Side by Side

by Isabel Miller

By the author of Patience and Sarah...a long-awaited novel. Lesbian lovers in New York City during the time of Stonewall.

Genres: Lesbian, Fiction, LGBT, Queer, Lesbian Fiction

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Isabel Miller was the pen name of Alma Routsong, an American novelist best known for her lesbian fiction. She graduated from Michigan State University in 1949 with a degree in art. Her first two novels (A Gradual Joy and Round Shape) were published under her own name, with the later works under the pen name Isabel Miller — a combination of an anagram of “Lesbia” and her mother’s maiden name.

In 1969, Isabel Miller published her best known book, A Place for Us, printed in an edition of 1,000 copies paid for and sold by the author. With this title, based on a true story of a 19th-century couple from New York state, Miller began her career as lesbian novelist. In 1971, the novel won the first annual Gay Book Award of the American Library Association. Under its later title, Patience and Sarah, Miller’s novel became one of the most cherished lesbian love story of all time.

Isabel Miller died in Poughkeepsie, New York on October 4, 1996, shortly before her last novel (Laurel) was published.

Reviews

[Michelle Campbell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the book Patience and Sarah I fell in love with Isabel Miller's story telling. After I read For the Love of a Good Woman I thought it was fluke that I liked the first. Side by Side lived up to Patience and Sarah. The love story was told with the same honesty and ease I enjoyed from Patience and Sarah. It was just a love story and nothing more.

[Priyanka · Rating 3 out of 5]

sexuality is the force behind this specific tone of celebration. If this book is about anything it is about celebration, its not about the character, depth, conflicts, disagreements, its about celebration. The conflicts, disagreements are in relation to the events happening outside oneself, but those events are not extension of one's own ramification. The conflicts are not within, its without. This book is not about getting to know two persons who are happened to be lesbians, this is about the survival of sexuality based identity. Its a fight against pessimism, which undoubtedly force to shy away from identity based livings. Do they, Patricia and Sharon, needed to live off their identities, no, but they demanded the assertion because the insatiable desire for celebration could no way be suppressed. If one steps into it to truly know the characters as a modality to know oneself, one may come to other-side without the physical touch of flesh and bones. One may feel a hollow passage that runs through and between the characters. Its not about channeling through the passage, its about ability to imagine the grass is greener where one wants to be at and celebrate the strength of that imagination, almost without casting any doubt.

[Ronan Doyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hits a stride once it allows its characters to be swept up in the tides of history, trading on fine establishing chapters to add an emotional weight to the late-60s setting. Particularly good on lesbian sisterhood and intergenerational tensions; the quiet, unresolved disputes at its heart continue to chime.

[Helen Natasha Moore · Rating 4 out of 5]

Published in 1990 and set in the 1960s and early 1970s, this is a wonderful lesbian history lesson, which also skirts around the Stonewall Riots. I loved the classic Patience and Sarah, which I read in 1988 on leaving school. This lesser-known lesbian romance of Miller's didn't disappoint.

[Subilia · Rating 3 out of 5]

2,5/5 probably would’ve loved this if I was a closeted lesbian in the late 80s !

[Stacy Parrish · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was really my first lesbian novel that I have ever read. Miller is such a beautiful writer. I found this love story to be told so honestly...It will bring many back to their first love.

[Alison Kagen]

Heart warming!

[Marks House]

2 copies

[Gina Barnett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hitting her stride with this writing