Pulp

Pulp by Robin Talley is a series of stories of young lesbians - one in present day, and one in the 1950s.

Abby Zimet has to choose a topic for her senior project - a full year on something where she produces a work. It can be anything, but she has not chosen because she is preoccupied by her parents' relationship dying and the break up with her girlfriend. When she discovers the lesbian pulp books from the 50s and 60s she decides to write her own.

Abby's favorite so far is a book by Marian Love. The first (fictional) book where one of the main characters did not have to die to appease the censors of the time. She wants to find out more about the woman who wrote it.

Janet Jones picked up a book in the train station. A story of two women in love who have a hard time and then ultimately break up so that one of them goes back to her male fiancée. Janet is so moved that she writes a letter to the author.

But in the 1950s, along with McCarthy's obsession on finding communists, there was the lavender scare. A witch hunt of people turning in anyone who they thought was gay - or they just did not like. Janet's best friend (and crush) just got a job with the State Department.

Talley has written a kind of layered story of young lesbians finding authors who understand them, and they in turn writing a book that someone of a later generation finds. The character of Janet Jones - stuck in the 50s in a religious family - is the best part of this book. She is a strong, strong woman stuck in a dangerous time.

Talley, Robin. (2018). Pulp. New York: Harlequin Teen.