`Godspeed` is the first novel by Lynn Breedlove. No idea who she is? Only one of the most significant dyke musicians alive today. Forget Melissa Etheridge or kd lang or even Avril Lavigne, Breedlove could kick their arses any day as lead singer and general hellraiser with Tribe 8, the first and best punk dyke band in history. If Tribe 8 are the Sex Pistols, then Breedlove is easily the lesbo equivalent of a sneering Johnny Rotten at his `God Save the Queen` best. With a pedigree like that you`d expect her first book to be a cracker. Luckily it is.`Godspeed` is the rambling story of Jim, an occasional bike messenger boi-dyke in San Francisco, who has a lust for speed, the chemical kind. Throughout the novel Jim gets addicted to whizz, deals, kicks, starts using again, and so on. It`s not your average drug redemption story, but it`s obviously based on Breedlove`s own experiences as an addict in past years, and that`s what makes it compelling and real. Jim goes on the road as a hired hand with a band that`s not a million miles away from Tribe 8 and finds some kind of peace with himself. There`s a love story intertwined in it as well, but naturally it`s unconventional and of course there`s no fairy-tale ending.
Breedlove energises what could be a hackneyed story with spot-on character portraits of people around her scene, including the bike messenger users who hang around a vacant lot, and Ally, the love of Jim`s life. From her list of acknowledgements, and the lyrics to her Hag Anthem, the prose in `Godspeed` is so power-charged that reading it makes you feel as though you`ve been mainlining crystal meth too!
Like `Valencia,` written by fellow Sister Spit performer Michelle Tea, `Godspeed` is a snapshot of a crazy time and place. It`s hard to believe that Breedlove survived those times, but any reader of this book would be glad that she did, and that she lived to tell the tale about it too.
Godspeed by Lynn Breedlove
Published by: St Martin`s Press
ISBN: 0312286805
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