Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden

Annie on My Mind

Author: Nancy Garden
Country: United States
Genre: young adult, romance, lesbian
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Date of Publication: 1982

It is a story of 2 high school students Annie Kenyon and Lisa Winthrop who fell in love with each other. They study in different schools, Annie in a public school while Lisa in a private school. Lisa meets Annie in a rainy afternoon at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and immediately became close friends even though they have different backgrounds and priorities in life. Annie's family is struggling but still dreams of pursuing college at the University of Berkley to hone her singing talents while Lisa on the other hand is well off. Lisa is already decided that she will pursue college at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and finish architecture.

As they become closer, conflicts arise. Lisa, being the student body president, has to think of ways to raise funds so that her school would remain open. One of her friends made a poorly planned fund raiser , an ear-piercing event. That incident had her suspended for three days due to poor judgment on allowing the event to happen and had one student's ears become swollen because of poor sanitation. Her suspension coincided with the coming Spring Break so she had a lot of free time until classes resume. During her vacation, they grew closer and intense feelings developed among them. They had their first kiss and Annie admits that she's gay to Lisa. Also, during their vacation, Lisa had to take a part time job by taking care of her teachers' home and feeding the cats. Her two female teachers live together. Lisa took Annie to her teachers' home. They sort of made the house their "love nest", probably practicing living in together. They didn't have any intimate activities yet but each and everyday they are together in that house, sexual tensions get stronger and stronger. One day, they went to the bedroom and discovered reading materials related to homosexuality. They both learned that the teachers were gay.

They made love in the bedroom when suddenly someone came knocking on the main door. Lisa knew that the teachers won't be home yet. It was Lisa's principal knocking and she caught Lisa and Annie in a bad light. The teachers also arrived home unexpectedly and also saw them. The principal has just confirmed the two teachers having an "illegal" relationship and thus were in the brink of getting fired in school. The principal accused the teachers as being bad examples to students and allowing their house to become a "lesbian love nest". Lisa was also at the brink of explusion and when classes resumed, she had a "trial" together with the school board officials. The two teachers were fired from the school while Lisa got away and graduated high school. Right after graduation, both the girls pursued college apart.

My Commentary:
The book is very easy to read, I actually finished it in just a few days. Finding this book really is a pain in the ass because all the the bookstores I went to for the past year would always say that it's out of stock. The moment I saw this book at the shelf, I immediately grabbed it. This book is one of the must-reads if you are starting to read lesbian literature.

While I was reading the book, there's a something tingly inside me, you know. I remembered how it felt like when I had my first love. It's not because I am not yet over with this person but because of the feeling of young love. You would probably remember when you had your first love right? This book actually shows that whatever straight people feel about their first love, it's also the same with the gays. Some would say that the story is quite mushy but what the hell, it's intended for young adults who are exploring their gayness. This book actually became as one of the must-haves of teenagers to survive homophobia.

In 1993, one lesbigay group in the US called Project 21, donated gays books to the Kansas City high schools as part of their project of eliminating homophobia. Annie on my Mind was one of them and some parents didn't like the idea of this book, specifically gays books, being easily available to teenagers. They burned the copies of Annie on Mind which were donated and even the books that were already in the library for several years. After a year of battling to return the book into the shelves again paid off. It was proven as blatant discrimination.

There was also a play based on this novel which was staged at Kansas City in 1994. The play was entitled "Banned Book Theater".

Loving Annabelle

Loving Annabelle (2006)
Directed by: Katherine Brooks
Starring: Erin Kelly as Annabelle and Diane Gaidry as Simone Bradley

The film is about a 17 year old "juvenile delinquent" senator's daughter named Annabelle who had to transfer to a Catholic School to "rehabilitate" her. Annabelle fell in love with her 30 year old literature teacher named Simone Bradley. It was actually Annabelle who pursues Simone, who apparently was a closet lesbian in school but the teachers and even administrators knew her history as a lesbian. Annabelle found out that Simone was a lesbian when she went to her house and discovered a note written by her former lover. Hesitation actually came to Simone's mind first because she's not yet over with her former lover and of course it is against school rules to have an affair with a student. They had a rendezvous after the high school dance and eventually got caught the morning after by the administrators of the school. After that Simone was arrested and that ended the story.

The irony of the whole situation is actually the setting itself: everything happened inside the Catholic School. The writer probably would want to show a mini-'controlled environment' like this one, to show the control of religion over people. However, the usage of this setting, an all-girls Catholic School, only proliferates the idea that lesbianism only happens in all-girl schools (which is so untrue). I am not denying the fact that from the school I came from, an exclusive school for girls, these things happen. In fact whenever I say the school I came from, there is already a judgment of "oh, that's why you're a lesbian".

The story is very simple and easy to grasp however it seemed that the writer wanted to sensationalize things like Annabelle being a senator's daughter, happy go lucky, deviant, etc and Simone being a former lesbian ( or a has-bian), a teacher, obedient etc.. The 2 main characters' extreme opposite characteristics and the setting itself make the story sensationalized. I say sensationalized because it seems that it just wanted to attract attention. In addition, there was no resolution. Simone was just arrested then THE END. Lastly, it did not give the audience the opportunity to assess what needs to be done in the status quo, but if you want something to watch that would not make you think too much then this film is for you.