Outlander — Jane Rule

Fiction and nonfiction form compelling counterpoints in this powerful look at love and lesbianism

The stories and essays in this anthology depict homosexuality in all its variegated forms.

In “Home Movie,” Alysoun Carr, a clarinetist with the San Francisco Symphony, learns about overcoming fear from a woman named Constantina. “In the Attic of the House” depicts sixty-five-year-old Alice, who rents rooms to younger gay women who have no inkling of Alice's tragic lesbian past. “Outlander” is about a widowed alcoholic trying to stay sober through a war that will take her son and, possibly, her longtime lover. “Sexuality in Literature” is a lively essay about everything from the homophobia that exists in all of us to the new words that need to be invented for female sexuality.