Summary
Summary of I Am a Woman
Key ideas
Key idea 1
Laura searches for a new life
In Ann Bannon's I Am a Woman, Laura Landon arrives in Greenwich Village after a painful college love affair. She needs work, friends and some way to live with feelings she has been taught to fear. Her search leads into a hidden world of bars, parties and small apartments, where she meets Beebo Brinker.
The story brings Laura's private hopes into contact with the pressures around her. Finding love means more than meeting someone: it also means asking whether she can accept what she feels.
Key idea 2
Heartbreak follows Laura into the city
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Key idea 3
Belonging comes with risks
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Key idea 4
Beebo offers courage and closeness
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Key idea 5
Friendship and desire pull Laura apart
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Key idea 6
Shame shapes Laura's private choices
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Key idea 7
Sympathy brings hidden feelings into view
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Key idea 8
Ordinary love calls for courage
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The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
Read the rest freeWho it’s for
For readers who love romance with real emotional stakes, lesbian history and mid-century New York, and stories of friendship, desire and the courage to be yourself.
What this book is
I Am a Woman is a novel by Ann Bannon, the pen name of Ann Weldy. It first appeared in 1959 as a cheap paperback from Gold Medal Books, a publisher that sold to drugstores, bus stations and newsstands. It is the second of five books that readers now call the Beebo Brinker Chronicles. Bannon wrote it when she was young, and she wrote about women who loved women at a time when few books dared to.
The story follows Laura Landon, a young woman who comes to Greenwich Village in New York after a painful love affair in college. She is looking for work, for friends, and for some way to live with what she feels. What she finds is a hidden world of bars, parties and small apartments, and a tall, striking woman named Beebo Brinker. You get a close look at one woman's fear and hope, and at the pressures that surrounded her. Let us begin with Laura's arrival in the city.
In this summary
- 1Laura leaves heartbreak for New YorkFree
- 2Greenwich Village opens a hidden world
- 3Beebo Brinker walks into her life
- 4Friendship and loyalty pull Laura in two directions
- 5The book asks what it costs to be yourself
- 6A pulp paperback with a serious heart
Key point 1 of 6
Laura leaves heartbreak for New York
Laura Landon is the young woman at the center of the story, and readers of the first book, Odd Girl Out, already know her. In that earlier novel she fell in love with Beth Hollis, a fellow student, and the affair ended in pain. I Am a Woman begins after that loss. Laura has left her old life behind and arrives in New York, a city big enough to hide in.
She does not come as a rebel with a plan. She comes as someone who is hurt, lonely and short of money. She needs a place to sleep, a job and a way to pay for both. Like many young people who move to a big city, she is starting again with very little.
The book makes clear what Laura carries with her. She has learned that her feelings are real, yet everything around her tells her they are wrong. Doctors, families, churches and the law of the time all treated love between women as sickness or sin. Laura has taken some of that judgment into her own mind. When she walks the streets of the city, she is arguing with herself as much as with anyone else.
That inner argument is what gives the opening its pull. Laura wants to be ordinary, and she also wants to be loved. The question that drives the early chapters is whether those two wishes can live together. New York gives her a chance to find out, and it will not be an easy one.
That’s 1 of 6 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Check yourself
What inner conflict does Laura bring to New York?
Right. “She has learned that her feelings are real, yet everything around her tells her they are wrong.”Not quite. “She has learned that her feelings are real, yet everything around her tells her they are wrong.”
What does Laura see in Beebo that draws her toward her?
Right. “Laura sees courage, and Beebo sees a tenderness she may not have met before.”Not quite. “Laura sees courage, and Beebo sees a tenderness she may not have met before.”
Why does community matter to the characters?
Right. “Even when people fail each other, they offer something that the wider world does not.”Not quite. “Even when people fail each other, they offer something that the wider world does not.”
Questions about I Am a Woman
What is I Am a Woman by Ann Bannon about?
It follows Laura Landon, who moves to Greenwich Village after a painful college love affair. She finds a hidden community, forms new friendships and meets Beebo Brinker, while struggling with shame and the pressures of 1950s society.
Do I need to read Odd Girl Out before I Am a Woman?
It helps but is not required. Odd Girl Out tells of Laura's earlier love for Beth. I Am a Woman picks up afterward and can be followed on its own, though some background adds depth.
Who is Beebo Brinker?
Beebo Brinker is a tall, short-haired, confident young woman in Greenwich Village. She becomes central to Laura's story, and she gives her name to the whole five-book series that Ann Bannon wrote.
When was I Am a Woman written and is it a true story?
It was first published in 1959 as a Gold Medal paperback. It is a novel, not a true story, but it draws on the real world of Greenwich Village and the lives of women in that era.
Is I Am a Woman worth reading today?
Yes, if you enjoy emotional romance and want a first-hand view of lesbian life in the 1950s. The feelings and the courage in the story still hold.
