Vickers’ new novel, Breathing Underwater, explores similar themes, painting the story of a former beauty queen mother and a daughter who labels herself as “Not the Right Kind of Girl.” While Vicker’s piece on Salon.com was bittersweet and darkly dramatic, Breathing Underwater uses wry humor and elements of the absurd to explore the bonds between parent and child.

One couldn’t quite call Breathing Underwater a comedic novel. There is just too much about the story which comes across as disturbingly and horribly real. Take for example when “Mama,” a former beauty queen who once dreamt of being Miss Florida, takes Lily and her siblings fishing one morning and Lily nearly drowns while her mother looks on, “weighing her gains against her losses.”

However, the dark elements of the book are balanced sweetly by the author’s sly wit in portraying the near-surreal natures of many of the novel’s characters. Although Breathing Underwater certainly has its share of dark moments, bitterness and pained sarcasm, it is Vickers’ ability to insert subtle humor into a tale which could easily cross over into a stereotypical lesbian angst novel and lifts the book into the realm of true literature.

Until next time!