Entertaining, but obviously by a very young writer

books:

	• Girl Walking Backwards Bett Williams St. Martin's Griffin, 1998 - 256 pages average customer review:based on 31 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Interesting and depressing story

I thought the book was very well-done, descriptive and easy to read. I found myself glued to the story, not wanting it to end. I also think it was true to life in many ways, and the author caught the pain and confusion of someone trapped in their own head. I recommend it!!

Nothing to criticize!

Bett Williams' debut novel features a strong, self-directed and affable young lesbian, Skye, whose compelling and curious mind absorbs readers almost instantly. Williams draws on the adolescent palette of raw emotion and yearning with an uncanny skill; at times, Skye amazed me (how many high school lesbians are comfortable enough with their sexuality to come out to a classroom full of peers?) and at times she embarrassed me, but the characterization never falters, and I never lost my easy familiarity with her. The dialogue and characters are appealing and tragically real. Skye's attraction to individuals who act out their inner turmoil by wearing their pain on the surface--literally--really brought back what it's like to be in high school. Skye's discovery that her deeper desire, for simple beauty and stability, is the real journey in this novel, and is revealed with the skill of a truly talented writer.

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fantastic, well controlled writing

Most coming of age stories are huge yawns. In GWB right when you think you have the plot nailed the author redirects you, along with your assumptions. And the surprise drives the plot deeper into you. I might be way more attached to this book because I live in Santa Barbara but I think it is not a book rooted to its setting. I found the prose powerful enough that I didn't want to put the book down but I also didn't want it to end. The characters are developed and at first hit me as being way too mature for their supposed ages but maybe I have been living inside too long. I have to say Williams' writing shines in this book. She writes precise but loose and flowing, it rings with wonderful imagery, insights and postmodern poetic language. The biggest compliment I can give about this book is the range of emotions I felt reading it: anxious, annoyed, strengthened, made compassionate, defiant, liberated. It had an enormous palette of emotions which Williams handles deftly, without degrading into gross sentimentality and hedonistic suffereing that so often coming of age novels have to rely on to make up for the author's lack of skill and self esteem. The angst is genuine and not empty and at all like "Our Noise", or most other psuedo gen-x baloney. Read it. Buy it for your daughters, give it to your mom.

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Wonderfully NOT lesbian fiction..

Fortunately I found this book when I wasn't looking in the gay/lesbian fiction section of the bookstore. What a relief to read a book with a gay character that doesn't hang the plot on the sole fact that the character is into his or her same sex, and instead makes the characters lifelike and interesting to keep your attention. It's full of interesting hooks that kept me reading right through my classes. Reminiscent of "Catcher In The Rye," with the whole disillusioned teen deal, only I found "Girl Walking Backwards" to be much more interesting. I walked away feeling like a more learned person. Unfortunately, I have to admit that parts of the book reminded me too much of the movie "Fox Fire" for comfort. Definately worth reading.

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Entertaining, but obviously by a very young writer

I enjoyed this novel a great deal. It was entertaining and engrossing, sometimes erotic. As a teenager myself (16) I can relate less to the turbulant sex-and-drug-drenched world the author depicts, and more to her style of writing. Bett Williams is obviously an extremely talented writer (some selections of her prose are astoundingly poignant) but she also shares the self-absorbed dramatization of everything in her writing that is characteristic of youth. Each "gothic" character was depicted as achingly beautiful, each description of each outfit and eyeliner described as if it were art in it's highest form, each syllable uttered by each character took on almost too much meaning. While suitable for perhaps the description of Jessica because the main character is so obsessed with her, it becomes almost tiring to keep reading about these 'profoundly' beautiful people. And cynic that I am, I never imagine them in my head as quite as beautiful or romantic as Williams probably would like me to; instead I imagine that they like to think of themselves in such a way. The book gets better farther along, and I was surprised to find a great deal of depth in Skye by the end. (Who's very name smacks of a teenager's main character) However, with mention of Doc Martins and goths, it will not be long before this book will become extremely dated and almost cringely-embarrassing to read. (it's never fun to read how self-important we are in our youth) However, read it. It's enjoyable and entertaining, and although it doesn't reach the level of depth I think it strove for, I am positive that Bett Williams is capable of such a novel in the future.

-Liz

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, page 6, 7

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