Donnelly, Nisa. The Bar Stories: A Novel After All. St. Martin's. Apr. 1989.
c.256p. ISBN 0-312-02544-0. $16.95
[FICTION]
Donnelly's first novel reprises the lives and loves of the lesbian women who frequent
Babe's, a women's bar in the Bay Area. Skillfully woven into a myriad of characters and
plots are the stories of bar owner Babe Daniels, and her longtime lover Sharon, and
lesbian daughter Tara. Kate, who hopes to capture the elusive and hidden "lesbian
nation" on film; the lonely Rose; and exotic dancer Luna are but a few of the
intriguing women presented here. Their joys, fears, hopes, and desperation are effectively captured in Donnelly's dry, Raymond Chandleresque style: "Babe raps a Lucky--no
filter thank you--against the bar, torches it, and settles back to survey her domain. She
likes what she sees, and all of it--from the vinyl bar stools cracked like lipstick at
3:00A.M. to the very last bottle of Southern Comfort--is hers." Alternately humorous,
sad, gruesome, and poignant, this fine first novel is a welcome addition to libraries with
established gay and lesbian fiction collections.
Kevin M. Roddy, Oakland Public Library, California