Backcast

By: Ann McMan

Narrated by: Christine Williams

Length: 11 hrs and 7 mins

Publisher's summary

When sculptor and author Barb Davis is given an NEA grant to pair original feminist sculptures with searing first-person essays on transitions in women's lives, she organizes a two-week writing retreat with 12 of the best, brightest, and most notorious lesbian authors in the business. But in between regularly scheduled happy hours and writing sessions, the women enter a tournament bass-fishing competition, receive life coaching from a wise-cracking fish named Phoebe, and uncover a subterranean world of secrets and desires that is as varied and elusive as the fish that swim in the waters of Lake Champlain.

Set on the beautiful shores of Vermont's Lake Champlain, Backcast is richly populated with an expansive cast of endearing and outrageous characters who battle writer's block, quirky locals, personal demons, unexpected attractions, and even each other during their two-week residency. For Barb and each of her 12 writers, the stakes in this fast-moving story are high, but its emotional and romantic payoffs are slow and sweet. Filled with equal parts laugh-out-loud humor and breathtaking pathos, Backcast serves up a sometimes irreverent, sometimes sobering look at the hidden lives of women, and how they laugh, love, lose, and blunder through their own search for meaning.

©2015 Ann McMan (P)2015 Audible, Inc.

Well written and told

This story had both comedy and tragedy.The author was able to spin this tale out and reel it back in so all of the pieces fell together and provided the story with a very heart felt and warm closure. Well done, I highly recommend its reading. I was thoroughly touched by this book. I have read it and listened to it. It is worth to experience both platforms.

Gets seriously churchy

Not sure where the editor was on this book, but all of the BS Church(y) stuff could have been edited out without disrupting the story. Definitely should have cut some of the ending. It was an okay story, performance was fine, silly story about suicide (not sure why they added that, has no value to the story).

was ok

Not my favorite book by this author, had trouble following because there were so many characters to get to know. Maybe I will give it another try when I can focus just on this book.

What a book!

I started this book thinking I would never keep remember all of the characters,but each one is unfurled like a rich tapestry. It is one of my all time favorites and I will be enjoying rereading it for years to come. I highly recommend it.

Great story!

loved the funny characters and their interactions! I was surprised by a few of the plot twists. Too bad I couldn't see the sculptures!

Great

I took a chance on this one and I wasn't sure I was even going to finish it. Turned out to be a real good book. I was happy I read it.

Reality Can Be One Tough Topic

If you could sum up Backcast in three words, what would they be?

Herstory is past.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Mavis or Pheobe

Which scene was your favorite?

The last scene. Too bad it was just the snake that got shot. Maybe just a kneecap or something, but dude got off easy.

Who was the most memorable character of Backcast and why?

The character development was two sided. We knew something about their past, even though we can't now attribute the past to specific characters, which is one of my complaints about the use of the epilogue... Otherwise, GREAT character development. Good stitching of friendships together and how each woman balances the other.

Any additional comments?

I'll start with my most positive thoughts and leave my grumpiness for last...
One of the things that I admire about Ann McMan as an author is that she writes from a place that allows her to speak frankly and authoritatively regarding religion and LGBTQ issues. She does this respectfully, not pigeon-holing the whole lot of them, but not letting them get away with their ignorance either. It's a delicate road to walk. Based on her use of scripture across all of her books to which I have listened, I'd say she spent some time with the Bible. She very well may have been raised in one or more of the southern states. Here's the crux... If you're gay and a Christian, gays will give you a ration, because you're a Christian. Christian's will give you a ration, because you're gay. It sucks. Maybe, at least the LGBTQ folks could just not be so hard on us for a spiritual belief, regardless of their anger of own spiritual beliefs or lack thereof... Anyway, I respect Ms. McMan for her work and what I perceive she is trying to accomplish with it -- accomplish in addition to excellent story telling....

I have heard several books of late that dive into the ugliness that represents our not-just-American-but-particularly-American religious handling of LGBTQ young people. I know it extends to older people, but older people have at least developed some bit of defense against the crap that goes on in our world. Young people don't have those tools. Anyway, it's hard to read it. It's hard to take it in and allow it "to be" in a way that will allow us to actually learn from that crap and figure out how to do something better for kids. We can see how stupid that crap is. We can see how it affects kids. Some of us know exactly how it affected us. Listening to it, hearing it, it's hard. It engenders anger and frustration. It's reality, though. I feel like I have to listen to all of the stories like that, because I have to have the most accurate sense of those things and understand them. I haven't experienced *all* of it. I can only learn from other peoples' accounts.

I gave the Story rating only 4 stars, because A. Though I may have become accustomed to the jolting transitions after awhile, that was more of acquiescence. I stopped fighting the transitions, because it was distracting me from the rest of the really great content. Also, I think the transitions, as the story went on, were accomplished more gracefully. B. Since I was unable to figure out which herstories went with which person, and, because I really would have liked to have had the exhibit explained, if even based on the models that were created, I feel like the Epilogue was just a final chapter and not the traditional wind-up-the-story-with-a-neat-bow that most often are. The opportunity to clear up some of the mysteries and to provide that nice bow was wasted.

I shared the first two paragraphs of this on my website, handsacrossthepond. Cheers!

Reality

Once again Ann has written a very interesting book. Sometimes we don't realize how people were raised and how they were perceived. But I Ann found a way to put her humor in this book and I love Quinn.

Wow.

This was truly a literary work of art. It takes some time to get into the book because you need to commit early on, to remembering the characters and their lives, their stories. I was blown away by the personal stories, each one unique and very diverse and representative of an everyday women. Take a chance on this and be sure to last past chapter 5, you'll thank me.

Women on a mission and out for fun

This is the first book by Ann McMan I have read. I really enjoyed the diverse cast of characters and the relationships they have and how they grow and change through the course of the 2 weeks the book covers. It is almost a representation of all the possible directions relationships can take. The way the characters create their essays and the story they weave make this an even more incredible read as it adds history to the current happenings in the novel. The wonderful narration that Christine Williams provides makes this an great listen. It is no small feat to create voices for so many women in one novel. Christine did and outstanding job. I would suggest this book to anybody who enjoys WLW/Lesbian literature and romance.