Last Night at the Telegraph Club

ok i’ve had my little cry, time to write all my thoughts at 1am after binging the last half in one sitting

if [b:Rubyfruit Jungle|165395|Rubyfruit Jungle|Rita Mae Brown|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1172341177l/165395._SY75_.jpg|3017660], [b:Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit|15055|Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit|Jeanette Winterson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1267717580l/15055._SY75_.jpg|1411520], [b:Tipping the Velvet|25104465|Tipping the Velvet|Sarah Waters|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1425892206l/25104465._SY75_.jpg|1013794], etc. are Your Genre, here's something in that same vein for you, especially if you're itching for an own-voices chinese-american protagonist. but this most reminded me of spending time in [b:Tell the Wolves I'm Home|12875258|Tell the Wolves I'm Home|Carol Rifka Brunt|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1335450415l/12875258._SY75_.jpg|18028067]. on its face, i guess it also has a lot in common with CMBYN (gay coming-of-age romance in a Setting) or, like, evelyn hugo (lesbian couple in red scare america) but they're really not similar reads.

the good: beautiful, clean prose that goes down fast and easy. tight snack-sized chapters, just enough of a dopamine hit to make you think

one more and then i'll stop on every page break. lush food descriptions. san francisco in all its san francisconess. the thick fug of first love, matching in atmosphere and time period to

dirty dancing. (to me, at least, for some reason, but i probably have dirty dancing brainrot. regardless, i’ve had

cry to me stuck in my head for days.) lesbain coming-of-age story that feels true in even the tiniest details; painfully vicarious descriptions of erotic shame. A BUTCH LOVE INTEREST!!! finally, i can live the teenage dream that i was too busy passing out from insomnia to have. and, of course, the telegraph club.

the bad: 1) the weird disjointed flashbacks that didn’t do much but disrupt the flow of the novel, 2) the odd heavy-handed metaphor--like, heavy-handed as in the kind you use to teach high school freshman baby’s first critical reading skills, and 3)

the

fucking ending!!! i’m not one of those people that’s unilaterally opposed to epilogues, but i’m considering becoming one.

i consume my fair share of both stark, tragic queer media and feel-good sexuality-blind sapphic cartoons alike, i’m well-rounded, but this felt so…dissatisfyingly bleak. like, okay: hamlet ends the worst possible way, but it’s the only ending that could feed you. i didn’t feel fed by this ending.

to be fair, nobody dies. no bury your gays. nobody sleeps on the streets for the rest of their existence, nobody gets addicted to anything, it’s pre-HIV/AIDS. i knew we weren’t going to get a perfect, happy, 2022,

love, simon ending, and i didn’t want it, god no, but it’s the wrong genus of bittersweet. i knew that

last night was about a young chinese-american lesbian living under mcarthyism. i didn’t expect the family and community to rally around her and hang rainbow flags and flip san fran into the pride parade we know and love today. nor did i want that to happen. i thought it would end with everything shit—our young lovers disowned, no money or possessions, no diploma, futures as pilots and NASA mathematicians wiped—but that they would still be together. i did not anticipate the detente of a one year later. i understand the quiet tragedy and even historical realism of a forced separation without a goodbye, but i don't feel it was properly set up or executed.

i also thought that we would get some more time for resolution of other plot points—shirley, her dad’s papers, the out of place bits about her dad’s and aunt’s ptsd, the end of high school, etc. it felt like the ending was less deliberate than the rest of the novel, like the author was running up to the character limit. i won't write the whole novel off for it's last 10%, obviously, but it does spin a sour retrospective that the rube-goldberg i had spent the entire novel in giddy anticipation of never got switched on.

the ugly: okay i was reading this ok ebook and i somehow skipped forward from the 40% mark to the 70% mark without realizing, and i didn’t realize until i was three chapters in. sigh. can’t believe i did that.

Lovely and meaningful story about self-discovery and defying society’s expectations that celebrates LGBTQ identities, especially lesbians 🏳️‍🌈. Loved it.

Excellent f/f romance set in the mid-century. Will be a particular hit with American readers and especially those from San Francisco. Just the sort of coming of age story I love.

****3.5***

I picked up this book because

1) The Title was catchy.

2) The Cover was amazing.

3) This book fits for one of my yearly challenge.

Lily Hu is a American-Chinese girl in 1950’s living in San Francisco Chinatown. A very turbulent time for Chinese people in America as American government suspecting every Chinese to be a Communist. Lily is a very ambitious girl with a good head on her neck. She is studious and not interested in boys, marriage or kids. Lily has a dream of working for space. Soon Lily is drawn to another girl Kath in school who shares similar interests as herself. And romance blooms between them which is all new to Lily. Kath introduces Lily to Telegraph club, a bar where people like them can be themselves while world outside is not at all friendly towards the homosexuals. The story twists and turns after a raid at the Telegraph Club and Lily’s life turns upside down.

A very well researched book but the thing that fascinated me was effortless writing. I was into the story from the first line. Just slipped in. I liked the characters but I feel Kath’s character was a bit dreamlike, nothing concrete, just floating kind. I would have liked more of Kath and her emotions.

The plot was slow almost till 70% of the book nothing major happens. And after 70% there is a massive overflow of emotions, drama etc.

It was a very enjoyable read if I overlook the slow paced execution. A really easy to get in romance story.

Happy Reading!!

A beautiful historical sapphic romance. I loved it so much but it did make me very sad because I know my mother would react the same way and I hate her for it.