This was such an interesting story and yet so sad. Lucy Ann, who lived most of her life as a man, was a remarkable person. Abandoned by a beater husband and left with a small daughter to care for. She returned “home” to an unforgiving family. After donning men’s clothing and cutting her hair she left her daughter behind to establish herself as a “proper wage earner” in a society that did not look kindly on divorce or even spinsterhood.
Klaber’s well researched volume relates Lucy Ann’s life with sympathy and sensitivity. He deals with her misfortunes when discovered to be a woman dressing as a man and a woman living as husband with another woman. The late 1800’s were not good years for a non-conforming woman.
Book groups will find a wealth of topics for discussion – our treatment of non-conformists, religion, woman’s roles, men’s roles, mothers who desert their children, “fallen” women, lesbians, mental illness, insane asylums and many others.
5 of 5 stars