by Sally Bellerose, $14.95; Bywater Books; 288 pages
It's a growing-up tale in a blue-collar community, a coming-out story, a gritty look at family strife, a tale about the "dreaded bowel disease" and ostomy bags. Say again?
Who'd a thought a novel with an ostomy bag as a character could prove so compelling? Some might quarrel with designating the medical device, an essential extension of Cora Rose when she reaches adulthood, as a character. However, at the least, it becomes a key part of our protagonist in this first novel by an accomplished writer.
We first meet Cora Rose, the protagonist of The Girls Club, in the ninth grade. It is 1970. She needs to escape class and make a beeline for the restroom. Fast. So we are introduced to the Dreaded Bowel Disease right off the bat. We quickly meet her family, including sisters Marie and Renee, and her special friend Stella.
As she stated in an interview with Susan Stinson on the Lambda Literary website, author Sally Bellerose wanted to tackle a story about someone with an ostomy because she saw it as a hush-hush subject that needed addressing. She knows because she lost her colon in her 20s.
The Girls Club of the title can be taken in several ways—a lesbian bar (which the author most certainly had foremost in mind), but also a closely knit association of the three sisters around whom the novel revolves. There's also a touch of reality—The Girls Club is an actual lesbian bar in Chicopee, Mass., the setting for the novel.
One can't help but note that, just as an ostomy creates an opening for the expellation of waste, events in Cora Rose's life create an opening for expellation of anger, anxiety, and fear. Then there is the discomfort created by wearing an ostomy bag—will everyone know by looking at me? Will I be ostracized?—not dissimilar from questions women in the 70s asked themselves coming out as lesbians.
Early on in the book, Bellerose captures Cora Rose's thoughts about her pending ostomy surgery: "I've never even met anyone with an ostomy. … I guess it's not something you'd talk about. Like dying. Like being a lesbian. I wish people would talk to me about dying. So I could tell them I'm not." At this point, Cora Rose may not be dying, but without coming to terms with her sexual identity, she's not really living either.
Later, sitting in the restroom stall of The Girls Club and celebrating that her menses appeared after a long dry stretch, Cora Rose begins to get a grip on who she is (but not yet positively): "In time I'll be entirely liquid—blood, sweat [she's just come off the dance floor], tears. A transformation. Maybe that's how I'll change from a good Catholic, a nice girl, a solid citizen—into a dyke."
Both Renee, and then Cora Rose, grow up to become nurses. This is comfortable territory for author Bellerose, as she too started as a nurse. In The Girls Club, all three sisters tiptoe through the land mines of sex, sisterly love and rivalry, and male-female relationships. However, Cora Rose goes her siblings one step further—she gradually realizes she is attracted to women. Her circle of friends expands to include Darlene and other women she meets at the lesbian bar in town.
We struggle along with Cora Rose through various crises in her life, marveling both at how much and how little things have changed since the '70s. Bellerose has a nice touch with language and story development. We care about Cora Rose and the people in her life and wish them well.
