WARPED WOMEN

Janet Pritchard, Copyright 1951 by Universal Publishing & Distributing Corp. 117 E. 31 Street, N. Y., N. Y. Beacon Book 121; 35c; 189 pp.

It seems a great pity that the publishers do not feel that they can let a good word be said about a Lesbian without first enclosing the book in a jacket that screams "strange love stripped them of all decency."

the depravity that women share among themselves," the "thoroughly debased Jan." etc.

Such false advertising must be a great disappointment to those looking for tasty morsels of "perversion" and "depravity." You can read the thing in a few hours, if you really must. The book is better than its jacketbut not much.

"Here at last is a novel which boldly attacks a social problem usually spoken of in whispers." we are told. Well, you can forget that promise.

"Can One Girl Love Another?another jacket blurb. Now, there's a good question, which better rephrased is, "Can Anyone Love Anyone Anymore?" Sure Jan loved Cynthia; but it was a debased, unnatural love, so that doesn't count. Does It?

It's astonishing to watch the author, with a straight face assume the basic premise of the so-called depravity of Lesbian love and then, build the character of a completely tender. self-sacrificing, Lesbian-a Lesbian who forces Cynthia into nothing she may later regret, who wants only for her what is best for her, and who in the end literally lays down her life for her. And the moral of this, kiddies, is: don't go selling your souls for any 19 year old females who had traumatic experiences with

brutal stablemen. Sir Lancelot will be along soon.

If you like warped books, you may like Warped Women. I did not. I'm still mad at the way the dice were loaded.

THE GOD WITHIN,

-Sten Russell

Christine Midence Valentine, Exposition Press, New York, $3.50.

The aim of this book is to point out a philosophy of living. Sex and homosexuality are touched on throughout. It is the author's opinion that there are many who are indifferent to sex and for this reason are considered by present mores as being abnormal. She states also, "The degeneracy that society censures is caused by irrational condemnation of this love on the part of those who convert innocent innocent individuals into practicing homo-sexuals upon viewing their deep and noble attachments for friends . . .

She concludes with the suggestion that a World Fund of Wisdom or Institute of Pansyncretism be organized where conflicting theories, scientific and occult, could be evaluated.

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J. W.

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