Gaslight [first edition]

Carol Guess has composed, from glass-edged fragments of her life and her work as a creative artist, the mosaic of a woman who has fought to be her true self. A nonfiction collection wrapped around a novella called "Fat Rosie and Rose," it documents the impact of sexism and homophobia on her professional and personal lives, and uses fictional characters to play out the events. Her adversaries have been many, and formidable. There were those who dictated the ideal shape of her female body and the correct dimensions of her sexuality as she emerged from a childhood in the south, ensnared in sexual exploitation and a spiral of anorexia. The teachers who attempted to extinguish her ambition and identity as a creative artist--because female writing could not possibly rise above the trivial--played their part. And the politics of art and sexuality continue to litter her path as a lesbian academic and a serious artist. Like no other book, "Gaslight" shares each step of the interior process of creation and of failing to create: the process of becoming a writer. In this extraordinary and unforgettable work, Carol Guess brilliantly illuminates the path to art and to individuality.