The first thing we did was change our names. We were going to be Sappho.
-- Narrator (Prologue)

Importance: In the novel’s opening line, the collective narrator—made up of numerous lesbians and feminists—resolves to change their names, thereby defiantly asserting their individuality. Important, this personal reinvention allows the community of lesbians to adopt identities that bring them closer to Sappho, their personal and poetic idol.

In fact there were many questions of women; the demands of immigrant women were not the same as those raised by countesses. Suffragists wanted the vote; schoolteachers wanted literacy campaigns; the matrons of foundling houses wanted aid for unwed mothers.
-- Narrator (chapter 3)

Importance: Early in the novel, Schwartz presents a complicated and nuanced portrayal of the women’s rights movements. Although the use of a collective narrator in the novel suggests a certain solidarity and even uniformity among women, Schwartz acknowledges here that the “demands” (28) of women are deeply...