this is a great book if you're in a butch-femme relationship, or identify as either butch or femme. it's even a good book if you're not! wonderfully written, interesting, funny, maddening. ups and downs of lesbian life - a must read. are we married? if you have to question, you're probably not...

My favorite parts of this book aren't the romantic/love stuff with Linnea (though, those parts are great, too!) You see, Barrie Borich was born and bred in roughly the same area I was, industrial south Chicago and its adjacent suburbs...and it is amazing how her writing can take one so accurately to the industrial wastelands and neighborhoods of South Chicago. I hope she continues writing about this area, because she does it so well you can practically taste the steelmills and exhaust in the back of your throat. Though I'm not familiar with her Minneapolis neighborhood, I bet people who know that area well feel the same way. This book is an absolute treasure.

This is an extremely powerful book. The story of the author's long-term relationship with her partner is both fascinating and extremely romantic. Knowing that she is deeply in love with her partner, the author ponders questions about marriage and titles: When is a lesbian couple married since it is not yet legal to marry? Would gays want the straight convention of marriage anyway? What should a "married" lesbian couple call each other (wife and wife?--this does not seem to fit for their relationship, hence the title "My Lesbian Husband")? Borich illustrates the irony that a love that is so right in every way and has proven through time and hardship to work, has no clear, comfortable labels or rights in society. This is a love story for both straight and gay readers. Not only an excellent memoir (Borich's second), but also an important book in terms of gay rights. It is a testament of true love--I have never read a book that describes lesbian love so poetically and truthfully. It makes you nod your head knowingly and think, "Yeah, this is what it's like." After reading this book one will be left wondering why two women so in love and so dedicated to each other cannot marry and have legal rights.

This, Borich's first autobiography, is shocking and wonderful. The heartfelt story of some of her life left me wanting more. With an extremely poetic style, Borich can put you in an exact place at an exact time. The chapters regarding falling in love are particularly well done and poignant. A work of creative nonfiction, this piece leans toward the creative side in terms of structure. Not quite linear, not quite chronological, not quite logical, the book is captivating. It's an excellent warm-up for Borich's second, longer, and more detailed autobiography My Lesbian Husband.