Valencia is a great read, almost a stream of consciousness, told as if Tea were talking with you in one of her self-obsessed monologues. Even if your life, like mine, is in most ways utterly different from the one she describes, Tea draws you in so that you can completely identify with her, and get a vicarious thrill from her account of radical sex positive life in San Francisco. Each chapter is based around an event or a relationship; most of her writing is a mixture of frantic action — partying, sex, walking around the city — and worrying about her messed-up love life. Often her stories, giving all the disgusting or embarrassing details, make you laugh out loud. But there’s also a powerful strand of sadness and regret in each chapter, arising from the fragility of relationships, and a sense of the inevitability of ending up alone.

The book covers about a year or so in the life of Michelle, during which she falls in love with and has a passionate relationship with Iris, but then Iris starts to lose interest. Michelle is a charismatic narrator and her friends are also eccentric, crazy, and bursting with life. Although most of the characters are in their mid-twenties, they act more like teenagers given the freedom to do whatever they like. Most of them have moved to San Francisco from elsewhere, because of course the city is a safe haven for lesbians, at least compared to their home towns. They can kiss in public without worrying about people’s disapproval.

Nevertheless there are tensions, both between the lesbian community and the gay community, and also within the lesbian community. It’s striking how Michelle’s life is so free of earnest ideological debate — how different from all the feminist concerns about the political nature of the personal and the political correctness of the 1970s and 1980s. Of course there’s no guarantee that Tea’s account of modern lesbian life is true of all lesbians — and Tea certainly never makes any such claim. But it still suggests there’s been a shift in attitude, and towards a greater enthusiasm for exploring sexual and other personal boundaries, while retaining a strong political consciousness. Having said all that, the main reason I would recommend reading Valencia though is that it’s a fast, fun and gripping read that makes you care about its characters.

Categories: Fiction