I'm updating this to five stars. It def has its flaws (it's heavily centred on the white protagonist's political understanding, there is a lack of nuance in some of the perspectives advanced, etc) but I just enjoyed it so thoroughly and it really spoke to me.--At first I had a laugh about how clumsily written this was but kept going because it was an interesting novelty. two radical printing collectives, one radical lesbian, one left-wing and anti-imperialist, plan to merge, but it gets acrimonious and then there's a murder? It'd have to be completely unreadable for me not to at least crack it open. But about two chapters in it finds its feet and becomes a gripping, original, and startlingly weird murder mystery. If you're interested in a book about internalised homophobia, Third World feminism, broken hearts, Filipino resistance to the Marcos dictatorship, white liberal guilt (actually quite a lot of it), drinking much too much, and arsehole leftist men, I recommend giving this a shot.
At first I wasn't excited about this book because it wasn't living up to my expectations. The main character is part of a collective which operates a print shop, largely for radical causes. Near the beginning, the collective is discussing merging with a lesbian-feminist typesetting collective. So I expected this to be focus more on the political issues. Once I accepted it as a lighter book, with the leftist and feminist issues as background rather than focus, it was a good read.Sort of like Agatha Christie but set in 1980s Seattle instead of 1920s England - lots of suspects, lots of motives, a fair number of red herrings and a who-done-it denouement at the end.
