Murky Tale of a Super Minority: The Gilda Stories

When I read a review of Jewelle Gomez's The Gilda Stories, I had great hopes for it.  Where else have you ever encountered a black, feminist, female, lesbian vampire?  Where else have these adjectives come together into a story of meaningful interactions between immortal beings?  Please, give me some other examples.  I was under the impression (based on this dubious review) that this book was a well hidden gem of a novel, obscured from public view by more "popular" vampire tales, like Twilight.  Ha!

The Gilda Stories is not a bad book.  I have read much worse books.  However, I would not recommend this book to anyone.  The entire first chapter refers to the protagonist as the Girl.  Capital "G".  (Personally, I think a capital in this sense is a tired literary technique of drawing attention to a character.  But the entire chapter is about the Girl... so why force the reader to be shocked by the word Girl so often... totally unnecessary and, frankly, ungrammatical.)  The writing in the first chapter is also aggravatingly murky.  I had to reread paragraphs.  Now, I know in some instances rereading is necessary, like when you are reading philosophy.  Rereading paragraphs in a novel should not happen unless you are rereading the entire novel.  I just couldn't get what Gomez was trying to say the first time.  Yeah, I remember thinking during the first chapter that I might not make it.

So, the girl, or pardon, the Girl is a run away slave in 1850 who gets adopted by lesbian vampires (vampires seem to be capable of playing for any team they feel like).  The one vampire is called Gilda... but then goes to true death, so the Girl becomes Gilda (thank god).  There are something like 8 chapters, and they are all pretty long. (And you know how I feel about long chapters.)  But each one is set in a different age and place. (Because vampires are immortal, ya dig?)  So, we get to see American history develop through Gilda's eyes.  It's vaguely interesting.  And her interactions with other vampires are vaguely interesting.  And the writing was decidedly less murky after the "Girl" nonsense was over.  And there was a bit in the middle where they were trying to trap a rogue vampire named Fox that was truly entertaining.

But mostly it was exhausting.  Every chapter was in a different time, a different place, Gilda would have a different profession (hair dresser, brothel owner, jazz singer, author, etc).  And you would have to read several pages to know where her friends and lovers were and whether they were okay or not.  It's a lot of work for the reader.  A lot of thinking.  Puzzling.  Not quite understanding this particular version of vampire mythology.  There was a nice part of it.  The good vampires were able to leave some thing with their victims in return for the gift of blood, like a good feeling, good dreams, help with decisions, a mental push in the right direction.    It was a nice sentiment.

After the chapter where Gilda was a world famous writer, the writing, (ironically?) started to go downhill again.  Plus, the dates started to plunge into the future, 2020, 2050... yeah, it got a little ridiculous.  You could tell Gomez was trying to tie the book up nice.  She mostly managed to tie it up oddly.  Suddenly, there's Hunters (again with the caps, gah!) who trap vampires and use their blood to make rich greedy people live forever.  And the world has been ruined, people are moving Off-world.  She escapes the Hunters and moves to South America.  It's real cute.  They vampires will save the world.  Whoop-ti-do.

Like I said, it wasn't a bad book, but the same concept could have been done a lot better.  The black, feminist, female, lesbian vampire needs another chance, far away from an author who is trying to be profound.  And the sex scenes weren't even that good.  And while I still would have rather read this than Twilight, I think I would at least have a handle on what was going on in Twilight.  This is what I get for believing books reviews written by random bloggers... hmmm. =)

So long and thanks for all the fish!