Amazons

A faux memoir by Cleo Birdwell, the fictional first woman ever to play in the National Hockey League – but it’s long been an open secret who the real author is. First published by Holt in 1980, and out of print for over fifty years, AMAZONS is a wicked satire of objectification at the intersection of sex and sport, told through 24-year-old Cleo Birdwell’s first year in the NHL, recounting what the New York Times calls ‘frequent, explicit, elaborate and often very funny’ sexual encounters with men whose common characteristic, ultimately, is the absurdity of their male gaze. This, combined with the novel’s equally sharp sense of the commodification of sport, so often also driven by and for the benefit of men, gives AMAZONS that sense of cultural satire which characterises Don’s astonishing body of work.