Desert of the Heart
A Novel

It is a remarkable, perfect little book. It says what it has to say, in the first paragraph, and it ends just as it should. "Conventions, like cliches, have a way of surviving their own usefulness. They are then defended or excused as the idioms of living." This is a book about the conventions we ac......more

I watched the movie “Desert Hearts”, a sapphic classic, many years ago, before I even knew that this book exists. After hearing of it and learning that its author (1931-2007) was in fact a lesbian icon and LGBT+ activist, I just had to read it. Since the film is a love story, I expected the novel to......more

This book was written 61 years ago and I can’t believe how modern it felt. It highlights how much has changed but also how much hasn’t changed.......more

This is my third or fourth reading of Desert of the Heart. I came upon it via the movie Desert Hearts, but the book is so different from the movie. Ms Rule discusses the relationship between Evelyn and Ann, as it develops from the point of view of both women and their own reactions to the wonder of......more

This gem has been on my TBR shelves for a couple of years. I bought the book because of the movie Desert Hearts. This is a beautiful, complex, age gap, opposites attract love story. Evelyn is in Reno to establish residency for 6 weeks in order to get a quicky divorce. While at the boarding house she......more