Stray City by Chelsey Johnson

Stray City by Chelsey Johnson was June's book club pick. It tells the story of a transplanted Midwestern lesbian who finds herself in Portland in the 1990s.  She finds herself sleeping with a man after a bad breakup, gets pregnant, and then it turns into an ode to the pro-choice movement and the idea that true womanhood must entail motherhood.

I enjoyed the nostalgic interlude of the first part of the book and found my eyes rolling into the back of my head at the second.

I was definitely in the minority in my book club. Most of the women in my club thought that the dating around, going to rock shows, barely maintaining steady employment woman of the first half of the book was whiny, entitled, and irresponsible. I didn't necessarily disagree with any of that, but I also thought she was fun. And who didn't make mistakes in college and right after college?  I also really appreciated the importance that the author put on "found family," which is so often a huge support system for those who are on the margins of society.

I didn't enjoy the "must have this child or the guilt will be too much" plot-line because I was alive in the 1990s and trust me, we had abortions back then and the guilt did not take us all.  I also didn't enjoy how the praising of motherhood was such a repeated insistence.  I think most of my fellow book club members actually agree with this sentiment (I am the only childless by choice person there) and so my preferences were definitely not a match for everyone else's, who honestly did seem to think that the second half of the book was better than the first.

But everyone did agree that the whole book seemed to switch in tone in the middle.  So maybe you'll like one half and not the other. 

I wouldn't necessarily recommend it though; this really did feel like homework for me.  But if you're interested in the inner-circle of lesbian relationships, pro-life bandwagoning, or people being reckless with their pets, maybe this is the book for you!