As pulpy as the stories may be, each presents women taking control of their lives and overcoming great odds to get what they want (usually a horse and a gal.) They become ambulance drivers, champion jockeys or professional trainers, doing it with nary a man or stallion to assist. You've got to jump a little hurdle to allow yourself to read sentences like, "Terry's heart beat in perfect rhythm with the pounding of Silk Stockings's hooves on the dirt track," but it's all tongue-in-cheek. Surkis and Molan pepper the pieces with wry historical mentions, slipping in appropriate mentions from the SCUM Manifesto, Rock Hudson and Barbara Stanwyck. Each is set in a different vintage locale-'60s East Village, '40s mobster race-track, '80s Florida-at a pivotal point in lesbian history, and each is a variation on this theme: a troubled young lass with a past and her talented filly arrive in a new place, find true love against the backdrop of a stable, reconcile the past while winning the derby/barreling competition/ posting show and then trot off into the sunset. The stories smack of dime-store novels they're short on descriptive reveries, heavy on campy plot and emotion.
It's kind of like Black Beauty for big girls. But the book can be loved for what it is-eight vintage stories of ladies, lust and the pretty ponies they love. The debut pulp-fiction collection from Alisa Surkis and Monica Nolan will not induce wet panties. Horses? Lesbians? Hot! Even the cover tag line-"When these Sapphic sisters saddle up, ecstasy is only a hoofbeat away!"-had me ready for some serious book-reading action. I have to admit, I thought (and hoped) The Big Book of Lesbian Horse Stories was a clever way of titling raunchy erotica.
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