My Mama's Dead Squirrel: Lesbian Essays on Southern Culture

From Publishers Weekly This collection brings together essays published over the past eight years by lesbian-feminist organizer and editor Segrest, who is the granddaughter of a KKK member and is a former English teacher in a Southern Baptist college. Intending "to explain the place of the lesbian writer in the world, looking . . . within my family, with other women, in global struggles," she writes for example of her mother who is so indifferent to housekeeping that she overlooks a dead squirrel on the sofa. Other pieces discuss dominant Southern literary groups like "The Fugitives," which Segrest compares with the tradition of Southern lesbian writers traceable back to Angeline Grimke. Although determined to maintain an inclusive perspective, in this case Segrest's lesbian viewpoint narrows rather than leavens her subject matter. DecemberCopyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.