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Against the Season
Jane Rule’s incandescent third novel explores love, loss, and family . . . and the pieces of ourselves we leave behind
Born lame, Amelia Larson lives in the house that has been in her family for generations. Now she has a decision to make: Should she honor the dying wish of her sister, Beatrice, to burn her diaries? There are sixty-nine in all: one journal for each year of Beatrice’s life since the age of six.
Beginning in 1913 and traversing World War I and beyond, the diaries become a moving counterpoint to Amelia’s life as they unpeel layers of family history. As the past starts to impinge on the present, her relations—then and now—come to vivid life.
Told from alternating points of view, Against the Season opens an illuminating window into small-town life. As the sins and secrets of a family are revealed through the sometimes-faulty lens of memory, it is a story about the seasons of life and the ties that bind us even beyond death.
Born lame, Amelia Larson lives in the house that has been in her family for generations. Now she has a decision to make: Should she honor the dying wish of her sister, Beatrice, to burn her diaries? There are sixty-nine in all: one journal for each year of Beatrice’s life since the age of six.
Beginning in 1913 and traversing World War I and beyond, the diaries become a moving counterpoint to Amelia’s life as they unpeel layers of family history. As the past starts to impinge on the present, her relations—then and now—come to vivid life.
Told from alternating points of view, Against the Season opens an illuminating window into small-town life. As the sins and secrets of a family are revealed through the sometimes-faulty lens of memory, it is a story about the seasons of life and the ties that bind us even beyond death.
224 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1971
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131 people want to read
About the author
Jane Rule
33 books90 followersJane Vance Rule was a Canadian writer of lesbian-themed novels and non-fiction. American by birth and Canadian by choice, Rule's pioneering work as a writer and activist reached across borders.
Rule was born on March 28, 1931, in Plainfield, New Jersey, and raised in the Midwest and California. She earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Mills College in 1952. In 1954 she joined the faculty of the Concord Academy, a private school in Massachusetts. There Rule met Helen Sonthoff, a fellow faculty member who became her life partner. They settled in Vancouver in 1956. Eventually they both held positions at the University of British Columbia until 1976 when they moved to Galiano Island. Sonthoff died in 2000, at 83. Rule died at the age of 76 on November 28, 2007 at her home on Galiano Island due to complications from liver cancer, refusing any treatment that would take her from the island.
A major literary figure in Canada, she wrote seven novels as well as short stories and nonfiction. But it was for Desert of the Heart that she remained best known. The novel published in 1964, is about a professor of English literature who meets and falls in love with a casino worker in Reno. It was made into a movie by Donna Deitch called Desert Hearts in 1985, which quickly became a lesbian classic.
Rule, who became a Canadian citizen in the 1960s, was awarded the Order of British Columbia in 1998 and the Order of Canada in 2007. In 1994, Rule was the subject of a Genie-awarding winning documentary, Fiction and Other Truths; a film about Jane Rule, directed by Lynne Fernie and Aerlyn Weissman, produced by Rina Fraticelli. She received the Canadian Authors Association best novel and best short story awards, the American Gay Academic Literature Award, the U.S. Fund for Human Dignity Award of Merit, the CNIB's Talking Book of the Year Award and an honorary doctorate of letters from the University of British Columbia. In January of 2007, Rule was awarded the Alice B. Toklas Medal “for her long and storied career as a lesbian novelist.”
Proud Life - Jane Rule: 1931 - 2007 by Marilyn Schuster
Jane Rule 1996 - George Woodcock Lifetime Achievement Award
Rule was born on March 28, 1931, in Plainfield, New Jersey, and raised in the Midwest and California. She earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Mills College in 1952. In 1954 she joined the faculty of the Concord Academy, a private school in Massachusetts. There Rule met Helen Sonthoff, a fellow faculty member who became her life partner. They settled in Vancouver in 1956. Eventually they both held positions at the University of British Columbia until 1976 when they moved to Galiano Island. Sonthoff died in 2000, at 83. Rule died at the age of 76 on November 28, 2007 at her home on Galiano Island due to complications from liver cancer, refusing any treatment that would take her from the island.
A major literary figure in Canada, she wrote seven novels as well as short stories and nonfiction. But it was for Desert of the Heart that she remained best known. The novel published in 1964, is about a professor of English literature who meets and falls in love with a casino worker in Reno. It was made into a movie by Donna Deitch called Desert Hearts in 1985, which quickly became a lesbian classic.
Rule, who became a Canadian citizen in the 1960s, was awarded the Order of British Columbia in 1998 and the Order of Canada in 2007. In 1994, Rule was the subject of a Genie-awarding winning documentary, Fiction and Other Truths; a film about Jane Rule, directed by Lynne Fernie and Aerlyn Weissman, produced by Rina Fraticelli. She received the Canadian Authors Association best novel and best short story awards, the American Gay Academic Literature Award, the U.S. Fund for Human Dignity Award of Merit, the CNIB's Talking Book of the Year Award and an honorary doctorate of letters from the University of British Columbia. In January of 2007, Rule was awarded the Alice B. Toklas Medal “for her long and storied career as a lesbian novelist.”
Proud Life - Jane Rule: 1931 - 2007 by Marilyn Schuster
Jane Rule 1996 - George Woodcock Lifetime Achievement Award
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
June 18, 2025
So, my ebook copy of this book that I borrowed from my local library expired. I discovered that I could not renew it because there was a hold on it. I also discovered I didn't care one way or the other, and in fact, didn't want to renew it even if I could. Worse, while trying to slog through this chore of a book a couple other loans I had out also expired. Fortunately, one I could renew, but the other I am, again, on a wait list.
The book is character- rather than plot-driven, because really there is no plot to speak of. And, those factors are important because the characters are shallow and unlikeable.
In one scene, a MC brags about the fact that their town has none of that 'race riot stuff' NOT because the town is tolerant of diversity, but because her grandfather made it his mission to drive all of the nonwhite people out of town, meaning that now there are no conflicts between races because only one race - white - lives there. The two MC she is speaking to agree that that was a wonderful action on the part of the grandfather, one which saved the town from all sorts of troubles that Those (non-white) people would have caused them.
And for some reason I still read on in this book. But the characters never got more likeable and I just started hating them more and more. I made it about 1/3 of the way through before my loan expired. I am sorry that I wasted so much time on this book. I am happy that the library let me try it for free and then took it back. I won't be looking up other work by this author.
The book is character- rather than plot-driven, because really there is no plot to speak of. And, those factors are important because the characters are shallow and unlikeable.
In one scene, a MC brags about the fact that their town has none of that 'race riot stuff' NOT because the town is tolerant of diversity, but because her grandfather made it his mission to drive all of the nonwhite people out of town, meaning that now there are no conflicts between races because only one race - white - lives there. The two MC she is speaking to agree that that was a wonderful action on the part of the grandfather, one which saved the town from all sorts of troubles that Those (non-white) people would have caused them.
And for some reason I still read on in this book. But the characters never got more likeable and I just started hating them more and more. I made it about 1/3 of the way through before my loan expired. I am sorry that I wasted so much time on this book. I am happy that the library let me try it for free and then took it back. I won't be looking up other work by this author.
August 24, 2023
Where Jane Rule really excels is in writing dialogue, and the characters in this novel have a lot of evocative, telling conversations as they wrestle with matters of intimacy, sexuality, birth, and death.
The novel is set in a small village, with a small circle of people who are in and out of each other’s lives. The main character is a kind old woman, Amelia, who has a practice of hiring unwed mothers as cooks and maids. Amelia is dealing with the recent death of her elderly sister, Beatrice, and Beatrice’s sharp judgments (recorded in her diaries) permeate the book.
Many of these characters are afraid of feeling too much, and of betraying the feelings they do have. Dina, the butch lesbian who is one of the centers of this novel, speaks mainly in aphorisms, and rarely expects anything of anyone. Much of the novel is about her breaking through her own reserve, as she copes with the declared love of the town librarian. But even the heterosexual couples are afraid of love.
And, of course, there are the town’s judgments, and the pressure of always being respectable. In contrast to them is Agate, the latest unwed mother in Amelia’s house, a rebel who refuses to be ashamed.
The novel is set in a small village, with a small circle of people who are in and out of each other’s lives. The main character is a kind old woman, Amelia, who has a practice of hiring unwed mothers as cooks and maids. Amelia is dealing with the recent death of her elderly sister, Beatrice, and Beatrice’s sharp judgments (recorded in her diaries) permeate the book.
Many of these characters are afraid of feeling too much, and of betraying the feelings they do have. Dina, the butch lesbian who is one of the centers of this novel, speaks mainly in aphorisms, and rarely expects anything of anyone. Much of the novel is about her breaking through her own reserve, as she copes with the declared love of the town librarian. But even the heterosexual couples are afraid of love.
And, of course, there are the town’s judgments, and the pressure of always being respectable. In contrast to them is Agate, the latest unwed mother in Amelia’s house, a rebel who refuses to be ashamed.
January 31, 2018
Well written but too stuffy for me
Is Jane rule a lesbian author? A strong thread of sexual confusion. Erotic without being graphic. Not sure how or why I selected this book. Characters out of space and time so worried about what others think. It definitely is not a page turned and it is an ensemble of protagonists.
Is Jane rule a lesbian author? A strong thread of sexual confusion. Erotic without being graphic. Not sure how or why I selected this book. Characters out of space and time so worried about what others think. It definitely is not a page turned and it is an ensemble of protagonists.
April 10, 2024
this is one of my favorites i have read in some time. there are a lot of characters, but all are centered around one Amelia Larson. the amount of characters did not make it difficult to keep up with, which i enjoyed an appreciated. jane rule’s storytelling is so beautiful and enjoyable. she is also one of the earliest lesbian authors that wrote lesbian stories which is also very cool!
August 8, 2023
This is a book about invisible sides in us. Those that are usually the opposite of the front we carefully crafted for ourselves.
July 19, 2014
I returned to this book nearly a quarter of a century after first reading it. Safe to say, second time around I 'got it' much more this time. Jane Rule writes about people with real human dilemmas, embarrassments, hurts, regrets and flaws. There is I tight knit circle of people in a small town, who all know each other (and who we find towards the end of the book have wider circles of family we are never introduced to) and struggle to know, like and love each other and themselves. It's a coming of age book for a young man, a reaching out for a fuller life for two middle aged women and a coming to terms with ageing and death book for four older people. There is an over - arching 'frame' of the death if an older woman (sister of one of the main characters) who we meet through diary snippets and reminiscences of the people who knew her. She too was flawed, probably quietly controlling and unkind, but loved and mourned by her sister. Readers - you got any diaries? Burn them before you die! At the end there is a resolving of some relationships, a shifting towards greater self understanding in others. I particularly like Jane Rule's quiet asides on the lives of girls and women, for example a sense of debt girls experience in being told a boy loves them, or the wondering about how females have managed menstruation throughout the ages. Anyway, a thoroughly good absorbing read, very well written through dialogue and economy of description. Enjoy!
July 5, 2012
Jane Rule was a great teacher and story teller. Her books leave the readers entertained respectfully and taken to areas of life we some times don't give a second thought to unless we are judging someones life. I recommend you broaden yourselves by reading anything written by Jane Rule.
July 23, 2016
Three unlikely people interact in small coastal town.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews