After 32 years as a Professor of French and Applied Linguistics, Virginia turns to her own story: identity, reckonings, and what came after.
Author & Educator
“Spanning nearly six decades and three continents, this engrossing memoir traces one woman’s sexual awakening amid a reckoning with family secrets.”
University of Wisconsin Press
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“I was not quite fifteen and the wall of safety that surrounded my family had been breached …. Neither Mother nor Dad ever said anything to me. That night I understood we had a secret – a family secret.”
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“I put the torn dress in the bottom drawer of my dresser, under a jumble of clothes. I never told anyone. I never cried. I pretended it had never happened.”
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“In minutes the papers were signed, and we were divorced …. It was over. I had lost custody of the boys, and I was a known lesbian.”
What the critics are saying
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Queer identity
“A clear-eyed and soul-searchingly honest investigation of queer identity.”
– Sheila Liming, author of Hanging Out: The Radical Power of Killing Time -
Multilayered story
“A complex, multilayered story told simply—not so much a coming-out story as a story of coming in—into herself as woman, mother, and daughter.”
— Lara Lillibridge, author of Girlish: Growing Up in a Lesbian Home
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Living openly
“Riveting, poignant, and exquisitely written, Glorious Indiscretions is a multigenerational tale about the costs of keeping secrets and the joys of living openly as our true selves.”
— Suzette Mullen, author of The Only Way Through is Out
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An indomitable woman’s journey
“A riveting and self-reckoning life narrative of an indomitable woman’s journey to authenticity in all aspects of life and love. Wonderful!”
— Kate Daniels, author of Slow Fuse of the Possible: A Memoir of Poetry and Psychoanalysis
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Glorious indeed
“This memoir travels the world in its rich contemplation of sexuality and desire and the painful repercussions of family secrets. Scott turns a lens on herself, navigating cultural and linguistic differences, sexual violence, and frustrating social conventions with admirable candor and even humor. When she finds her truth, in her lover and partner, in their blended family, in repaired relationships with her parents, and in the splendid poodle Idgie and her descendants, Scott reveals the glory of a life lived in the light of honesty.”
— Carolyn Dever, author of Chains of Love and Beauty: The Diary of Michael Field