Deborah Emin

Scags at 30 Deborah Emin

Scags at 30 is the third volume in the Scags Series. Now she is in New York City to work at the job of her dreams, to find the love of her life and to become a part of the cultural scene. Yet, with each of these wishes comes the opposite problem. A job that won't allow her to be out as a lesbian; a lover who has lots of secrets; and a very male-centric world to contend with. Scags at 30 is written as an epistolary novel, continuing the first-person formats that she has used in the previous volumes (Scags at 7, first person present-tense vignettes; Scags at 18, a diary).



In 1981, she also finds something she had not expected to find, a faith in God. Introduced by her ex-nun lover, Margaret, to a group of lesbians who go to a church that has welcomed the LGBT community, Scags is in a constant struggle to know who she is and where she belongs. The overriding problem is who she loves and how she can be with those who do not accept that her love has meaning. Whether she is with her work friends, whom she has dubbled the Kultur Klub or the Artist Squatters, a group of young artists trying to make it downtown Manhattan, Scags' quest for acceptance is the underlying mission of this novel. By adding the element of faith into her life, she both has a place to be and another set of problems to solve.



All of Scags' troubles become overshadowed as Margaret's secrets change Scags' life irrevocably.