Out Of Time

Out of Time, by Paula Martinac, shows that all relationships must deal with problems and compromises. In class we have talked about many relationships and they all seem to face problems of all kinds. This novel tells the story of a girl, Susan, who is in a lesbian relationship with another girl named Catherine. In the novel Susan finds a scrapbook from the 1920's and the people in the scrapbook unravel their lives to her. In this novel you see the problems and compromises that Susan and Catherine had to deal with such as, lies, deception, cheating, and living accommodations. You also find out the lives of the people in the scrapbook. In the 1920's Harriet and Lucy, a lesbian couple, also had many issues to deal with such as, cheating and giving up one's life dream for their hope of love.

Catherine had to deal with many secrets and lies from Susan. Susan got a scrapbook from an antique store and for a while she hid it. "I hid the album under my bed and did not even tell Catherine about it" (Martinac 8). She kept the book a secret for a while because she didn't want to tell Catherine how she got it. Susan quit her job at Columbia but didn't want Catherine to know about it. Susan felt, "I had a good on the spot imagination. I realized she might never have to know I left at all" (Martinac 24). Susan figured she could just lie her way through the entire relationship or at least for along as she felt it would be necessary before she was ready to tell Catherine the truth. "She asked about classes and I said they were the same" (Martinac 26). After she got the job at an antique store she pretended that she didn't have a job there and still worked at the school. Catherine even saw her at the shop with Magielove saying goodbye to her and questioned her on how the owner knew her name. But Susan lied again, "That's the shop I told you about, the one where I got the scrapbook" (Martinac, 41). She didn't want Catherine to find out she worked at the store or how she actually got the scrapbook. Susan didn't tell the truth until she had to. Catherine had caught her. Magielove had died and left the shop to Susan. Susan had given Magielove Catherine's number, incase of an emergency. When Magielove died Susan was upstate looking for things for the shop. Magielove's lawyer had called her. Catherine said, "The lawyer said she was your employer" (Martinac 71). After this Susan realized that she had to start tell the truth and told Catherine everything. Catherine was upset and they ended up going on a break, though they still loved each other.

Susan was dishonest in other ways too; she had cheated on Catherine. Susan was lying down and felt like she was kissing someone. When it was over Harriet said, "That's what a kiss was like in 1926" (Martinac 49). She was kissing the ghost of a person who had lived in the 1920's. When Susan had went upstate she had an affair with Harriet's spirit. Susan claimed that, "Her mouth tasted like melted chocolate and brandy." Susan had said to Harriet, "But Lucy and Catherine." Harriet told her that, "Its for your education" (Martinac 55). When Susan woke up the next morning she was very confused. Susan felt that this was cheating. She was worried. "The concern that Catherine would know I'd been unfaithful shot back and fourth through my head all day" (Martinac 68). She had never cheated on Catherine, let alone with a ghost. This was a problem. Cheating on your significant other is a very harsh reality. How can you trust someone if they cheat on you? This situation is a little different however. If Susan told Catherine it would sound crazy. Catherine would be very worried about her sanity.

Sometimes love is questioned with living accommodations. Catherine and Susan lived a decent distance away from each other. "Catherine Synege lived on the Lower East Side on Henry Street, a world away from my apartment on the Upper West Side,"(Martinac 10) the narrator, Susan, had stated. Not living together with your significant other often causes problems. "It had almost been the ruin of our relationship several times in the three years we had been together...I was often asking her to move in with me, and she would counter by prosing I move in with her" (Martinac 10). Neither Susan nor Catherine wanted to move out of their apartment they wanted the other to move. So when they went out they needed somewhere to meet. "There seemed to be no good compromise, unless we wanted to meet in the middle, somewhere around the Public Library" (Martinac 10). After Susan got the scrapbook they spent much time at Susan's looking through it. Catherine was tired of going to Susan's, but Susan didn't want to go to Catherine's. Catherine to Susan "You haven't been to my place in weeks... why do I always have to do the traveling" (Martinac 24)? They didn't spend the night together because neither wanted to move. At the end Catherine and Susan ended up moving in Elinor's house. Elinor was one of the people in the scrapbook that happened to be alive. She ended up dying in the novel before they moved into her house. Elinor felt that Lucy "was too lovestruck to care" that she was being cheated on (Martinac 149).

Susan and Catherine had different ways of thinking about the scrapbook. While Susan would have these stories in her mind based on what the ghosts were telling her and her imagination Catherine kept looking for the proof. This annoyed Susan because she knew it, yet it wasn't proof enough for Catherine. Susan was beginning to be tired "...of the conscientious historian who would never believe anything without a small