I wanted to write this because even though I’m a lesbian that loves to read, it is always hella difficult for me to find lesbian literature that I actually enjoy and relate to. I have read a great deal of LGBT stuff, and I rarely find things that are thought-provoking or emotionally moving. A lot of it personally seems a bit immature and unconvincing. The following titles were written with more of an articulate voice, where the plot and story revolves around serious and intelligent themes alongside the explicit lesbian content. All of them are by Japanese writers, coincidentally, because I’m an enormous weeb
(I hope someone reads one of these I love them I love reviewin books)
Spinning Tropics by Aska Mochizuki - The protagonist Hiro is a teacher abroad in Thailand where she teaches Japanese to Thai people who could potentially earn sponsorship to work in Japan from her company. She meets a woman named Dung, a younger yet outgoing student of hers, and they are instantly attracted to each other. With the introduction of Konno, a Japanese businessman, jealousy and resentment destroy the threesome with a climactic yet inconclusive ending. The novel is vivid in its portrayal of a scorchingly hot yet exotic Thailand; a setting perfect for Hiro’s isolated foreign romance.
Beauty and Sadness by Yasunari Kawabata - Kawabata’s engrossing storytelling draws the reader into a conflict between two ex-lovers that spans 20 years. A young woman who is heartbroken by an older man grows up to become a recluse painter in a Buddhist temple, accompanied by her young, loyal, yet disturbingly beautiful lover/apprentice, Keiko. When the older, married man reaches an elderly age, he arrives at the painter’s door, asking for forgiveness for the past. Once Keiko learns of the old man’s unforgivable wrongdoings to her master, love and obsession leads her to using her entrancing beauty to exact her teacher’s revenge. Kawabata teaches the reader about the unescapable past, vengeance and poisonous attraction. (Keiko’s extremely feminine and youthful beauty being used against men for her lesbian lover is a rare subject not usually explored in lesbian fiction).
Quicksand (卍 Manji) by Junichiro Tanizaki - This novel is a bit like Beauty and Sadness and Spinning Tropics put together. It follows a Japanese housewife Sonoko that takes up drawing lessons at the local annex in her small town. There, she meets and befriends Mitsuko, a nude model. Even after many red flags about Mitsuko’s manipulative ways, Setsuko continues to allow their relationship to escalate into a passionate affair that soon involves her own husband as well. Sonoko’s life is engulfed by her unconditional infatuation with the young girl as the illicit love affair has her aristocratic title and lifestyle take a nose-dive. Mitsuko’s psychotically vain and self-centered ways end up being the suicidal downfall of everyone around her.
Real World by Natsuo Kirino - Kirino is one of my favorite Japanese writers. Her brutally honest yet cruel voice sheds a new light on the evil underbelly of Japanese culture. Her other (heterosexual) works Out and Grotesque also focus on gritty heinous crime in Tokyo, sometimes highlighting on the clash between Japanese standards of beauty that is enamored by the West. Real World centers around four schoolgirls caught up in a police chase of a creepy neighbor boy after he has murdered his mother. Though her plot is secondary to the crime, one of the four schoolgirl protagonists is a closeted lesbian who struggles with her identity in Japanese society while searching for her place among the Tokyo LGBT scene.
If y’all find some stuff that sounds similar, please recommend it to me!!!!