The Rebellion of Miss Lucy Ann Lobdell

Starred review from July 8, 2013
In Klaber's fictional memoir set in 1855 and based on a true story, Lucy Ann Lobdellâafter being deserted by her husband and leaving her young daughter, Helen, in the care of her familyâleaves Basket Creek, N.Y., and begins a new lifeâas a man. As Joseph Israel Lobdell, Lucy moves first to Honesdale, Pa., and teaches music, then to what was then Minnesota Territory, doing odd jobs. After being outed as a woman both in Pennsylvania and Minnesota, Lucy ends up in the Pennsylvania poorhouse, where she resumes living as a man. Lucy later marries Marie Louise Perry by a justice of the peace who doesn't know Lucy's true gender, and she finally ends up committed to an insane asylum. All that is true and verifiable. What makes this story stand out is the author's skill in imagining the life of a transgender man in a time when women had virtually no power in the world and when any identity other than straight and cisgender was considered a grave mental illness. By serving as Lucy's voiceânot to mention doing what was obviously a great deal of historical researchâthe author becomes her advocate and encourages readers to do the same. A unique and important book.

Starred review from February 15, 2015

Making his fiction debut (originally self-published in 2013), journalist Klaber (Shadow Play) has cleverly constructed a wonderful story of the very real Lucy Ann Lobdell, a headstrong, free-thinking 19th-century woman who was very much ahead of her time. Drawing on the research of New York historian Jack Niflot, the narrative follows Lobdell on her adventures as she struggles to define herself in a man's world and to reinvent her own sexual identity. Klaber divides the book into three sections: Lobdell's stint in Bethany, PA, as a music teacher; her time in the Minnesota wilderness dealing with unbearable cold and living among Native Americans; and her years traveling through various parts of Delaware and Pennsylvania. VERDICT Covering the same period as Laird Hunt's Neverhome and Kathy and Becky Hepinstall's Sisters of Shiloh, this novel is similar to both titles in terms of exploring a woman's journey of self-discovery in a time when women had little freedom or rights. This is an important book that will take its rightful place in the annals of quality historical fiction.--Mariel Pachucki, Maple Valley, WA

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from February 1, 2015
Klaber's fictionalized memoir of the nineteenth-century woman known as both Lucy Ann and Joseph Israel Lobdell feels so dead-on it's uncanny. Ms. Lobdell was, if not the first, at least the most notorious openly (not by choice) gay woman of her time. Born one of four children in New York State, Lucy never felt that she fit in. From an early age she loved to hunt; being on her own in the forest felt more natural to her than pursuing more traditionally feminine pursuits. Following a disastrous marriage and being abandoned by her husband, she and her daughter, Helen, moved back into her parents' home. With job and wage prospects dim for women, Lucy made up her mind to leave and pursue work far from home as a man named Joseph Israel Lobdell, after her grandfather. Klaber comes as close to channeling Lucy/Joseph as a writer can, expressing her pain, loneliness, and confusion as she falls in love with and becomes sexually attracted to one of her violin students. Needless to say, the personal turmoil of life as Joseph could come to no good endor middle wayand Klaber navigates those waters with admirable skill. An early contender for the year's best lists.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)