Valencia

Rating:
Summary: Kerouac's On The Road for the Lesbian Community...
Review: Admittedly, being a heterosexual male, I had a difficult time trying to relate to this book. My first instinct was to put it down after reading a few short pages. However, forcing myself to muddle through anecdote after pointless anecdote, I found that the book was less of a glimpse into the world of seemingly lazy and unfocused twenty-something lesbians, but more of a journal of the pursuit of love and happiness. Once you get passed the character descriptions, which I found too far-fetched to be believable, you find a beating heart trying to find happiness in one woman's arms. Getting passed anecdotes of: women who lived off disability money because they convinced the government that they were incapable of working with men; breaking and entering into an office to smoke and print magazines; scoring new drugs to stay up all night; and ... in public bathrooms or alleyways was certainly difficult. But page after page offered new insight into the underground world of [lesbians]

After all is said and done, this book reads much like Kerouac's On The Road for the Lesbian Community. It's a road map of how one lesbian should live their lives. It's a way for Lesbians to claim they've done nothing with their lives until they've experienced the adventures Tea has gone through. If you're gay, straight, transgendered, lesbian, or whatever, this book is a mediocre read that seems to have no point. If you don't dig deep beyond the superficial layers, you may miss the fact this is really a story about love. I place it just below the middle at 2.5 stars (there was no half-star option!)

Rating:
Summary: Kerouac's On The Road for the Lesbian Community...
Review: Admittedly, being a heterosexual male, I had a difficult time trying to relate to this book. My first instinct was to put it down after reading a few short pages. However, forcing myself to muddle through anecdote after pointless anecdote, I found that the book was less of a glimpse into the world of seemingly lazy and unfocused twenty-something lesbians, but more of a journal of the pursuit of love and happiness. Once you get passed the character descriptions, which I found too far-fetched to be believable, you find a beating heart trying to find happiness in one woman's arms. Getting passed anecdotes of: women who lived off disability money because they convinced the government that they were incapable of working with men; breaking and entering into an office to smoke and print magazines; scoring new drugs to stay up all night; and ... in public bathrooms or alleyways was certainly difficult. But page after page offered new insight into the underground world of [lesbians]

After all is said and done, this book reads much like Kerouac's On The Road for the Lesbian Community. It's a road map of how one lesbian should live their lives. It's a way for Lesbians to claim they've done nothing with their lives until they've experienced the adventures Tea has gone through. If you're gay, straight, transgendered, lesbian, or whatever, this book is a mediocre read that seems to have no point. If you don't dig deep beyond the superficial layers, you may miss the fact this is really a story about love. I place it just below the middle at 2.5 stars (there was no half-star option!)

Rating:
Summary: Pointless and depressing
Review: I bought this book expecting an enjoyable, story of a young lesbian's life in San Francisco. Instead, I found a completely incoherent nonstory filled with drugs, unenjoyed [intercourse], more drugs, wasted minds, and a lot of unfocused behavior that can be described as "anti-life." I'm a 21-year-old lesbian myself, so I'm supposedly a member of the audience Tea is writing for, but I find almost nothing to identify with in this book. I feel sorry for anyone whose life is as meaningless as that described in this "novel."

Rating:
Summary: A fast and engaging read
Review: I couldn't be much farther from the " emerging postpunk subculture of queer urban girls" mentioned in the Amazon review here, but I found this book completely engaging and read it all in one sitting. Tea's writing has a Kerouac-feel to it, that touch of simply existing and being exactly where you are, in the depths of the good, the bad, the depressing, and, really, why don't we all quit our jobs and stay home and make more love and more art and be more free and focus on all the things that actually matter?

Rating:
Summary: michelle tea is an amazing storyteller.
Review: i would love to sit down and have a conversation with michelle tea after reading so much of her work. she is an AMAZING storyteller and this book totally displays that. this book made me love and hate san francisco equally, and yearn for more of michelle's words.

Rating:
Summary: Vivid, Dangerous, Fun, what more can I say?
Review: Michelle tea has such a way of making these character that, even for a few brief moments, you actually care about. This story is more than just a study of [...] culture in San Francisco. It's more the trajic story of one person ill fated search for love and as a reader you have to respect that. Gonna pick up her next work. Hope it will be as good as valencia.

Rating:
Summary: excellent look at one of SF's alternative lifestyles
Review: Michelle Tea writes a journal style of a year of life in one of San Francisco's ethnocentric groups in a strong and humorous voice. It made me wish I had been as free with my ideas and lifestyle when at that age. It is a fun read and a great look at a younger generation dealing with life's inequalities.

Rating:
Summary: Hilariously gritty
Review: Michelle Tea's second book is just as good as her first. With Valencia, you get the feeling that Tea has more of a handle on her identity, but not so much that she takes herself too seriously. This book is made hysterical through Tea's amazingly detailed descriptions of sights, sounds, and experiences; frequently throughout reading it, i'd burst out laughing while simultaneously thinking, "so true, so true." This is a quick read, cuz you can't put it down. Not for the weak at heart! Tea's talent for description heeds no boundaries and jaunts frequently into the realm of sex. This book makes me want to write, write, write about all those idiosyncratic habits and foibles of me and my friends.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting read
Review: Michelle Tea's story is certainly interesting and unlike any I've ever read before. These girls say and do the things that we all sometimes think about doing if we had the guts to throw caution to the wind. I alternated between cheering the characters on, and thinking that they were stupid and shallow. The writing is fast-paced and difficult in spots with bizarre capitilization and sentence structure. This is worth reading, if you aren't picky about everything being believable.

Rating:
Summary: Pure, raw energy; INEXPLICABLY BRILLIANT
Review: Michelle Tea's Valencia is an amazing book, nevermind piece of lesbian literature. Her words are so mellifluous and easily said, yet leaves a sound impression. She is brilliant. A must read for anyone of any gender or sexual orientation...i BEG you to find out for yourself. Tea is wonderful.