It is hard to believe this M.E. Kerr novel about a teenage lesbian in rural Missouri was written almost ten years ago, since it is still easily one of the best young adult novels about lesbianism ever written.

The story is about a farming family in Duffton, Missouri, which includes Mom, Dad, and three siblings--twenty-year-old Douglas, who is away at the state university trying to decide what to do with his life, eighteen-year-old Evie, who loves farming with their father, and sixteen-year-old Parr, a boy who wants to do anything but farm.

The novel is told from Parr's point of view, and chronicles several months in which the family changes dramatically when Doug decides not to become a farmer, Evie begins a relationship with the daughter of the most prominent family in town and subsequently leaves the farm, and Parr's fears of inheriting the family farm cause him to act out in a way that impacts everyone--and his relationship with the girl he loves.

Evie has always been "different"--she wears her hair short, she prefers men's clothing, and she walks in a "masculine" way. In short: she's butch.

Her girlfriend Patsy, on the other hand, is the epitome of femininity--so of course, everyone assumes that Evie must have seduced Patsy, that Evie is the bad influence. "Someone like Evie gets all the blame," her mother fumes. "She's the funny one, the fluke...and Patsy Duff is just a rebel with a wild streak."

The book is careful not to stereotype Evie's family as ignorant rednecks. Although they clearly don't understand homosexuality and wish Evie wasn't gay, there is no talk of throwing her out or forcing her to change. Instead, they alternate realistically between denial and acceptance, criticism and support, at times even displaying a keen insight into the unique problems Evie will face. "If Evie is a lesbian," Mom tells Parr, "she's got a bigger problem than some other girl would have who isn't so stereotypical."

But when Evie moves to New York to start a new life, her mother cautions her "Don't seek out the gays. Think about that lifestyle, Evie. That's a very narrow life." To which Parr responds in the background, "Not like ours. Not like staying in Duffton Missouri, on a farm, your whole life."

There are few enough young adult novels that deal with lesbianism at all, but almost none that take on complicated issues like butch and femme and passing the way Deliver Us From Evie does. This book is also exceptional because it has a relatively happy ending for the lesbian character(s), without painting an unrealistically rosy picture of the difficulties Evie faces, either.

Kerr is particularly adept at exploring the way information can change relationships, especially when that information challenges one's view of the world; Deliver Us From Evie not only dispels stereotypes about lesbians, but about farmers, as well (another underrepresented group in young adult literature).

By weaving together Evie's sexual identity issues with Parr's fear of becoming a farmer and Doug's decision to become a vet, the novel ends up being a story about the freedom and consequences of being true to yourself, in whatever form that may take.

Amazon.com: "Deliver Us From Evie"