The Cook and the Carpenter

by June Arnold

Women's liberation sought to transform every sector of U.S. society--its educational system, culture, language, politics, and, importantly, the delivery of social services. To enable this movement, women all over the country began to establish women's centers.
In New York City, women from almost every local women's liberation group took over an abandoned building in lower Manhattan on New Year's Eve, 1970. They named the building The Fifth Street Women's Building and renovated it to feed, clothe, shelter, and educate women in need. The take-over was a huge success, attracting hundreds of activists and community members. Thirteen days later, the New York City Tactical Police stormed the building, expelled the women, and ended the action. The City then tore the building down and built a parking lot on the site.
June Arnold was one of the original planners and an active participant in this episode. When she got out of jail, she went home and wrote this novel about what happened. The Cook and the Carpenter , which quickly gained fame for its use of a non- gendered language, remains one of the best representations of the time period that berthed modern feminism and paved the way for lesbian communities.

Genres: Fiction, LGBT, Lesbian

216 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1973

Reviews

[Nicolas Lontel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Intéressant, mais d'autres (après) semblent avoir fait mieux ou de manière plus intéressante. S'habituer aux pronoms m'a pris juste deux, trois pages (j'ai l'habitude) ce n'est vraiment pas ça le problème, mais on semblait vraiment plus présenter des thèses que de créer une narration qui entraînait son lectorat.

Le type d'organisation militante et les obstacles décris dans le récit sont toutefois vraiment très bien dépeints, on dirait vraiment des organisations que j'ai fréquenté de près ou de loin, voilà quelque chose qui n'a vraiment pas changé en quarante-cinquante ans malheureusement. Dommage que personne n'est capable de dealer avec nan-même, encore moins avec les autres ; on dirait que les personnages avaient genre 30-50 ans, mais avec les réflexions de jeunes de 16-24 ans ce qui m'énervait un peu.

[An nika · Rating 4 out of 5]

It does take a moment to adjust to the style of this book! Characters like the cook will tell metaphoric stories to another character and then say "do you know what I mean?" and then you'll have to wait another fifty pages for the other character's understanding of the message of the story to become clear, but I think that rings true for how one knows one's own feelings as abstract sometimes, and the communicating of them sometimes has to be an act of multiple translations... It's poetry!

I do think this an excellent historical pinpoint. While I was reading it I was thinking that I wanted to read it again in a year and see how I've changed. I recommend reading this book in the same year that you read The Faggots and Their Friends Between Revolutions.

It's easy to be disappointed with the 70s for taking actions that didn't stick, but it's also tempting to be inspired by a willingness to take action. An action can be beset with potential problems that will cause your ruin and you should still take it! That's how I feel about utopian building takeovers. Sometimes they work. Maybe I should have a trade skill like carpentry...

I want to talk about how this book talks about race: what are its insufficiencies? It felt a relief to have it talked about frankly, and disturbing how long it took for people to name Stubby's homophobia and racism and the disturbing part's of their presentation. The way they talk about race is a wholly different conversation from the one's we have today right now, where I feel that there's an unwillingness to talk about race honestly. I want to read Elite Capture next (Delena's reading it, and where is the line between appropriated identity politics and appropriate identity politics?)

It is a relief to read a good book again. And have a new thread of history to get into. Where can I find a copy of the ten minute documentary film???

[Erin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Historically important and informative? Sure. But nothing fucking happens and the writing style is straight up annoying and hard to understand what little IS going on.

[Yinzadi]

Read online here.

[Cathy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Honestly, I got bored and never finished it after picking it up and putting it down for months. It's intriguing in that it uses third gender pronouns for everyone and it's firmly rooted in left organizing of its time (1973)

[Emmi · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is like an artifact from the 70's days of lesbian feminism. Interesting, but also confusing, not because of the artifact thing, but because it's one of those books that vaguely alludes to what the characters mean or feel, and I have a hard time following that kind of thing.

[Catherine]

daughters inc.