{"id":145352,"date":"2020-05-28T12:12:41","date_gmt":"2020-05-28T16:12:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=145352"},"modified":"2020-05-28T13:10:36","modified_gmt":"2020-05-28T17:10:36","slug":"more-than-just-a-lesbian-love-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2020\/05\/28\/more-than-just-a-lesbian-love-story\/","title":{"rendered":"More Than Just a Lesbian Love Story"},"content":{"rendered":"

In her monthly column,<\/em>\u00a0Re-Covered, Lucy Scholes exhumes the out-of-print and forgotten books that shouldn\u2019t be.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cShameless\u201d and \u201cunpublishable\u201d\u2014this was the reaction of her publishers when the Dutch writer Dola de Jong first submitted her novel The Tree and the Vine <\/em>(De Thuiswacht<\/em>) in 1950. Four years later, it made it into print, thanks in large part to the backing of prominent literary figures such as the Dutch poet Leo Vroman and the Belgian writer Marnix Gijsen, both European exiles living in America (as was de Jong by this point in her life). She also had the support of renowned New York editor Maxwell Perkins, the man who\u2019d discovered both F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway, and who\u2019d published de Jong\u2019s And the Field is the World<\/em> (1945), the story of a young Jewish couple who flee the Netherlands for Morocco on the eve of the Second World War.<\/p>\n

What made The Tree and the Vine <\/em>so shocking was its candid depiction of queer desire. It follows two young women in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam in the late thirties: Erica, a rash and impatient fledgling journalist who doesn\u2019t live by anyone else\u2019s rules, and the much more guarded, inhibited Bea, the narrator of the tale. De Jong\u2019s publisher\u2019s concerns were predictable. A bold and groundbreaking work, The Tree and the Vine<\/em> caused a stir, both in Holland when it was first published, and then later again when it was translated, by Ilona Kinzer, into English and American editions, in 1961 and 1963 respectively. Though it clearly struck a chord with many readers\u2014de Jong, it was said, received piles of fan mail from married women who questioned their life choices after reading it\u2014its nuances were lost on many. As Lillian Faderman explains in her afterword to the Feminist Press\u2019s 1996 reprint, a reviewer writing in The Statesman and Nation<\/em> (May 12, 1961) was \u201cunable to appreciate the book\u2019s subtleties and larger meanings.\u201d A new translation, by Kristen Gehrman, published this month by Transit Books, hopes to appeal to a broader readership today. As Gehrman argues, it\u2019s a novel that deserves to be appreciated as something more than just a tale of war, or a lesbian romance.<\/p>\n

Though the Statesman and Nation<\/em>\u2019s reviewer describes the novel as a portrait of \u201cexotic vice,\u201d \u201ccompulsive sin,\u201d and \u201csexual pervert[s],\u201d by today\u2019s standards, de Jong\u2019s depiction of lesbian love really couldn\u2019t be any tamer. This is not a book that titillates; its emphasis instead is on the pain and damage caused by repressed desire. Although they have their more theatrical moments, on the whole Erica and Bea are far from histrionic. As Faderman reminds us, though, the reviewer is using \u201cclich\u00e9 terms [\u2026] characteristic of cover copy for the lesbian pulps of the era.\u201d<\/p>\n

Which is not to say that de Jong was unaware of that genre. Faderman continues by explaining that although the \u201cquality and seriousness\u201d of The Tree and the Vine<\/em> far transcends its pulpier cousins, this doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s immune to the broader influences of the period. Certain elements of the novel capture the flavor of those more sensationalist volumes. De Jong depicts the darker, dangerous side of the world of same-sex desire, and the way it\u2019s a source of torment\u2014physical and psychological\u2014for those who exist within it. It is also a potent source of self-hatred, and de Jong pathologizes Erica\u2019s lesbianism with the suggestion that it can be traced back to the problematic relationship she has with her mother. Reading the novel made me think of Yelena Moskovich\u2019s description in her 2018 essay for the Daily<\/em>, \u201cHunting for a Lesbian Canon<\/a>,\u201d of the first lesbian pulp \u201caccidental best seller\u201d: Tereska Torr\u00e8s\u2019s Women\u2019s Barracks <\/em>(1950), \u201ca fictionalized autobiographical account of [Torr\u00e8s\u2019s] wartime service in London for the women\u2019s division of the Free French forces, where we follow a barracks full of young women navigating identity, love, and politics amid their French Resistance duties.\u201d Erica\u2014who in the early days of the Nazi occupation joins the Dutch resistance, as courageous in her politics as she is in her love life\u2014wouldn\u2019t be out of place amongst Torr\u00e8s\u2019s protagonists.<\/p>\n

Bea and Erica meet in 1938, and the events of the novel play out in parallel to the storm clouds of war amassing across Europe. The terrible specificity of the historical context is, however, much more than circumstantial. The menacing backdrop to the psychosexual drama has an important hand in shaping Bea\u2019s character development, transforming her from a rather unlikeable, mousey wallflower into a woman of action, one prepared to do anything she can to try to save the life of the woman she loves, even while she refuses to admit to herself what\u2019s driving her. This is where the true brilliance of the novel lies: in de Jong\u2019s impressive and nimble rendering of Bea\u2019s inner conflicts and complexities.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

Bea first meets Erica at the home of a mutual acquaintance. She\u2019s instantly attracted to this captivating young woman who looks \u201clike a boy in need of a haircut.\u201d Only a month later, the two women move in together. They rent an apartment on the Prinsengracht, one of Amsterdam\u2019s three main canals. It is not a romantic arrangement; they\u2019re just roommates. They have separate bedrooms, and a mutual understanding that they \u201ceach lead their own lives.\u201d All the same, their relationship quickly slips into one of jittery codependence. Bea\u2014who has few friends compared to the much more boisterous and sociable Erica\u2014takes on the role of the other woman\u2019s \u201cbenefactor.\u201d Erica, for example, brings no bed with her, claiming she can just as comfortably sleep on a pile of blankets on the floor. Bea is shocked, so she buys her friend a bed for her birthday, an act of generosity that sets a dangerous precedent, not least because Erica is a spendthrift while Bea is much more prudent with her earnings.<\/p>\n

We, along with Bea, come to experience Erica\u2019s mood swings: how she fluctuates from one minute to the next between intensity and apathy, outbursts of passion and activity followed by periods of introspection and lethargy. Shades of the wild, destructive Robin Vote from Djuna Barnes\u2019s Nightwood <\/em>(1936) abound. Although Bea initially struggles to understand the source of her friend\u2019s restlessness, she at least comprehends that it is \u201csomething deeper inside\u201d Erica than ordinary, everyday frustrations, \u201csomething to do with her actual being.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the two take a summer holiday together in Paris, Erica is revealed at her best and her worst. Initially, she\u2019s in her element, carefree and without responsibilities, soaking up every last detail of Parisian life:<\/p>\n

During those four days in Paris, she threw ballast overboard and sounded the foghorn for the first time. She cut the anchor and cruised through Paris like a young pirate, the wind in her sails.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The two women\u2019s idyll is shattered, however, when they meet Judy, a loud and uninhibited American with whom Erica becomes instantly \u201cfascinated.\u201d Bea unhappily finds herself relegated to a third wheel, but the speedy intimacy between the other two is tense. Erica and Judy behave \u201clike two little girls\u2014one minute they were hitting and scratching each other and the next they were wrapped in each other\u2019s arms and sharing their deepest secrets, promising to be friends forever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bea claims to not understand what couldn\u2019t be any more glaringly obvious to the reader\u2014as Faderman suggests, Bea\u2019s lack of self-knowledge \u201cforces the reader into the interesting role of analyst,\u201d and with this, our focus shifts from Erica to Bea. The fierce heat of her anger at being frozen out suggests that her jealousy is more than that of just a friend. She\u2019s like Martha Dobie in Lillian Hellman\u2019s The Children\u2019s Hour<\/em>\u00a0(1934), willing her feelings toward her friend to be nothing more than platonic in a desperate attempt to fool herself.<\/p>\n

The narration is given in retrospect, Bea looking back on her and Erica\u2019s entanglement a decade and a half after the fact (the date given for Bea\u2019s manuscript is 1954), and yet, in relating the events as they played out at the time, Bea presents herself as a gloriously unreliable narrator. She\u2019s not only slow to pick up on Erica\u2019s sexual attraction to women (herself included) but slower still to admit to the taboo desire this unleashes within her. It isn\u2019t hindsight alone that allows her to reassess the past. \u201cFor a long time,\u201d she writes at the beginning of the novel, \u201cI saw myself as an innocent bystander, but now I know that I changed my course for Erica. Whether my life would\u2019ve been better or happier without her\u2014who knows. I certainly don\u2019t.\u201d There\u2019s a hefty dose of self-deception thrown in here, too. Yet like anyone in denial, she can\u2019t help but give herself away, especially when describing her awkwardness with her then boyfriend, how torn she was between him and Erica. \u201cIn my life, men have always been like shadows waiting in the wings. There was never room for them on stage because Erica held the spotlight,\u201d she can only now confess.<\/p>\n

When, eventually, the tension between the two women reaches a crescendo, culminating in a desperate explosion from Erica, \u201cof anger, hate, and disappointment,\u201d the supposedly naive Bea protests her ignorance. \u201cShe accused me of misleading her, of driving her to confess, of letting her have her way and then humiliating her with my rejection. There was nothing for me to say. How innocent, no, how blind and stupid I\u2019d been.\u201d This episode, which occurs about two-thirds through the novel, marks a sharp shift in perspective. With Erica\u2019s true identity out in the open, and with it her feelings for Bea, it becomes apparent that, however unpredictable her behavior has been, it\u2019s actually Bea\u2019s obsession with Erica that\u2019s the more unruly force at work. Erica, at least, acknowledges who she is\u2014\u201cShe resigned herself to a nature that couldn\u2019t be changed, accepted the consequences and enjoyed her life\u201d\u2014whereas Bea, tightly trussed up in the societal norms of the era, is too ashamed to do the same. \u201cI didn\u2019t dare disturb the dark craters of my soul,\u201d she confesses retrospectively. \u201cI\u2019d simply bought myself peace of mind by ignoring who I was.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reconciled, albeit uneasily so, as Hitler\u2019s troops march ever closer, Bea becomes increasingly afraid for Erica\u2019s safety. Erica\u2019s birth father, whom Erica never knew, is revealed to Erica to have been Jewish, which means that under the Nazi classifications, she\u2019d be labeled \u201cbastard Jew I\u201d and thus \u201cwould likely suffer the same fate as the \u2018real\u2019 Jews.\u201d In unexpectedly thrusting Jewishness upon Erica\u2014\u201cIt\u2019s crazy, Bea! Now I\u2019m suddenly a Jewess,\u201d she exclaims, shaking her head \u201cin disbelief and half-amused despair\u201d\u2014de Jong cleverly draws parallels between sexual and racial identities. Both are revealed to be arbitrary, and yet horrifyingly all-determining. Despite Bea\u2019s best efforts to save her, in tandem with so very many of the country\u2019s Jewish citizens, Erica rushes headlong toward tragedy.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

The Tree and the Vine<\/em> is not autobiographical, but de Jong did draw on her own lived experience when it came to the accumulating fear, the \u201canxiety and doubt\u201d that plagued Amsterdam\u2019s Jewish residents as they learned about \u201cthe misery of the Jews under the Nazi regime\u201d elsewhere in Europe. Attuned, as Bea is, to this danger, de Jong fled the Netherlands for the safety of North Africa in 1940, only weeks before the Nazi invasion. Although she tried to convince her father, her stepmother and her brother to accompany her, they refused to leave. They were murdered by the Nazis not long after.<\/p>\n

In Tangier, de Jong married the Dutch artist Jan Hoowij, and supported herself teaching children ballet\u2014she\u2019d studied dance in both the Netherlands and England, and had performed for eight years with the Royal Dutch Ballet. The couple emigrated to America in 1941, and became U.S. citizens six years later. After she and Hoowij divorced, she made a second marriage to the American writer Robert H. Joseph.<\/p>\n

In America, she wrote and published books in both Dutch and English, earning particular acclaim as a mystery writer\u2014she won the Edgar Allan Poe Award for her 1964 novel The Whirligig of Time<\/em>. She also worked as a reader of Dutch literature for New York publishers, and was responsible for the English edition of The Diary of Anne Frank<\/em>, among other well-known Dutch titles in translation.<\/p>\n

The prominent readers and writers who admired The Tree and the Vine<\/em> from the get-go were able to see beyond its then-provocative subject matter to the virtuosity of the novel itself. Gijsen, for example, described it as \u201can important and remarkable book\u2014and not because it addresses a delicate problem with so much understanding, that\u2019s just the starting point. I\u2019m more in awe of the finesse with which Dola de Jong sketches her two main characters.\u201d This was praise echoed by V. S. Naipaul, who astutely recognized that Bea was the beating heart of the novel. \u201cDe Jong makes her narrator a real person,\u201d he wrote in his review of the first English translation in The Listener<\/em>, \u201cthe plain woman over thirty, who does not want to recognize her nature and has brief, dutiful, joyless affairs with men. Therefore, she is always lonely; her little affections and pleasures will never change that. She is not aware of the barrenness of her existence. This silence, this refusal to see, is very touching, and is delicately rendered.\u201d As Gehrman argues today, in the translator\u2019s note at the end of the recent reissue, The Tree and the Vine<\/em> is a story that\u2019s also \u201creflective of the broader female experience,\u201d a rich and poignant tale that she hopes will move every reader and \u201cpush them to think about their own inner worlds and those of the women they love.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Read earlier installments of Re-Covered here<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Lucy Scholes is a critic who lives in London. She writes for the\u00a0<\/em>NYR Daily,<\/em>\u00a0The Financial Times,<\/em>\u00a0The New York Times Book Review,\u00a0and\u00a0<\/em>Literary Hub, among other publications.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cShameless\u201d and \u201cunpublishable,\u201d the publishers called it, when they first saw the manuscript in 1950. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1670,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46439],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-145352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-re-covered"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMore Than Just a Lesbian Love Story by Lucy Scholes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"May 28, 2020 \u2013 \u201cShameless\u201d and \u201cunpublishable,\u201d the publishers called it, when they first saw the manuscript in 1950.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2020\/05\/28\/more-than-just-a-lesbian-love-story\/\" \/>\n<meta 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