fastly forward, braving the hazards of guilt by association or interest, to interview scores, hundreds, thousands of lesbians in, primarily, San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York. From the material he collected he has written what will no doubt be another best seller. Given the fascination which all things lesbian are supposed to hold for the non-sick heterosexual male, this book should outsell The Sixth Man, and it no doubt will.

There are those who will find this book interesting and entertaining; some will be fascinated. Many of the interviews, anecdotes, and episodes are indeed interesting and some are just a wee bit titillating. Unfortunately, there is too much of the same thing. Eventually all the interviews come to sound just like the one which has gone before, and the book becomes repetitious, monotonous and, finally, downright dull. Some chapters are more interesting or better done than others. The chapter on Hollywood, in which Mr. Stearn indulges in high-flown insinuation and innuendo as he refers to great and near-great, will provide the basis of endless speculation as the boys and the girls seek to fit the keys to the locks.

Mr. Stearn is, I feel, at his best in his treatment of the Daughters of Bilitis, his account of their convention, and his discussion of their publication, The Ladder. Here he appears, though the Daughters may disagree with me, to give an honest and objective statement of the D.O.B's aims, methods and objectives. The officers and leaders he treats respectfully and even with apparent admiration; whether this is sincere or simply appreciation of the Daughters' having recognized him as a high priest of matters homosexual is open to speculation.

The girls themselves, individually and as a group, do not come off so well; almost all appear sick, twisted,

one

warped, unstable, and wretched. Most appear to be the result of broken homes (or of homes which would have been better broken); the progeny of domineering mothers and supine fathers (or of gentle mothers and brutal, domineering fathers); the product of incestuous step-fathers or lecherous uncles, and insensitive and crude, or sensitive and gentle, but impotent motherseeking husbands. They are, in other words, pretty much the products of our society just as are their heterosexual sisters. They are brittle, contemptuous, flippant, sloppy, dirty, unprincipled and uncouth, promiscuous; many are alcoholics and some addicted to drugs. Even those who seem to be most stable and who are, apparently, enjoying happy and permanent relationships, are poised on the brink of crisis needing only the self-examination induced by Mr. Stearn's probing to push them into it.

Mr. Stearn is much given to the use of adverbs in the "Tom Swiftly" manner which becomes very monotonous, but which he uses with telling effect to create a derogatory impression of his subjects without making an unpleasant observation of his own. The statements of such "straight" individuals as he may choose to quote are usually recorded in a detached and straightforward manner, followed by such words as "said," "stated," or "observed." The lesbians rarely speak in such colorless terms; almost always their remarks are followed by: she sniffed, she snorted, she said with a smirk, or, said contemptuously, or mockingly, self-knockingly, half-mockingly, ruefully, deprecatingly, bitterly, sardonically, stonily, slyly, disdainfully, mirthlessly, desperately, roguishly, apologetically, helplessly, complacently, wickedly, acidly, tartly and so on and on.

To himself Mr. Stearn likes to apply another group of adverbs which create the impression that he is never

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