“Annie on my mind” by Nancy Garden was published in 1982 and it’s a classic of contemporary lesbian literature. And, furthermore, a jewel of a storyline in female teenagers coming out lesbian literature with a happy ending.

The storyline features Liza (Eliza Winthrop) and Annie, two teenage girls who meet at the Art Museum and get along especially well as friends, but their relationship buds so much more into an unexpected love. They live in Brooklin/Manhattan, New York.

Annie’s family has Italian roots and she lives in a not so great neighbourhood and goes to a not so safe highschool, a state one, but she is very grown up, she loves music  and she wants to go college in Berkley, California to follow a career in music.

She is an open minded, very pleasant young woman and she is at peace with her feelings as she knows from a younger age that she is been attracted to girls.

Liza’s family is a bit richer and she goes at Foster’s high, a private one and she expects to go to college to MIT.

She is an introvert and she is the students president council at her school, which causes her many troubles with the schools frontwoman Mrs. Pointdexter . She loves her other teachers Mrs. Stevenson and Mrs. Wildmer who happen to live together. She doesn’t have really good friends, but she has a great relationship with her colleague, Sally and her boyfriend Walt.

One incident starts the fire: Sally created an ear piercing event for the other students and she asks them for money for this at Foster’s. Of course, Mrs. Pointdexter finds out and Sally is somehow punished but forgiven in the end, still Eliza has the greatest burden and a name to clear as she has broken the school’s most valuable role : when you see such an event that can bring such a bad publicity to Foster’s you, as students council’s president should have reported it.

Liza is unaffected by this situation and she is very happy that she has Annie in her life and she realizes her love for her more and more.

Liza and Annie need a place for intimacy rather than a park, a museum or their rooms at home. The opportunity comes when Mrs. Stevenson and Mrs. Wildmer go on vacation and ask Liza to feed their cat.

I loved the first person narrative and the characters were beautifully constructed and enveloped in the storyline.

The turning point is weather: Liza and Annie get caught and how their relationship can survive distance. In a secondary portrait, how about Mrs. Stevenson and Mrs. Wildmer ?

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