Book Review: “After Sappho” by Selby Wynn Schwartz

After Sappho by Selby Wynn Schwartz

Carefully reading this book reveals a clue to “what it is”—patterned after some of her favorite modern authors, this is ‘fictional biography’.  The characters are an array of female artists active in the decades around 1900.  The events combine historical events, fictional elements from their outputs, and the author’s interpretations.  It is clear, too, that these are a lot of Schwartz’s “favorite authors”, so this is an extended fantasy-football game for a lit professor.

The theme is, well sapphism in a early twentieth, Eurocentric form.  Many of the characters are inspired by the works of Sappho, or their understanding of them.  Many are feminists, almost all are lesbian or non-binary.  And, in this telling, they all seem to know each other.

The author’s note confirms that men have been written out of this version of history (except as brutal monsters or foolish idiots).  It is clear why (payback for how men have written women out of history).  And it is clear that the story makes perfect sense without them.  (So there!)

The stories are by turns sad and uplifting.  There is love, there is loss.  This period was a time of ferocious struggle for human rights, not least the right of women to be treated as human beings. And these women were brave, determined, and just plain amazing.  But this war was and is still, hell.  People were and still are torn to bits by their families, by mobs, and by states.

What is less clear to me is exactly how I am supposed to read this book.  If anything, this book is about “we”, “we who are followers of Sappho”.  I had no problem liking, admiring, and rooting for these folks.

But it’s hard to say if I’m supposed to identify with them or not.  How does “we” apply to me?  Am I inside or outside this story?  And if I’m outside, then what story am I supposed to living?

It’s a challenge and maybe a deliberate provocation.  I’m not sure. (I am not, nor have I ever been, a literature major!)

Fortunately, I’ve already reached my own peace, and made my personal commitments.  I do not need these semi-fictional women to teach me what is right, and what we must fight for.

The biggest missing piece is not my own peace of mind.  It is the lack of a call to action, at least in the sense of a concrete program. 

Do we need to fix the state, or walk away from it to Sappho’s island?  How should women live?  What are men for?

What does it all mean?

You won’t learn this from this book.

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1. Selby Wynn Schwartz, After Sappho, New York, Liverright, 2023.

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