. But, still a good read.