Touchwood

By: Karin Kallmaker

Narrated by: Angela Dawe

Length: 7 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's summary

Twenty-nine-year-old Rayann Germaine, betrayed by her lover, flees in grief and rage. She meets book-store owner Louisa Thatcher, a woman many years her senior, who offers shelter and work...and soon, passion, and a loving place in her life.

But Rayann encounters challenges to this new love - from friends who question its wisdom, from her mother who disapproves of this liaison with a woman her own contemporary, from Louisa's son who learns for the first time his mother's true sexuality.

And there are profound differences between Rayann and Louisa themselves, two women who come from dramatically different places in the spectrum of age and life experience. Their only common ground seems to be the searing attraction that they both try to deny....

©1991 Karin Kallmaker (P)2021 Tantor

My partners and my favourite lesbian novel.

This adaptation of Touchwood is really well read 10/10 would recommend to anyone looking for a romance.

Wow!

I could listen to Angela Dawe for days! Perfect narration!!!
Karin Kallmaker is such a good emotion writer. Her stories are creative in a unique way to me. I wasn’t sure if I’d like this story, I’ll confess in part due to the age gap. But it worked. I loved the book and will likely listen to it again in the future.

I loved this book

A look to the history of lesbians, in a very interesting way. I loved it, this is a very well written story, with interesting MC wi age gap, and narration is WOW

An Unlikely Pairing

Rayann Germaine comes home early to find her girlfriend with another woman. Fleeing to Oakland she meets Louise Thatcher who runs a book store and offers her a room for her help with her business. Louise is 59 and Rayann 29 but that doesn’t stop the feeling and passion growing between them. A great depiction of the differences between generations of lesbians and gays. Awesome narration.

A classic so beautifully brought to life!

Ohhhh the nostalgia I felt listening to this wonderful classic! When I was a very young lesbian, the only way to find lesfic was by traveling to one of the gay and lesbian bookstores sprinkled throughout the United States. There wasn't the opportunity to go on Goodreads to read a review to determine if a book might be something you were interested in or order one on Amazon. In my case, I would drive four hours to enjoy a weekend in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and couldn't wait to peruse the bookshelves of my favorite gay and lesbian bookstore to stock up on books that would have to sustain me until my next trip. The only thing to go by was the description on the back of the book or perhaps a recommendation of a bookshop employee. Each book was a unique treasure of representation that so rarely existed outside of those books.
One of the books I picked up then was Touchwood. It was my first experience with an age gap romance - and a significant one at that. At the time I was younger than Rayann so related to it from her perspective. Thirty years later, it's very interesting to revisit it more from the eyes of Louisa.
It really is a blast from the past in so many ways. Back when the hot new computer was a MacIntosh (not a Mac), that used floppy disks. When you could run a bookstore without a computer. Rayann, at age 29, is a lover of classic movies and refers to them often. Many young readers may not recognize those references unless they love classics themselves. Back when society was beginning to change for the better for gays and lesbians, but for those in Louisa's age group, theirs was a much different experience and spilled over into their current lives.
I say this so people will know what to expect and I hope younger lesbians will give this a read. In this case, listen. It's our "herstory." A snapshot of life in 1991. It reminds some of us and teaches others what it was like for those that came before us.
For those that didn't buy the 30th edition novel, I suggest you do because Karin's introductory thoughts looking back on the work are insightful. Additionally, there are restored scenes and passages that were cut from the original.
This verrrrry slow burn romance is honest, beautiful and yes - sexy.
As for the narration - wow. What a dream to have Angela Dawe narrate this book! When I heard her deep, nearly sultry Louisa voice, I almost slid off my chair. And I was THRILLED to hear her interpretation of a significant secondary character, Zoraida, who is Hispanic. One of the things that drives me insane is when there is a character in a novel who is Hispanic and the narrator can't pronounce the words that they speak in Spanish. Considering it's the second most commonly used language in the United States, you would think a narrator could work on getting that right. Dawe absolutely nails it. Every time I think I can't possibly admire her skills more than I do, she blows me away yet again. As the greatest ones do, she elevates the experience of this already wonderful book.
Is this book dated? Yes. Should that stop you from listening to it? No. It's a snapshot in time of those that came before us whose sacrifices and actions resulted in the freedoms and rights we have now. These stories matter. And as romances go, it's so very affecting and thought-provoking.

I Love Age Gap Romances

I listened to this a couple of times on Scribd, a place where I “audition “ books, and if I really love them, I will buy on Audible. This book is so well-written and covers the subject so well. It is a loving, sensitive, sensual story…and I just love it.

Sublime age-gap f/f romance

Set in Reagan-era San Francisco, Kallmaker's story of an artsy 29-year-old at loose ends who discovers the woman of her dreams in the semi-closeted 50-something bookstore owner who offers her a job and a "room of her own," is to swoon for in Angela Dawe's spectacular, emotionally vibrant narration. I had avoided reading this story when I realized it was the prequel to Kallmaker's fiercely angsty "Watermark," one of my all-time favorites (not yet in Audible, but one can hope). In a way, I'm glad I waited for Dawe's rendition: she nails the emotional pull between the deeply attractive, deeply conflicted older MC, Louisa, and the somewhat passive and immature Rayann, whose untapped intellectual and human potential richly blossoms with Louisa's gentle guidance. Rayann has just emerged from a toxic relationship with a successful professional woman who whittled away at her agency and was unfaithful behind her back. Kallmaker very skilfully portrays the contrast between this exploitative love and the deeply honorable Louisa's gradual surrender to Rayann's best qualities, which leads to the eventual discovery of their exceptional erotic compatibility. Emotionally, Rayann is a work in progress, but she is wholly out of the closet: sexually she is far more experienced than Louisa. In critical respects, the two women complement one another. Age is irrelevant in light of this complementarity, which is cemented by a shared literary sophistication. This love story set in a more optimistic time is also a window into Kallmaker's playful wit, her real wisdom, beautifully captured by Dawe. Here's hoping that "Watermark" also gets the Angela Dawe treatment.

A must

Angela Dawe was amazing! And the story, wow, it was amazing!! I didn’t want it to end. How hard it was back then. But I really appreciated how Louisa was so detailed about her story and how it made me understand how really hard it was. Just great writing!

Not A Favorite

This was a nice story but not my favorite. It seems the romance happens really fast after a 3 year breakup. There is too many sexual descriptions even though it was in good taste. I didn’t feel the story ever had a crescendo and actually I became a bit bored towards the end.