From Wedded Wife to Lesbian Life: Stories of Transformation

By Deborah Abbot and Ellen Farmer

Book Overview

Drawing from a broad range of cultures and classes, this collection of first-person essays, interviews and poems offers a glimpse into the lives of women who got married and then came out as lesbians. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0895947668
• ISBN13: 9780895947666
• Release Date: September 1995
• Publisher: Crossing Press
• Length: 290 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.8" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

Straight forward stories about non-straight women.

I enjoyed the book immensely and would recommend it to any woman who is going through gender orientation struggles and issues. This book offered a wide variety of voices from women of various backgrounds in different situations. This book included stories describing the joys and sorrows of what it is like to be seen as a married heterosexual woman and then what it is like to embrace life as a lesbian. I was impressed by the quality of writing and the women who wrote their stories. It is inspirational, touching and informative. It helped me to understand that my human needs and desires are normal. Other women might benefit from knowing this as well - whether they are hetero or not. To me, this demonstrates how many women crave a deep love connection with another individual and shows the challenges that they face as they search to find this emotional and sexual satisfaction with men.

A Great Resource Full of Heartfelt Stories

This is a book I have been telling people about for the last couple months. As a writer of lesbian novels myself, I have been constantly surprised to discover how many women seem to be living double lives: wife and mother by day--secret, internet-accessing, coming-out lesbian by night. When women email me to confide and ask advice (which I feel inadequate at giving!), I refer them to this book knowing that the stories of the women in FROM WEDDED WIFE TO LESBIAN LIFE will give them hope and ideas.Great editing work by Deb Abbott and Ellen Farmer, and kudos to Crossing Press for publishing this fine book. In addition to this book, I would also recommend: LESBIAN EPIPHANIES: WOMEN COMING OUT IN LATER LIFE by Karol Jensen. For other more general true-life stories of women coming out, read anything edited by the wonderfully talented Lindsey Elder.

This is a great help....

I was leaving my husband and starting a relationship with a woman when I met Deb Abbott online about 5 years ago. She told me about her book and I ran out to buy it. I saw myself in so many of the stories, and found that I wasn't the only one going through my situation. That relationship ended badly after 4 years, and I am now with a woman that is in the same position I was. I am re-reading Deb's book, and my girlfriend is also reading it. It is a bible to us. I can't thank Deb enough for writing this amazing book.

A Guide for Unhappy Wives

This is a book for all women who feel that they are "stuck" in an unhappy marriage. The ladies in this book showed a lot of courage to put in to words what they felt from the very beginning of that first day of meeting a man to the first day with a women. This ladies tells us their heartfelt stories of unhappy marriages who some had children and some did not, some had families who was on their side and then there were other families that did not support them at all. This book could and would have been a bigger help to me 30 years ago and still is a help now. If your unhappy in a marriage with a man then read this book, it could help you to know that you can do things like these ladies did with your life with out a man there to make you unhappy and "keep you under their thumb".Some of these ladies went on to get thier degrees, and some went to work to support themselves with a job that they felt good with.If you do any thing get this book and get a "life"!

Helpful for married lesbians in transition

I read this book just when I was leaving my marriage. I expected to find a collection of stories by women who (unlike me) discovered their orientation later in life. I was delighted to find that the collection was much more diverse. Women of all ages are represented in this collection, and some, like me, knew they were lesbian before they married. Reading their stories was comforting during a time a great turmoil. I later had the privilege of attending a support group led by one of the authors (Deborah Abbott), and this further enriched the experience. It reminded me, though, of how few resources are available for women making this transition. I hope women who don't have such groups available can find some support in this gem of a book.