{"title":"Books by Jane Rule","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9781844086788","title":"Desert Of The Heart","description":"\u003cp\u003eSet in the late 1950s, this is the story of Evelyn Hall,  an English Professor, who goes to Reno to obtain a divorce and put an end to her disastrous 16-year marriage. While staying at a boarding house to establish her six-week residency requirement she meets Ann Childs, a casino worker and fifteen years her junior. Physically, they are remarkably alike and eventually have an affair and begin the struggle to figure out just how a relationship between two women can last.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDesert of the Heart examines the conflict between convention and freedom and the ways in which the characters try to resolve the conflict\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56308173308277,"sku":"9781844086788","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781844086788_d66a99e0-dab6-46d4-9ffa-36f85e14c52b.jpg?v=1786028558"},{"product_id":"9780349020877","title":"Desert Of The Heart","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThis was the freedom she wanted, an animal freedom exposed to the emptiness of sky and land and water. As she stepped forward, Ann flipped into the water and was gone.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Evelyn Hall, running from her disastrous marriage of sixteen years, arrives in the neon-lit desert heat of 1950s Reno - the only place in America where she can apply for a quick divorce. Arriving at her guesthouse she meets free-spirited Ann Childs, a casino 'change girl' fifteen years her junior. Overwhelmed by both the vast, lonely beauty of the Nevada desert and her magnetic attraction to Ann, Evelyn must gamble all her own certainties and conventions to win a new kind of freedom.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Bold, witty and shimmering with desire, this groundbreaking 60s novel is an unforgettable queer classic.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eINTRODUCED BY JACKIE KAY\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'An undisputed lesbian classic' SARAH WATERS\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Intelligent and utterly believable' JOYCE CAROL OATES \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Brave, bold and brilliant' JACKIE KAY \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56367977922933,"sku":"9780349020877","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780349020877_479c37c5-646d-4030-97f0-5aa94cae1d50.jpg?v=1786013675"},{"product_id":"desert-of-the-heart","title":"Desert of the Heart","description":"\u003cp\u003eWhen Jane Rule’s first novel, \u003cem\u003eDesert of the Heart\u003c\/em\u003e, was published in 1964, it was an auspicious beginning for a writer who would build a reputation on her unflinching views about sexuality, relationships and the painful constrictions of societal convention. Even more astonishing is the way in which the novel has retained its cool quiet beauty and power of expression decades later.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEvelyn Hall is a literature professor who travels to Reno, Nevada in the summer of 1958 in order to obtain a divorce and thus put an end to her disastrous sixteen-year marriage. She is divorcing her husband on the advice of his psychiatrist because, this being the ’50s, he believes that Evelyn’s success is causing her husband’s depression. During her six-week stay at a boarding house (a residency requirement) Evelyn meets Ann Childs.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAt once, the narrative enters an aesthetic space that calls to mind the mythical preoccupations of Thomas Mann, the philosophical speculations of Frederich Nietzsche, the artistic theories of Camille Paglia, and the wry ironic humour of Iris Murdoch. They rapidly become aware of an increasing tension, arising in part from the generational gap between Evelyn and this young woman who bears a striking physical resemblance to her.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAs for Ann, she is most alluring in her representation of freedom to Evelyn, from her innate artistic prowess to her unconventional liaisons amid the smoky nocturnal backdrop of casino life. And once these women have found the promise of a significant relationship, Rule’s rather open-ended question is whether or not it can survive the toxic atmosphere, not simply of an unruly gambling town, but of the past sorrows and hardships each of the characters is attempting to put behind them.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe title derives from W.H. Auden’s elegy for Yeats—“In the desert of the heart \/ Let the healing fountain start.”\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57483353882997,"sku":"9780889223011","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780889223011.jpg?v=1786178494"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-jane-rule.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}