Riverfinger Women

The book that I read while I took a break from the Robert Langdon series was called Riverfinger Women. It was a book that was part of a large buy my husband and I bought from a Craigslist ad. The guy we bought it all from said that they were books that were denied being in a prison library. Two pages in and I should have known.

Riverfinger Women quickly chronicles a woman named Inez Riverfingers, and her growth of confidence as a lesbian and how people around her interact with that. There are mixed reactions, as it was in the 60s and the 70s, and Inez tries to work through what went wrong with the one person she let get away.

I saw the reviews for Riverfinger Women and they were pretty positive. The writing quality has been praised and the message has been praised. The characters have a lot of heart, and the emotions coming with confusion and hurt can be felt.

I flew through Riverfinger Women. Elana Nachman had a way to simplify; she made a way for Inez to yes, speak from a first person and therefore have her feelings and mindset discussed more, but Inez did not make it completely about her. She cared about her friends, and where they were going and how they responded to her life choices. Inez knew when to be safe and when to be bold. That confidence in who she was, and who she liked and did not like were established quickly and only grew as time went on. Inez inspired people to keep pressing onward and stand in their own, whether they agreed with her way of living or not.

I took to the side characters very quickly. Lucy Bear provided a haven for her to be accepted and not pestered, and her friends Abby and Peggy that would become a tragic love. Abby had her own story that could have been written; her backstory and what she was dealing with behind the scenes is closer to what Elana Nachman was going through as a Jewish middle class woman coming to understand her sexuality. Whenever Abby was being spoken of, I wanted to read more about her.

I am glad that I read this book, even if while reading it I was not. The time to reflect on what I read and then going and reviewing books is having a greater impact on my thinking than getting an immediate reaction, because all that would ever lead to is negativity and not liking anything. It just shows my particularness.

If you are interested in reading Riverfinger Women, you will be able to find it here.

7/10