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reviews_and_ramblings
The Girls of Usually by Lori HorvitzLesbian Biography / Memoir
Series: Contemporary Nonfiction
Paperback: 248 pages
Publisher: Truman State University Press (January 12, 2015)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1612481361
ISBN-13: 978-1612481364
Amazon: The Girls of Usually
Amazon Kindle: The Girls of Usually
Lori Horvitz grew up ashamed of her Eastern European Jewish roots, confused about her sexuality, and idolizing the "shiksa in her living room," a blonde all-American girl whose photo came in a double frame and was displayed next to a family photo from a bar mitzvah. Unable to join the "happy blonde families," she becomes a "hippie chick" who travels the world in search of … something. "The Girls of Usually" chronicles each trip, each romance, each experiment in reinventing herself that draws her closer to discovering the secret door through which she can escape from deep-rooted patterns and accept her own cultural, ethnic, and sexual identity.
Horvitz's writing is very good and her memoir is quite vivid and interesting. I appreciated her honesty in discussing various relationship issues. What didn't work as well for me was the ending, which felt a bit like she might have intended to write something different but changed her mind. Overall though, a good book which deserves to be in the upper tiers of this category.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book from Lori Horvitz. Her writing is tight and clever, her scenes are vivid, and her prose was a pleasure to read. She is a very skilled writer and I look forward to reading more of her work. Unlike so many books I read, not once did I find myself skimming pages or even paragraphs out of boredom. Her writing was solid and focused, and I very much enjoyed it.
