Girls Will Be Girls: A Novella and Short Stories

by Lesléa Newman

The Babka Sisters Sit down, shah , you ready? You got your tin can going there, you want to make a test, make sure my voice is good, everything is working all right? OK, so now I'm gonna tell you a story, a story I never told nobody. Why I'm telling you, a stranger, I don't even know, but all right, eppes , it's time. Once upon a time, a long, long time ago, around the Stone Age it was, takeh , I was a young maidl , and quite a looker I was too. I know what you're thinking, you look at me now and what do you see? A fat old lady wrinkled like a prune danish with hair like cotton candy. But, nu , I had quite a shape in those days, my hair I wore in a braid down my back thick as a man's arm, my skin was smooth as a baby's tuchus . You don't believe me, but you wait, mamela . Gravity ain't got no favorites; it catches up to everyone, eppes , someday even you. So my childhood ain't nothing to talk about. An ordinary girl I was, I went to school, I came home, I helped my mother with the housework. Sure, five children she had, four boys and me, so who else is gonna help her? I had friends, too, boys and girls, no one special, there was a group of us that stuck together, to the movies we went, and to get a nosh at the diner, dancing once in a while, you know we did all the things young people do. And then, when I was 16, a new girl moved into the neighborhood, and that girl, I had such a feeling for, I just couldn't take my eyes from her. You know the expression "love at first sight," sure, who doesn't, well of course that's what it was, but what did I know, we was two girls; girls don't fall in love with girls, who ever heard of such a thing? I just knew I wanted to be her friend, help her out, you know, show her around. It could be overwhelming, such a place, to a person who first walks in and don't know from it, eppes, it takes a while to get used to, it was a very big school. Look, here's a picture of her, my Evie. You see, here we are both in the last row. That's our class picture from 11th grade, we was both tall girls; now I'm all stooped over like an old turtle, but back then my spine was straight as a Shabbos candle, from my

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Queer, Lesbian, Anthologies

328 pages, Paperback

First published January 15, 2000

About the author

Lesléa Newman (born 1955, Brooklyn, NY) is the author of over 50 books including Heather Has Two Mommies, A Letter To Harvey Milk, Writing From The Heart, In Every Laugh a Tear, The Femme Mystique, Still Life with Buddy, Fat Chance and Out of the Closet and Nothing to Wear.
She has received many literary awards including Poetry Fellowships from the Massachusetts Artists Fellowship Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, the Highlights for Children Fiction Writing Award, the James Baldwin Award for Cultural Achievement, and two Pushcart Prize Nominations.
Nine of her books have been Lambda Literary Award finalists.
Ms. Newman wrote Heather Has Two Mommies, the first children's book to portray lesbian families in a positive way, and has followed up this pioneering work with several more children's books on lesbian and gay families: Gloria Goes To Gay Pride, Belinda's Bouquet, Too Far Away to Touch, and Saturday Is Pattyday.
She is also the author of many books for adults that deal with lesbian identity, Jewish identity and the intersection and collision between the two. Other topics Ms. Newman explores include AIDS, eating disorders, butch/femme relationships and sexual abuse. Her award-winning short story, A Letter To Harvey Milk has been made into a film and adapted for the stage.
In addition to being an author, Ms. Newman is a popular guest lecturer, and has spoken on college campuses across the country including Harvard University, Yale University, the University of Oregon, Bryn Mawr College, Smith College and the University of Judaism. From 2005-2009, Lesléa was a faculty member of the Stonecoast MFA program at the University of Southern Maine. Currently, she is the Poet Laureate of Northampton, MA.

Reviews

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

the novella was good, but the short stories had baby fever 🤮

[Bella Britt · Rating 4 out of 5]

fun! fast-paced. very lesbian :p

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked a couple of the short stories, but so many of them blended in together and characters and situations just became blurred and forgettable. A lot of them just read like boring stereotypes.

The novella is one of the worst, most clichéd stories I have ever read, but I kept going in morbid fascination. The characters are dull, self-centered, and totally unlikable. Lesbians are either femme or butch, totally conventional and totally unbelievable. If I heard the butch character (supposedly so charming and masculine and handsome) say m'lady to the femme character one more time, I was going to vomit all over the pages. This read like fan fiction or just terribly amateur "romance". I can't believe I finished it. And the ending sucked.

[Rebecca]

Found in the farmhouse at summer camp and read in a rush. Totally fun take on 90s, New England, lesbian culture. Lots of butches and femmes and first gen lesbian moms. Great to read something outside of my normal ken. Also I have betrayal on the brain these days and it was an interesting take on girl-on-girl fidelity. Totally recommend. Especially if you are reading the farmhouse copy at Rowe.

[Tatiana · Rating 1 out of 5]

i need a negative star for this book. i thought i got rid of it ages ago. made me terrified of lesbian fiction because i thought all of it was this bad.

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

lesbian chick lit short stories. fast and easy read!