Gaudi Afternoon Virago Press Reviewed by Rebecca Hemming THE TITLE of Barbara Wilson's latest book is an obvious and unashamed pun on Dorothy Sayer's classic novel Grudy Night. They both belong to the same literary genre - that of detective fiction - but the resemblence really ends there.
The massive difference be tween the two is a testament to some of the great changes literary traditions that have oe• Protagonists seen in crime novels written by women are no longer aristoctatic men in the mould of Lord Peter Wimsey. They are more usually strong, macpendent women who are more than a match for any villain. These women are also increasingly lesbians, who stride across pages imbued in feminist actviry, experience and thought.
Indeed the flowering of les bian feminist detective literature since the 1970s, including Angel Dance, has been the subject of endless speculation and ly effective leather Should lar- Do lesbians make Oct. 26, 1991 No. 10 metaphor? Perhaps they represent on some kind of symbolic level an attempt by lesbians to solve the problems of, and make order out of, a hostile and alien world? Maybe they are a continuation of the tradition of butch dyke riding to rescue damsels in I prefer a more simple explanation, Ive want an en aging and pleasurable reac pretensions of literary grandeur, then detective fiction is an obvious place to start. Books are always more enjoyable if you share their broad ideological frainwork and can identify with some of the characters.
The growing genre has abo been the beneficiary of a range of strong authors ture. Barbara Wilson is one of in the Collectine and The Dogool. lar Murders, in addition to Gaudi Afternoon breaks with her past style and successfully extends the boundaries of lesbian feminist detective fiction. sandra O'Reilly, an itinerant origin, who is hired to find a missing person in Barcelona. of the architectural splendour and sexual diversity of the Catsonaan capital, the poor revolves around questions of identity. The identity of the TV franchises