"valencia" by Michelle Tea

by Hannah Bressler
AFO staff

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Full of graphic lesbian sex, underground parties, fights, drug trips, and heartbreak relationships, Michelle Tea (founder of the traveling spoken-word and performance group "Sister Spit") writes her autobiographical novel in the way I wish Keroac wrote "On The Road." It's chaotic, intense and emotionally charged but full of clear intention to tell a good story. It's also pretty well organized as a book of essays that narrates her life as a sexual deviant (lesbian punk and sex worker) on the margins of society.  "Valencia" has even more of a grown-up feel then the book that first turned me on to Tea's work, "The Passionate Mistakes and Intricate Corruption of One Girl in America"; the conclusions about loss are deeper, there's more fights, more sex, more thoughts about queer culture and more moments to fall in love. You will devour this book.

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