Critique de CHOICE

Lifelong, closeted lovers, historian/sociologists Grace Hutchins (1885-1969) and Anna Rochester (1877-1966) are identified with the Left-leaning, largely secular educational journalism that defines the radical/progressive socialist intellectual tradition of the 20th century. Janet Lee's edgy Comrades and Partners (CH, Jul'00, 37-6454) took on Hutchins's and Rochester's "shared lives" but fell short in articulating their transition from Christianity to communism. Allen (emer, English, Sonoma State Univ.), a specialist in deconstruction of political rhetoric, is at home with the rich body of sources surrounding the two women. She lets FBI files and correspondence from/to them create the story, weaving sympathy and dispassion into her scrutiny of the muted drama of their private lives. Set against a backdrop of semi-secret, supportive love, this account becomes exhilaratingly, complexly cinematic. One is enmeshed with the two women as they grow into keen, articulate political analysts, struggling to separate Soviet faith from political knowledge; one is alive to the prolonged torture of the FBI/HUAC witch hunts--the politics of fear that made homosexuality a brutalizing weapon. In the end, Rochester and Hutchins's unconquerable bond triumphed; the red-baiting that sucked them under represents the nation's tragedy, not their own. Photos and illustrations, endnotes, rich bibliography. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. F. Alaya emerita, Ramapo College of New Jersey