“All great ideas seem like bad ones at some point.”
Current installment of Tommi Reads the World – we’re still in the Bs.
Country: Brazil
Title: We All Loved Cowboys
Author: Carol Bensimon
Language: Portuguese
Translator: Beth Fowler
Publisher: Companhia das Letras 2013; English translation, Transit Books 2018
We All Loved Cowboys is a queer, coming of age novel that both seems too short and too long. It’s a slim volume that flashes between present and past, sometimes without warning, but is centered primarily on a road trip between ex-lovers who haven’t seen each other in years. Cora is bisexual but primarily attracted to women – typically straight women. Julia is closeted. Their relationship is one of secrets and shadows, lovemaking in the dark or hurried in public restrooms. Cora never felt good enough, and Julia was never fully invested in the relationship. With one foot always half out of the door, Julia made arrangements to move to Canada without even bringing it up to Cora until it was done. That is what broke their relationship, which had become essentially friends with secreted benefits. But a chance conversation, a moment of weakness in both women, and suddenly plans are made to meet back in Brazil (Cora’s been living in Paris) for the road trip they’d always talked about going on. What could possibly go wrong?
Both women have grown up during the few years that separated them, but there is still resentment, anger, frustration, passion, and love between the two. Can they figure it out before their road trip comes to an end?
A Girl Named Tommi 