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Who Was That Masked Woman?
Tells the story of the coming-of-age and education of Tretona Getroek, an exuberant lesbian who questions the facts of life, sex, and religion in her small southern Illinois hometown
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First published July 1, 1981
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 2, 2023
DNF at 15% or so. Started to skim read it because I quickly got bored of her inane farm stories, weird religious upbringing and disgusting recounts of child masturbation and underage sex.
Really though, what the fuck is this book?
It's a very gross and weird story, it focuses a lot on the protagonist's upbringing which is written about in a very boring, vulgar and nonsensical way. She only talks about masturbation, then about her family's farm, then about religion, then about her horrible and abusive mother, then about having sex with boys and being attracted to both men and women. It was all very superfluous and the multiple scenes of hetero sex grossed me out. There was no point to anything in the story.
The author clearly is not a lesbian but bisexual, and if I read a book expecting to be able to empathize with the protagonist's sexuality, then I'm going to get grossed out when she starts to talk about her attraction to men and about how much she liked to touch dicks. For 0€, say bi. Really, I can't emphasize enough how easy it is to just not have consensual sex with boys when you're a lesbian. I went into this book expecting to find a story written by an actual lesbian, but this just wasn't it. The author wrote another book criticizing second wave feminism, but clearly she didn't have a problem with the polilez aspect of it.
I also don't know why the book had to start with the author telling us the ways in which she masturbated as a child. I couldn't care less. I am normally all for authors talking about intimate issues in whichever ways they like, but some things I just don't want to know about.
There was also pedophilia, because at one point the protagonist (who was 13 or 14 at the time) sleeps with an adult woman. That was the last straw for me, and I stopped reading altogether shortly after.
I'm sick of wanting to read lesbian autobiographies and finding gross, homophobic shit like this instead. I truly don't know what was going through the author's head when she wrote this. The only good thing is that after reading this, the next book I grab will surely seem way better in comparison.
Really though, what the fuck is this book?
It's a very gross and weird story, it focuses a lot on the protagonist's upbringing which is written about in a very boring, vulgar and nonsensical way. She only talks about masturbation, then about her family's farm, then about religion, then about her horrible and abusive mother, then about having sex with boys and being attracted to both men and women. It was all very superfluous and the multiple scenes of hetero sex grossed me out. There was no point to anything in the story.
The author clearly is not a lesbian but bisexual, and if I read a book expecting to be able to empathize with the protagonist's sexuality, then I'm going to get grossed out when she starts to talk about her attraction to men and about how much she liked to touch dicks. For 0€, say bi. Really, I can't emphasize enough how easy it is to just not have consensual sex with boys when you're a lesbian. I went into this book expecting to find a story written by an actual lesbian, but this just wasn't it. The author wrote another book criticizing second wave feminism, but clearly she didn't have a problem with the polilez aspect of it.
I also don't know why the book had to start with the author telling us the ways in which she masturbated as a child. I couldn't care less. I am normally all for authors talking about intimate issues in whichever ways they like, but some things I just don't want to know about.
There was also pedophilia, because at one point the protagonist (who was 13 or 14 at the time) sleeps with an adult woman. That was the last straw for me, and I stopped reading altogether shortly after.
I'm sick of wanting to read lesbian autobiographies and finding gross, homophobic shit like this instead. I truly don't know what was going through the author's head when she wrote this. The only good thing is that after reading this, the next book I grab will surely seem way better in comparison.
March 6, 2024
DNF- got halfway through and was still bored out of my skull.
April 14, 2008
I read this a million years ago and remember it as kind of a funny send up of academic/political extremism.
August 12, 2023
I feel so iffy about this book and the author’s intentions/language but the character was interesting to follow
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews