A novel about lesbian love and growing up in San Franciso in the 50s? I don’t know about you but that’s exactly what I needed for fall evenings.
Last Night at the Telegraph Club follows Lily Hu, a Chinese girl living in Chinatown, struggling to meet the expectations of her parents while she figures out her sexual orientation. The expectations of Lily’s loved ones collide not only with her vision of the future but also the reality of a new life in the USA.
However, it’s not a cloying story, although it’s often labeled as young adult. There are personal dramas – both Lily’s and her parents’, who are faced with the vision of being departed – and so much history in the background. You can feel the atmosphere of lesbian bars when being openly a non-heteronormative person came with huge danger and we’re talking about a city that is now associated with acceptance.
Take from this book what you need right now: less-known historic threads, stories about a friendship that evolved into love, the feel of the queer Chinatown in the 50s or well-thought narration. For me personally, this is a book about the importance of representation – Lily couldn’t see any lesbians around her or even more so, any women of Chinese-origin dating women. And about the fact that what makes us happy is so close, although we sometimes don’t want to see it.
