the danish girl. david ebershoff. (311)

after i saw the trailer for the movie version of the danish girl, starring eddie redmayne, i decided to read the novel.  the movie looked interesting so decided to read the novel, before i saw the film. before i go on, i have to say redmayne makes a beautiful woman.

based on the trailer, i learned that the movie and the novel are based on a real person, a transgender woman from the 1930s, lilli elbe.  i was hoping to learn more about this person, but unfortunately this novel is a fictionalized record of her life versus one based in some truth.  due to this, i have to add that i did have issues reading this work because i kept on wondering what was true and what was made up.  if i had read the author's note at the end, first, it would have made my reading experience, a little more bearable.

i should give one compliment to this work, i did appreciate that it got right to the action.  the novel opened with the incident in which einar dressed like a woman for his wife, greta's painting, which led to his cross dressing and later transition to a man.  it was great that the novel dove right in and then we learned of the characters' pasts in flashbacks.

i will add that i did enjoy the characters greta and carlisle.  i loved how supportive both were of einar/lilli.  however, this is where my compliments end.

the issue that i had with this novel that though it was about a transgender individual it was insensitive to the transgender experience.  i can't speak for the community, but i doubt they were happy with this work.  the first thing that i disagreed with was the feminizing of einar's body, once he realized he enjoyed  wearing women's clothes.  all of a sudden his lashes were long and his breast plump.  this was an issue because there are no physical attributes that reflect one gender, even genital is not an indication because if that was the case, transgender as a category would not exist.  i thought it was insensitive of the author to describe einar as such, as though to say of course, he was transgender, he looked like a female to begin with, though that is just bad stereotyping.  effeminateness in men and masculinity in women is not an indication of gender or sexuality and for ebershoff to imply that our physical body is a reflection of our gender identity made me think him unqualified to write about a transgender character.

another issue, i had was the duality he created in einar was more akin to dr. jekyll and mr. hyde, then to a person coming into oneself.  again, i thought he did a disservice to the transgender community by presenting einar as two different characters.  it was difficult to believe that einar would have no recollection of his time as lilli nor lilli unable to recall any of einar's memories.  if einar's brain switch on and off like that, he would be a schizophrenic or have multiple personalities.  it was too literal of an example for the conflict that einar had. instead of giving the reader insight on the stress one has in determining their gender indentity, it reinforced the fact that society only finds female and male as definitions of gender.  

last, but not least, though i have no insight on their marriage in real life, it was outrageous to assume that greta would be supportive yet so uncommunicative. it seemed so odd how she and einar would not discuss how he would dress up as lilli.  for her to be so forward thinking and have a "western backbone", it would be assume that she would discuss this with her husband, but they both pretended as though it did not occur.  this aspect of the story made no sense to me, their conversations could have been an excellent discussion on acceptance and tolerance yet it never occurred.

i also do not believe that hendrik's would have been so understanding.  i am not saying that transgender people can not find love, but for it to be the 1930's and for him to be fine with lilli's past, seemed a little too clean cut for me.

i am glad i read this book because i was able to learn about lilli elbe, though this novel does not give an real insight on her life.  i did feel that it was insensitive to the transgender experince and could have been written better.

every day. david levithan. (257)

i came across every day on that search for a christmas gift for my cousin.  the premise sounded amazing and i loved david leviathan's other works but decided to go with something more recent.  however, when i saw it listed on times' 100 best young adult books, i decided to check it out myself.

every day was the story of a, a soul/spirit/possible devil or demon (we never find out for sure) that wakes up in the body of a different person each day and leaves at midnight while asleep (to avoid the pain of being pulled from the body.). a did not have a gender or sex nor any understanding of what a was or why or how a is placed in bodies.  a had rules to avoid disrupting the lives of the people he inhabits but that all changed when a met a girl, rhiannon.

i will say i was shocked by how quickly the book got started.  i assumed that we would see a in a series of bodies before a fell in love but the action started quickly.  

i don't want to giveaway any details of this book because i want people to read it.  plus my rehashing of the story wouldn't do it justice.

and though i did get a bored with the actual love story and didn't support a's decisions to disrupt the person's day so a could see rhiannon especially the kid that missed his flight to hawaii!  i have to praise this book for it's lessons on acceptance and tolerance.  a assumed bodies of every race, class, gender (including trans), sexual orientation, even mental illness and it was amazing because by doing so it demonstrated that underneath all of our identities we are human.  i think this alone is the reason to read the book and is a great lesson for young adults.  i also admired that the couple that demonstrated to a what love truly is and how beautiful it can be was a lesbian couple.  

if you haven't read this book, you need to an interesting story with great lessons about the human experience and a love story to boot!!

adam. ariel schrag. (236)

i requested adam after seeing it on flavorpill's must reads for june.  the premise sounded interesting, adam, a teen visiting his sister for the summer in new york became immersed in the lgbt community and mistaken for a trans person.  i imagined a book in which a sheltered young man learned an important life lesson of tolerance and acceptance.  this did occur but not in the way that i had expected it.

as i read and definitely once i was done, i wandered how the trans community felt about this work.  as an individual outside of the community, adam was very informative, i learned about how trans people identify themselves, the various procedures and methods they use tontransition and during transition and the political issues they support.  but at the same time, this teenager lied to an entire community and no one seemed to notice.  i mean that can speak to how truly accepting the community is that one can define themselves as they please and no one questions it.  however, it can also be framed as adam exploiting the community which is extremely intolerant.

i felt very uncomfortable reading about adam lying, to the point where i had to put the book down.  i know that in the end, gillian knew the truth all along, but that does not make adam's lying acceptable.  i was completely shocked that adam had sex with gillian without him telling gillian that he was not trans. i felt that adam violated gillian by not telling her the truth about his identity.  and i know people lie all the time about other factors ie wealth, relationship status, love, etc. to have sex with others, but i think one should be aware of their partner's gender prior to their having sex.  even though adam used a dildo, i still felt that he took advantage of gillian.  call me old-fashioned, but i do believe that you should be honest with the people you have sex with.

and i guess this is what schrag wanted to bring into question.  after i read adam. i googled to see how the trans community felt about this book and came across and article on book slut.  in it, the interviewer brought up the fact that he (i hope i am using the proper pronoun) does not feel the need to disclose that he was trans before having sex with someone, however, after reading adam, the interviewer needed to rethink this.  i personally believe that a trans person should reveal that they are trans.  i know that it's insensitive to request it since they are the gender that they identify with, but i think the other individual should know.  i know there is the risk of rejection due to this knowledge, but ideally we should have sex with people who accept us for who we are.  and i mean this for everyone, trans, cis, straight, gay, call me old-fashioned (again), but sex should be with people that appreciate you for being yourself.  (sorry that got really preachy).  i have never dated or had sex with a trans person so i can not say how i would react if i met a guy that i really liked, only to go home and found out he was born a girl.  if i really liked the guy, i would hope that i would be okay with it, but to be honest, i probably would be weirded out by it.  i don't know how i would react, but i would be glad that they were honest with me, instead of penetrating me with a dildo.  the dildo penetration, which i thought of as penis, i would view as a violation of my body.  i am not sure where it would fall on the spectrum of sexual violence, but to an extend, it would need to be frame so because i was consenting to having sex with a man and not a woman with a dildo.  i mean if it as a cis man that penetrated me with a dildo without my consent, i would definitely frame that as rape.  and this is essentially what adam did.  i don't know.  i hope i am not being insensitive, i just don't know what i would do if i was in gillian's position.  i guess to certain extent, your intuition would tell you, but still.  i know i would not be as cool about it as gillian.  i think i would be insulted more about being lied to then anything else in terms of identity.

and i have to add, adam was annoying at times.  i felt bad for the guy, i mean he was a teenager and they are that horrible, but sometimes i was like some trying so hard kid and be yourself.  in the end, he did learn to be himself.  i did think it was great that he became interested in gender identity.  all in all, an interesting read and a look into a subculture that the mainstream is not familiar with.  i also highly recommend reading the book slut interview after reading the book.

boy, snow, bird. helen oyeyemi. (214)

i had seen helen oyeyemi's boy, snow, bird on amazon and the cover caught my eye.  later, i saw it as an ebook when i downloaded the app the library used.  however, i finally considered reading it when my friend juliana got a copy at bookcon.  then while browsing the beale library while waiting for my aunt and uncle i was surprised to find it with their new releases, i figured it would be out on request. i decided to amazon it's description, and came across this:

As seen on the cover of the New York Times Book Review, where it was described as “gloriously unsettling… evoking Toni Morrison, Haruki Murakami, Angela Carter, Edgar Allan Poe, Gabriel García Márquez, Chris Abani and even Emily Dickinson,” and already one of the year’s most widely acclaimed novels

garcia marquez!!!! haruki murakami!!! toni morrison!!! i had to check it out!!!

though i will say it did have some elements of the authors mentioned the writing did not fill me with whimsy like garcia marquez and murkami.  nor did i connect emotionally like i did with morrison's characters.  however, this was still an enjoyable read, my expectations had been raised due to the review.

*****spoilers beyond this points stop if you plan on reading this!!!!******

boy, snow, bird is set in the 40's, the first part is the story of boy novak who at the age of eighteen ran away from her (yes, she is female) abusive father.  her father worked as a rat catcher and was demented randomly hitting her and once leaving her to be attacked by rats in the basement.

boy ended up in a small town, flax hill.  at first boy was complete out of place in flax hill but soon made it her home.  she ended up marrying a widower, arturo whitman.  initially, they did not like each other but eventually he fell in love with her.  boy, however, married based on a strong connection she felt with his daughter, snow.  snow was a beautiful little girl and boy was entranced by her until boy became pregnant.

if you go on goodreads, a lot of reviewers bitched about boy, snow, bird, not being a worthy play on snow white.  i can see the strings that connect the fairy tale to the novel and those that want more, go watch abc's once upon a time.  

after the new baby is born, bird,  boy became a wicked stepmother.  with the birth of bird, arturo's family secret was revealed.  they were black, they had been passing as white in town though some individuals knew the truth.  bird did not have fair skin like her sister, snow.  as a result, the family treated her differently, they did not revere bird like snow.  also their reverence for snow came to light, it was not simply her beauty but the fact that she looked white.   boy began to resent snow for her whiteness and eventually sent her away to live wuth her aunt clara.  clara, arturo's sister, like bird, had a darker complexion and to avoid her revealing the family secret, she was sent away.  boy unable to deal with bird's complexion called clara so that she could send . . . snow away!  i was surprised by this, i thought boy was going to send away bird (which isn't any better).  boy sent away snow becaming an evil stepmother, she started to loathe snow based on the way everyone catered to her, just like snow white's evil stepmother!  

what broke my heart was that even though snow was revered this did not change how she treated bird.  snow was the only one that loved bird unconditionally.  it was so sweet to see snow being loving and affection toward her sister.  boy and arturo's mother, olivia, did not truly love bird and kept her at a distance.  snow was sent away because boy was jealous of the treatment she received and knew that her daughter would never be an equal.  this placed olivia as the enemy but really it was boy because she did not see bird as worthy of anyone's love.  snow was a constant reminder of bird's "otherness" and so boy had her sent away.

the middle part of the book was told from bird's perspective, who is now in middle school. from her we learn just how self-loathing olivia whitman was, not only racist towards blacks but also distant from her granddaughter.  bird was aware of her grandma's dislike for her, but thankful she was not completely damaged by it.

in this middle section, bird discovered that snow wrote to boy and later bird but boy never passed them on.  bird decided to start writing to her sister and they exchange a handful of letters between each other.  in their letters, we see the magical realism of garica marquez and murakami.  bird shared how she spoke to spiders and calmed them down once they heard humans knew the stories of ansai.  they also shared fairy tales back and forth about la belle capuchine.  bird sharing the story that her grandmother, olivia, fired for telling her.  it was the story of a slave that looked like her owner.  the slave was given privileges due to her likeness and this made her turn against the slaves.  one day a man came to free the slaves and locked the family up, when he came to release the slave, he mistaken the owner as the slave.  the slave asked another slave to help identify her but he turned his back on her.  while snow's la belle capuchine is beautiful but dangerous.  she has a garden that is deadly.

the girls also discovered that both are not always in mirrors.  boy also had issues with mirrors, always captivated by herself in them.  mirrors are utilized to symbolize identity.  snow can not see herself because her completely self is never seen by others, everyone thinks she is white but she is not.  bird can not see herself completely for the same reason, people take her only for her exterior and not her interior.  the reason for boy's mirror obsession is not revealed until the end.

in the second section, snow finally returned home and the tension and stress of this was discussed.  a surprise visitor also appeared in this portion.  frank, boy's father, came and took bird not realizing she was his granddaughter. he then told bird how boy almost did not live, for after birth she was sick.  he also told her that boy was evil.

the last section has a crazy surprise ending.  mia, boy's friend, discovered that frank is actually boy's mom!  it is discovered that frances was a lesbian and raped by a man.  she became pregnant and lived in a shelter but was eventually kicked out.  then one day as explained by mia, she looked in the mirror and there was frank.  she then became frank.

i was not anticipating this at all, i was expecting boy's mother to turn out to be black, not that her father was transgender.  i admired oyeyemi for this plot twist drawing parallels between racial prejudice and sexual orientation prejudice.  though it was disheartening to see people on goodreads bash the ending though i think it's their own fear of  transgenders.  a surprise twist was not unexpected, as mentioned i was anticipating her mother being black so it's not like a twist could ruin it.  the negativity has to be the fact that her mother was transgender.  most people thought it was ridiculous and unbelievable but i think it is plausible, transgender people have existed thoughout all of history, but it's just that now with the lgbt community being more visible that everyone is coming out of the closet.  i mean time magazine recently did a cover about transgender with the cover title "the transgender tipping point". i thought it was an interesting twist and did not lessen the story.

in the end, boy decided to rescue her mother.  boy enlisted snow, bird, and mia to help her save her mother.  the story ended with their leaving flax hill for nyc.  though these is no resolution i believe that they save frank.  having a family that sees you for who you truly are and accepts and loves you, fixes everything.