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An Emergence of Green

katherine v. forrest

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A REISSUE OF THIS GROUNDBREAKING AND BESTSELLING LESBIAN FICTION CLASSIC The reissue of Katherine V. Forrest's timeless story of all-out war between a man and a woman for the body and soul of the woman they both desire. In the 1980s, the politics of feminism were just beginning to gain mainstream awareness. In this fast-paced novel, first published in 1986, Lambda Award winner Katherine V. Forrest nurtured a new genre of fiction: the lesbian emergence novel. In AN EMERGENCE OF GREEN, one of the best-selling lesbian novels of all time, an unplanned encounter between trophy wife Carolyn Blake and her new neighbour - tall, athletic artist Val Hunter - leads to a close friendship and deepening emotions that young Carolyn has never known. Carolyn begins to question her attitudes, her life, her marriage, and her sexuality. The two women's intense physical encounters force Carolyn at last to acknowledge her true desires and to rethink her values and her cloistered life. Can Carolyn really give up comfort for unfamiliar territory, stability for fulfilment?

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1,1986

This edition

Format
288 pages, Paperback
Published
January 1, 1986 by Naiad Pr
ISBN
9780930044695
ASIN
093004469X
Language
English

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About the author

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katherine v. forrest

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Katherine V. Forrest is a Canadian-born American writer, best known for her novels about lesbian police detective Kate Delafield. Her books have won and been finalists for Lambda Literary Award twelve times, as well as other awards. She has been referred to by some "a founding mother of lesbian fiction writing."

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Community Reviews

Rating(3.9 / 5.0, 33 votes)
5 stars
9(27%)
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13(39%)
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33 reviews All reviews
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Franck_Nicolas
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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This is one of those books that I should have read thirty years ago as I suspect it would have had more impact then. The story is a domestic drama about a marriage falling apart and a repressed wife finding herself.
In the end the husband Paul is the ‘villain’, but there are moments when given his background you can have a bit of sympathy for him, as he can’t understand why he is losing his wife. However, as the story progresses his true sociopathic controlling nature emerges and he becomes the main ‘bad guy’.
The connection between Carolyn and Val is interesting, but apart from the sex, I didn’t think the author really developed their relationship and at the end of the book I was left feeling there should have been more.
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sueskind
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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I suppose if I’d read this before Curious Wine, I may feel differently. However, that’s not the case. I enjoyed the story, the chemistry, the beauty in that moment of exact rightness some of us experience when we reject the norm to instead delve into those terrifying, deep waters of the unknown........... but the husband? Oof. So much Paul Blake content. A truly wonderful job of turning him into a monster. I hated him. But I could have done without so much of his insight and so much about him.
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iTriela
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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Reading this book is like finding and old friend. Coming out in the late 1970's, early 1980's wasn't easy. Things were different back then and it was hard to find positive representations and happy endings for gals like us. The book's tone is very lesbian feminist (representative of the times, "the personal is political"), has some all-too-easy villains, and is a bit two dimensional in places. Still, there is more depth and nuance to the story than in many other books from the era. This book, and Curious Wine, were each important books in the lesbian literary canon. Thank you Katherine V. Forrest. This story was an oasis for a baby dyke back in 1984 who needed to hear it was all going to be okay, and it would be good, and beautiful, and right. Amen.
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caiozozo
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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I enjoyed this very much. I can find something to enjoy in all old gay books, though.

This time it’s how much this feels like a direct homage, an update, to the lesbian pulps, and specifically Ann Bannon. It’s a satisfying diptych, to hold them side by side. What’s the same, in the way a very similar story is told, with 20 years of gay life in between? What’s different?

The perspective shifts between 3 characters, one of them a man you wish you didn’t have to spend so much time with, are the same. The progress of the lesbian relationship is actually slower in this one than in Odd Girl Out or Stranger in Lesbos, the two I’ve read that this remind me of most. Once the sex happens, it’s much more explicit and much less fucked up, and some of it very hot in my book, although the language is a bit dated at this point.

The marriage feels like a 1960s marriage, but the gay world is a lot less depressing to come out into. The main character, Carolyn, is as lightly characterized as Laura Landon, so unfortunately no change there. And marital rape as the climax of the plot is unfortunately preserved as well.

But all in all, a fitting homage, and I would imagine one that served much the same purpose for lesbians looking for representation and stories they could recognize.

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zengreen
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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Green a beautiful colour, offering pastoral peace

As always it started with a swimming pool! The story follows the lives of two women who find each other. One already married to a man pays a price for that 'mistake'. Then throwing of the shackles, life becomes bearable & full of compassion & love with the support of so many women. A story we could all tell but not as well as this...
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gdavge2003
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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Another book I got when it first came out and have read several times. It’s one of the classics.
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_corridors
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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Hehehehe I love women, this couple was so cuteeee - seeing things from the husband's POV was interesting too. It be like that - read it. I loved the book :)
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Yureinokami
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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Broke me

Loved it.this book tore me to pieces. I'm moving on to more by this author. Loved the women and the hope.
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