Lovely evocation of sapphic life in 1940s San Francisco with a little twist at the end that is a delight of queer affirmation. ( )

Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I bought a copy of this book from my Kindle.

Thoughts: I ended up enjoying this although I would put this more in the category of magical realism than outright historical fantasy. There's very little magic in here and it's very subtle. This is more of a story of a group of women trying to survive San Francisco in the 1940's. It reminded me a lot of Malinda Lo's "Last Night at the Telegraph Club"; which was written after this book.

This book follows a group of women who are all part of the GLBTQ community in one way or another and are trying to make independent livings for themselves in San Fran in the 40's. All these women are somehow involved in arts and entertainment (singers, dancers, artists, writers). The story ends up focusing on a female painter and the female male impersonater singer she falls in love with.

It's an intriguing look into that era and I enjoyed watching how these women supported themselves. There is very much an attitude of doing what you have to do to make a living. The artist is amazing but she makes a living doing the covers of pulp fiction, and while she doesn't love it, it's steady work. Same with Helen, who is a lawyer but can't get very many clients because she's a woman, so she works as a dancer in clubs. These women are tough, work hard, and admirable.

There is some subtle magic here. One of the women can fold paper in Oragami fashion to make short cuts and another knows how to paint people into other places. Things come to a climax when one of the woman's husbands (who's been absent for many years) returns and is incredibly violent with his wife when she demands a divorce. This circle of women quickly join to help her take care of the situation.

This was well written and easy to read. The characters are easy to relate to and I enjoyed learning about the era. The magic included here is elegant and subtle and works well with the rest of the story. I would definitely consider picking up some more books by Klages in the future.

My Summary (4/5): Overall I enjoyed this, it's a quick and well done story about women trying to survive on their own in 1940's San Fran. This is well written and I enjoyed the characters and the settings and how the story was pieced together. The focus is less on magic and more on women supporting each other through their differences to survive all the change that is happening in San Fran at this time. I would recommend it if this sounds interesting to you. ( )

Passing Strange is the first book by Ellen Klages that I have read. By the looks of her extensive list of published works, and her Nebula award winning status, it should not have been the first time I was introduced to her stories. Passing Strange wrangled me in from the very first sentence and the time shifting story line is expertly done.

Starting in the present day, the majority of the story then shifts back to 1940, exploring the relationships between 6 intriguing women, who, despite having a shortened amount of time to leap off the page, still manage to make strong impressions on the reader. Klages flawlessly weaves the women’s stories into one, sweeping story of discovering for who you are, and who your real family is.

The two primary figures, Haskel, the artist, and Emily, the performer, are the heart and soul of the group, despite not being familiar with each other at the start of their story, and the rest of the women quickly come together to support them when the going gets tough. While a shorter novel, a novella, theoretically seems like it would be easier to write, I find it is often harder – there is less time and space to convince the reader that the story you, as an author are telling, should stick with them – and so any time it is done particularly well, I appreciate it even more. ( )

The back of the book says this is the story of six women, but in reality only three of them are very prominent. The story begins at the end: Helen Young has received bad news from her doctor and knows she doesn't have long. It's time for her to keep a promise she made decades ago, so she retrieves a very special pastel painting from its hiding spot and prepares to sell it.

The story jumps back in time to San Francisco in 1940. Loretta Haskel is an artist who paints pulp magazine covers in order to pay her bills. She's married, but her husband left ages ago and she's perfectly happy without him. She found her place in the city's LGBT community and a circle of supportive friends (which includes Helen, who's also her lawyer).

One evening Helen and Haskel go to Mona's, a lesbian bar, and Haskel finds herself entranced by a singer called "Spike"...who happens to be a young woman she recently met, named Emily. Emily is in need of a place to stay, and Haskel has room.

The beginning of their relationship is the focus of much of this novella, and readers gradually learn how Haskel's final painting came to be, and why Helen kept it safe for decades only to sell it to a man she found distasteful.

This is one of those cases where I fell in love with the cover before anything else. The first part of this novella, set in the present, intrigued me, as did Franny's little display of magic at the start of the flashback. I admit, I expected (and would have preferred) there to be more fantasy in this. Instead, it turned out to primarily be historical fiction.

Which wasn't necessarily a bad thing. I'm not very familiar with lesbian history in general, much less what it was like in San Francisco in 1940, so I learned a few things. I had no idea about the three-garment rule, for example. And Helen's experiences as an Asian American added another layer - although she was a lawyer, being Asian American limited her job opportunities, so she helped pay her bills with dancing. Although, based on some of the wording in the first part of the story, it sounded like Helen eventually got to focus on law more - I recall a bit mentioning she'd been a judge.

While watching things develop between Haskel and Emily was nice, and the author's depiction of lesbian artist/entertainer life in 1940 San Francisco was fascinating (art lovers may enjoy Diego Rivera's cameo and Frida Kahlo's brief mentions), I did start to wonder where things were going. Then things fell dramatically apart. I had a guess as to how Klages was going to bring Haskel's final painting in, and, surprisingly, I turned out to be correct.

Overall, I found the ending to be both neat and satisfying, as long as I didn't think too much about how Haskel and Emily had really only just met.

Kudos to Tor (and the cover artist, Gregory Machess) for pairing this novella up with absolutely perfect cover art.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) ( )

A dreamy, stand alone, slightly magic novella set deeply in queer San Francisco in the 40's and it turns out to be a TOR novella -- go figure. No wonder I loved it to its very bones. Ellen Klages takes us on a trip in time, and brings us to an irreverent, funny, vital lesbian circle of women who are finding ways to remain fiercely themselves despite the horrifying local laws governing their dress, their property, their rights as women and minorities. In addition, there's a little bit of magic, a little bit of satisfying revenge, some wish fulfillment and characters worth their salt. Delightful. ( )