Dykette: A Novel

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Dykette makes a strong case for mixing goofiness with sexiness in contemporary fiction.” —Bustle “Dykette is a riveting and often darkly funny novel that btw i’m going to possibly head to the tailor during this interview to see if she can help me with this molly goddard dress the LARB article also discusses your inventing game called “come inside” while recovering from an infected cyst, an experience sasha recounts in dykette

while reading darcy, described as “artsy-elite, slavic-vibes internet fame” and an icon of the “dirtbag left,” i kept thinking of dasha nekrasova from red scare Let's get this out of the way: I am not queer enough and too middle aged to enjoy this book. 6 lesbians vacationing together in an upstate house between Christmas and New Years sounded like a great setup for character study and exploration of the dynamic between them. In reality this book assumes that you already has a good understanding of the butch/femme dynamics and a lesbian scene and immediately dives into details that for a beginner LGBTQIA+ reader like me were definitely over my head. It was thankless work. Sasha grunted in frustration each time another terrible photo appeared in her camera roll. But she contorted anew, refocused the phone on her face (now visibly strained with determination), and humbled herself before the technology of the day—which everyone else used for purposes mundane and mercenary, but which Sasha was using for the highest purpose: that of seduction. The Grinch filter jumped to life in holographic patches. Totally, and I often feel like most of the things that I want to say or express have already been said and expressed so perfectly and beautifully. I'm definitely an over-quoter. There's an endlessly referential quality to my brain; everything makes me think of something that already exists, and then that makes me think of something that's already existed before that. Everything feels like it’s in a loop, referencing both itself, past things, and even present things that are going on at the same time.Dykette is an invigorating and hilarious examination of queer identity and intimacy. It’s a novel about being trapped—trapped inside your own head, trapped inside relationships, and trapped inside a chilly upstate New York vacation home. The only thing more horrifying than perceiving one’s self is being perceived by others, and Jenny Fran Davis explores both actions with an audacious and tender wit.” Jenny Fran Davis is a real troublemaker, and Dykette is my favorite kind of trouble —sexy, messy, full of gossip and glitter, and cunning, and thus of course profoundly revealing about our strange times. Text me when you finish!” Sasha is, if you've read the author's prior work, pretty obviously a self-insert. Same dog, same opinions, same behavior by her own admission. There are other characters who are also avatars. Sasha's primary rival, Darcy, is unmistakably a spin on a certain Brooklyn it-girl. Jules is nakedly Rachel Maddow.

With all that said, ultimately I could not tell if this was a book that is trying to skewer the performance of aesthetics or if it is trying to celebrate them. I did not like any of these characters, which is fine. But Sasha and her constant need to be admired, to be petted and coddled, is exhausting. It is hard to say whether Darcy, Sasha's rival, is actually more genuine or if she is putting it all on as much as Sasha is, much to Sasha's chagrin. It is rather fascinating to see the two of them try to one up each other (and occasionally, when she puts in the effort, both get showed up by Miranda) but then you wonder what is it all for? Through Sasha, Davis constructs a field guide to queer dynamics, making sharp observations about generational divides, the butch/femme dynamic, and what it means to perform your gender or sexuality (as exemplified by an explosive plot about performance art). You won’t soon forget Sasha, nor any of the other larger-than-life Brooklynites in her cohort.” i mean there are some amazing displays of femininity on that show (stassi, lala, lisa) but dykette is so gay that i’m not sure those girls (who are like family to me) qualify Sasha starts off well, being able to occupy her most comfortable space, as an observer, she remains separate from the crowd, away from all the puffing and preening. It cannot last. It doesn't.Perhaps failing to grow up by the world’s limiting hetero standards only becomes a real problem when it prevents someone from working through their childhood wounds — because unless you put in real effort to process whatever might have gone wrong with your earliest human attachments, those pains can and will haunt your adult relationships. Then, on this book’s Message…. i don’t know…. butch femme dynamics just don’t really factor into my personal life. If that’s your bag that’s great, and i don’t begrudge you your subjectivity & preferences. But I don’t get how any of this is meant to look appealing. While I can’t deign to speak to the universal dyke experience either, I do think had the protagonist had tried to understand or relate any other kind of lesbian relationship dynamics, this book would have had a more realistic view on 21st century lesbianism. no one’s individual neuroses Say Something about Lesbinianism. but also, as a femme in style only, maybe I just didn’t get it. I’m not saying every gay book has to Say Something. But this book is purporting to, and that’s what’s often enraging (especially through the first 3/4 before shit gets moving plot-wise). Jesse was in the bedroom next door to the bathroom, on the phone with Faye the psychotherapist. Though it was their first afternoon in Hudson, and technically they were on vacation, Jesse had forgotten to cancel before Faye’s forty-eight-hour cancellation window, so she’d excused herself from the rest of the group for the fifty-minute phone session to avoid paying Faye’s cancellation fee. Sasha’s phone read 3:23, meaning that half an hour of Jesse’s therapeutic hour remained.

As the late December afternoons blur together in a haze of debaucherous homecooked feasts and sweaty sauna confessions, so too do the guests’ secret and shifting motivations. When Jesse and Darcy collaborate an ill-fated livestream performance, a complex web of infatuation and jealousy emerges, sending Sasha down a spiral of destructive rage that threatens each couple’s future. Vanity Fair spoke with Davis about trends in queer fiction, femme studies, and the “spiritual center” of her novel.I think for her, the game she's doing often is successful. She makes people laugh or endears people to her, gets what she wants or defuses tension. I think it's interesting to see a character come to the end of their rope, to suddenly find themselves in a place where the thing that they've always done does not work anymore. Will they try again and again, or will they give up? Will they change? That’s the question that we leave her at, and hopefully we've gotten to know her well enough to guess what she might do.