In the face of changing tides in gay acceptance, the individualistic Rule remained staunchly opposed to queer nuptials. Alongside strong words on such issues as state censorship (Rule’s literary works have been seized by Canada Customs), the book reveals facets of the author’s personal life, from life on Galiano Island in B.C., where she was a beloved children’s lifeguard, to her grief at the passing of her partner of more than four decades, Helen Sonthoff, in 2000 Some are as old as 1990, others penned scant months before Rule’s death. The 38 short essays in Loving the Difficult reflect a passion for controversial ideas first honed during Rule’s early days as a columnist for the radical gay journal The Body Politic. In Loving the Difficult, a final collection of essays – the author died of liver cancer last November at age 76 – she offers a distinctive perspective on topics from sex and pornography to aging and coping with loss. Forty years and 12 books later, Rule is considered a pioneering Canadian author and thinker. In that book, a May-December romance between two women unfolds against the backdrop of the Nevada desert. When her first novel, Desert of the Heart, was published in 1964, Jane Rule’s academic career was threatened because of its content.
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