shippychaos reviewed Curious Wine by Katherine V. Forrest
Review of 'Curious Wine' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
cw: rape, era consistent casual homophobia
When I first read this lesfic classic, the only other two “lesbian” books I was aware of were Rubyfruit Jungle and Annie On My Mind, but neither of those books stirred my babygay FEELINGS like Curious Wine did at that time.
Back then, Diana and Lane’s story was a true romance on paper when I had never seen anything like it modeled for me in life or in fiction before. I was totally enraptured and perceived no flaws.
Reading it again in 2022 was like reading a different story from what lingered in my rosy nostalgic memories. The romance seemed natural enough but the dialogue structure gave the whole story a stilted cadence that made it incredibly difficult to read aloud (my partner had never read it so we decided to read it together). And the use of rape as a character motivation was …
cw: rape, era consistent casual homophobia
When I first read this lesfic classic, the only other two “lesbian” books I was aware of were Rubyfruit Jungle and Annie On My Mind, but neither of those books stirred my babygay FEELINGS like Curious Wine did at that time.
Back then, Diana and Lane’s story was a true romance on paper when I had never seen anything like it modeled for me in life or in fiction before. I was totally enraptured and perceived no flaws.
Reading it again in 2022 was like reading a different story from what lingered in my rosy nostalgic memories. The romance seemed natural enough but the dialogue structure gave the whole story a stilted cadence that made it incredibly difficult to read aloud (my partner had never read it so we decided to read it together). And the use of rape as a character motivation was absolutely intolerable to me as a present-day reader.
This book will still hold a place of importance for me, historically, but I will likely not read it again. I believe there are other “lesfic classics” that have better stood up to the test of time.