Reviewing a book is rarely a simple exercise and those who think it is should pause before accepting the commission. It is a delicate exercise, this balancing of critique, subjectivity, envy and even-handedness. You never quite know if you have hit the right balance. A nagging fear of being ungracious, and revealing too much of the self, can result in days of procrastination. This degree of difficulty is multiplied when reviewing a book that directly attacks one’s chosen way of life, as is the case in this book’s denunciation of gay male sexual practice. So let me be honest. I had a pretty good idea what I was getting into when I agreed to review Sheila Jeffreys’s latest lesbian feminist offering, Unpacking Queer Politics. Nine years ago, I wrote a review of Jeffreys’s work for a postgraduate politics journal. It was a ‘swingeing critique’ - a phrase Jeffreys deploys frequently in Unpacking Queer Politics when she approvingly cites likeminded theorists - and Dr Jeffreys was none too pleased. As we both worked in the same building at Melbourne University, this made for some uncomfortable elevator rides.