Friday the Rabbi Wore Lace: Jewish Lesbian Erotica

Presents a collection of short stories from authors such as Jenifer Levin, Joan Nestle, Clara Thaler, and Karen Taylor

We read some works of fiction to escape from ourselves, and others to find ourselves. Whether Jewish lesbians will tear through this erotic anthology in a rapture of self-recognition, I can't say, but aside from the occasional ecstatic reference to noodle kugel, there is nothing here to exclude or disorient other readers. In fact, one would hardly know one was reading Jewish lesbian erotica if it weren't for the book's subtitle and an odd recurrence of bagels. Tulchinsky, editor of the recent anthology To Be Continued, argues in her introduction that Jewish lesbian erotica can mean almost anything, because everything that Jewish dykes do is informed by their identity. As a result, she has chosen 13 stories that range from the pedestrian to the astonishing--Caril Behr's placidly outrageous "Ofra and Tal" is worth the price of the book--in which Jewishness glimmers and fades, sometimes in the foreground, sometimes only in a chance detail or an implication. --Regina Marler