Toothpick House

by Lee Lynch

Annie Heaphy, cab driving baby butch, lives a life of freedom in a shack on the Connecticut coast. Her dislike of Yalies and all they represent at first extends to beautiful, self-possessed Victoria Locke. Then they fall in love and both their worlds change forever. Toothpick House is their story, but it is also the story of the women's movement, the changes it brings to traditional lesbian lives, and the ways in which it affected all young women of the 1970s.

Genres: Lesbian, Fiction, Lesbian Fiction, Queer, LGBT, Romance, Butch Femme

256 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1983

About the author

Lee Lynch published her first lesbian fiction in “The Ladder” in the 1960s. Naiad Press issued Toothpick House, Old Dyke Tales, and more. Her novel The Swashbuckler was presented in NYC as a play scripted by Sarah Schulman. New Victoria Publishers brought out Rafferty Street, the last book of Lynch’s Morton River Valley Trilogy. Her backlist is becoming available in electronic format from Bold Strokes Books. Her newest novels are Beggar of Love and The Raid from Bold Strokes. Her recent short stories can be found in Romantic Interludes (Bold Strokes Books), Women In Uniform (Regal Crest) and at www.readtheselips.com. Her reviews and feature articles have appeared in such publications as “The San Francisco Chronicle,” “The Advocate” and “The Lambda Book Report.” Lynch’s syndicated column, “The Amazon Trail,” runs in venues such as boldstrokesbooks.com, justaboutwrite.com, “Letters From Camp Rehoboth,” and “On Top Magazine.”

Lee Lynch was honored by the Golden Crown Literary Society (GCLS) as the first recipient (for The Swashbuckler) and namesake of The Lee Lynch Classics Award, which will honor outstanding works in Lesbian Fiction published before awards and honors were given. She also is a recipient of the Alice B. Reader Award for Lesbian Fiction, the James Duggins Mid-Career Author Award, which honors LGBT mid-career novelists of extraordinary talent and service to the LGBT community, and was inducted into the Saints and Sinners Literary Hall of Fame. In 2010 Beggar of Love received the GCLS Ann Bannon Readers’ Choice Award and the ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Bronze Award in Gay/Lesbian Fiction. She has twice been nominated for Lambda Literary Awards and her novel Sweet Creek (Bold Strokes Books) was a GCLS award finalist.

She lives in rural Florida with her wife.

Reviews

[Tara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Toothpick House is Lee Lynch’s first book, and while it may not be quite as crisp as The Swashbuckler or as masterful as Rainbow Gap, it’s still beautifully written. There’s so much passion in it, whether between Annie and Victoria or the desire for change that sweeps them and their friends into the feminist movement, making it a difficult book to put down.

Full review: http://www.thelesbianreview.com/tooth...

[Kitty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lesbian classic! How lovely! I don't usually care for romance or slice of life, but what an amazing piece of dyke herstory. Living and breathing.

[Cher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Way too much yakking about the politicals of being lesbian, but Lynch is an excellent prose stylist.

[Ocean · Rating 4 out of 5]

a sweet queer love story that seems to have been lost to the ages. a little bit dated, obviously, as it was written 30-something years ago. but it still holds up. occasionally there's a little shimmering bit of truth tucked in there that just floors me. and judy grahn even makes a cameo!

[Sara Moric · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a fantastic piece of (fictional) history. I felt like I was a part of their story. It's sad to note that some issues of the lesbian community, like overconsumption of alcohol, persist today as well.

[Lea · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this and all of the other Lee Lynch books on my mom's book shelf when I was 10 years old. She was upset when she found out I had read them, but I had never had to ask before, and didn't really understand why she was upset. There is nothing too graphic in there, really (or maybe I blocked it out?) I loved these books.

[Cheri Crystal · Rating 5 out of 5]

You won't want to miss this book after you read my review in the Lambda Literary Foundation online Book Report at the following link

http://www.lambdaliterary.org/lesbian...

[Kay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely a first novel, but very enjoyable for its New Havenness and the lived-in depiction of the battle lines between women’s liberation and the bar dykes. Read it with my book club and some people learned about political lesbianism for the first time!

[E.K. · Rating 5 out of 5]

The neon orange and blue cover featuring two women making out was an insanely bold choice. I LOVED EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS BOOK. Someone said too much “yakking” about lesbian feminist politics but that’s exactly why I like it so much… def my favorite fictional book about lesbian life I’ve ever read!

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

A sweet lesbian romance with a happy ending~~~

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a lovely romance.