The Dyke and the Dybbuk, Ellen Galford

[el_staplador]

I'd never heard of this book before a kind BookCrosser sent it to me, though the cover tells me that it won a Lambda Literary Award.

Anyway, it's a lot of fun. Rainbow Rosenbloom is a lesbian, a London taxi driver, and a non-observant Jew. She's also the great-great-great-great-great-great-granddaughter of a woman who jilted her lover two centuries back. Kokos is a dybbuk who's been contracted to possess the female descendants of that woman - although, having been stuck in a tree for the past two centuries, Rainbow is the first one she's got to. Hilarity, as they say, ensues.

I enjoyed the glimpses of lesbian London (with the exception of the biphobia), and Jewish London, and the intersection of the two, in the early 90s. Beyond that, it reminded me of nothing so much as Good Omens in its portrayal of a supernatural bureaucracy which is all too reminiscent of the earthly sort. Kokos is an engaging if unreliable narrator, and the ending has a satisfying twist (though the direction the plot takes to get there feels a bit forced and melodramatic).

Good fun, though with a hefty dose of fridge horror.

Comments

[slashmarks]

I nominated this for Yuletide this year, I'm excited to see someone else read it! I read it as a teenager and have a wholehearted nostalgic love for it.

[el_staplador]

Oh, that could make for some great fic! I hope someone writes it for you!