I’ve found so much to discuss from this book and so let me start with a general review so that I can make the remainder a huge spoiler alert....This is the third Chris Bohjalian Book I’ve read and while I’ve enjoyed the other two, this one is my favourite. He’s taken a subject that is sensitive and controversial and wrote with frankness, plenty of well thought out perspective from many angles, and brought it to life for a reader (most likely thousands of readers) that has not known a single transsexual. He educates in his writing without making it obvious. He writes with as much curiosity as the reader reads. I don’t think there’s a better way to say it than to say that I appreciated this book. The points below contain spoilers including direct quotes from the book that I enjoyed or found intriguing....(view spoiler)[ I had been really enjoying the book, the writing style was so smooth, and yet at the point where Dana revealed to Allison that he was going for reassignment surgery, I was beginning to wonder how reading this story would have felt for me if I had not known the secret....if the secret had been revealed to the reader at the same time Allison was finding out....but then I realized we would not have had the insight and the perspective from Dana to really understand (and I was really loving this – I think Bohjalian did a beautiful job on getting this point across without too much wordiness – but rather conviction that made me understand in way I never have before....I’ve had compassion and what I thought was understanding for people who felt they were born into the wrong sex, but the perspective that Bohjalian offered on the ‘situation’ (for lack of a better word) through his character, Dana, was rather enlightening to say the least.) And then in further contemplation, I wondered, since we knew this ‘secret’ so incredibly early in the book, and since it was being revealed to Allison fairly early, that either this book is going to read like a memoir, which would be enjoyable, or there was going to be a horrible outcome mounting to a climax.....and only a few pages after I was thinking this I was incredibly saddened to read these lines: “In his opinion, the sole purpose of the transgender feature on VPR was to show Allie the error of her ways. “That was never the case, and I suppose that’s become pretty obvious now. If I’d known then how our story would end, I imagine I would have done all that I could to prevent any radio programming at all about transsexuality and gender.”As sad as I was to read these lines, if I hadn’t already been hooked by the mere curiosity of Dana’s feelings and life, I was certainly hooked now. And nearing the end, I was surprised to find such a twist.....and then it makes me wonder why Will would make the statement that he did, as quoted in the above two paragraphs...I absolutely loved the part of the novel where Will asked Carly what she thought of Dana.....Her response made me smile just by the simple use of the pronouns....to show her respect for Dana’s feelings, Carly’s open-mindedness....her response was this: “Well, she’s a little weird and I have my doubts. But I like her. I like her a lot.”I love that this book discusses perspectives from every angle – For example, Will is not just a character who thinks Dana is crazy and doesn’t approve of reassignment surgery – he is a guy that started with an opinion against reassignment and does research that supports his opinion – he is not open minded, but rather looking for ways, for solid intellectual reasons that validate his own – and in this way the reader is allowed the benefit of seeing these different angles. For example, Will points out “The fact is, no hormone was going to turn Dana Stevens’s Y chromosome into an X. No surgery in the world was going to offer him the particular history that went along with growing up female. No procedure was going to give him the joys or the terrors that must accompany pregnancy—that must, for teen girls, make sex a walk over Niagara Falls on a tightrope.“You simply couldn’t, it seemed to me, change a biological imperative.“When I realized what Dana was going to do, I saw at best a parody of feminity. I saw the sort of man who could set the women’s movement back decades. Look at me, the transsexual screams, I’m a girl! I’m wearing a dress!”I also have really enjoyed the humour in this book – I feel that while some characters poked fun of some of the points of transsexuality or of Dana’s or Allie’s situation, the humour was light, mostly respectful, made a point and got a chuckle from me regardless of the stance it made. And in a few spots, the humour was pure irony, as blatantly even pointed out here:“Here’s an irony too good to pass up: The last name of the surgeon who in 1952 turned George Jorgensen into Christine? Hamburger. The guy with the knife was named Hamburger.”Carly’s Grandmother, Allie’s mother, visited near Christmas before Dana’s surgery and met Dana for the first time – this was during the time that Dana was beginning to wear dresses to ‘try out his new gender before making it permanent’ (I really like Dana’s opinion on that aspect by the way – a perspective I think most readers would appreciate about authenticity.) Carly’s Grandmother’s take gave for some humour as well, but perhaps even some more open-mindedness than most would think from that generation....I loved her closing comments so much, and Dana’s response:“Well, dear,” she said to Mom, “we all need to try new things now and then. Let’s face it: The first person to eat a lobster must have been a very brave man.”“Or,” Dana said, smiling, “very, very hungry.”A theme throughout this book was living the life you were meant to live – to be who you are.....and we see Dana finally getting the physical means to live who she is....and yet something that really bothered me throughout was that Dana wished for Allie to continue to be her lover....in a sense, asking Allie to be gay when clearly she was not....asking Allie to be someone she is not....and it was as if in spots Dana could not see this whatsoever....After the surgery, and preparing for the trip back home, Dana thinks:With any luck, I’d be back with Allison by dinner Thursday night, and we’d begin what I hoped –no, what I expected—would be a long and glorious and serene life together. And having said that, I can’t imagine Allison having to ‘fight’ for her job with the conviction it was going to take – how could she have conviction when she was agreeing to attempt a life living in a manner that was not who she was ? Even if she was supportive, even if she couldn’t bear not to have Dana in her life, how could she live as someone else entirely? And how could Dana expect this of her when Dana experienced how deeply painful it was to be expected to live as someone else for 35 years?The book addressed so many moral issues that leaves us to ponder – How would it feel to BE a transsexual? How would you react if your daughter fell in love with a M2F? or a F2M for that matter? (Is this any different to your reaction if your child was to tell you he or she was gay?) How would you react if your young children were in a classroom with a teacher who cohabitated with a transsexual ? How about your neighbour? Is being transsexual in your opinion about sex or about gender? Is trans-sexuality a mental health disorder in your opinion? Sometimes words or sentences just stick out to me, express something I haven’t been able to express as well as I’d like to....gives me a way to say what I’m feeling.... and there was such a statement in this book....The first part is just to set up where the sentence was coming from “Was I nervous when I first started wearing women’s clothing? Lord, yes. But I also felt movie-star fabulous........” then later..... “You can’t imagine what it’s like after a lifetime in the wrong attire to finally fee the right clothing energizing your body.”Energizing, describing clothing and even further, the RIGHT clothing, that was meant for you....oh, I understand this ! It’s awful to stuff yourself in clothes that are too tight or a fashion that doesn’t feel good....It’s horrifying to wear men’s shoes and feel like you’re are clomping around like a dinosaur simply because your feet are too wide....and it might feel cozy and comfortable to slip into a pair of jogging pants and sweat shirt, but it’s also a feeling of laziness, followed by guilt and eventually depressing....but when you find the right fit, the right style, the right material it IS energizing ! (hide spoiler)]
If you're looking for an introduction to transgender issues, this may be a great book for you. I wasn't. It seems apparent to me that the author thought the idea of a trans character was so intriguing that he would research the phenomenon and write a convincing book about the world of the transitioning MTF. I guess this is what authors do, and I can't fault his research -- as far as I know nothing he said in the book was inaccurate. It was, however, bland, predictable, and ultimately implausible.My biggest problem was with the obsessive way in which this transition was the only issue in any of the characters' lives. The story is told from four points of view, that of the MTF, her girlfriend, her girlfriend's ex-husband, and her girlfriend's daughter. The play on words in the title is grating, as the father, and ultimately the daughter, too, are involved in public radio.Whenever Bohjalian ventures away from the transition (which I feel as if I should capitalize or italicize to highlight its importance as it is emphasized in the book), which is rare, the story sags and becomes paper thin. We see the ex-husband go through a divorce that barely concerns him. We hear about the daughter's love affairs as if they're handshakes in a parking lot. It's apparent that Bohjalian wanted to talk about one thing, and one thing only: the transition.Maybe I'm jaded, being a part of the queer community, and having a number of friends who have transitioned. Maybe I've read too many coming out stories, and I'm bored with the focus on one event in a person's life taking over everything. Queers have other interests than their genetalia, I swear. Even people whose genetalia is not aligned with their gender.Finally, the ending was predictable and convenient, and though it was satisfying to have a happy ending for a couple of characters in the story, I also felt disappointed, and disbelieving. Do we really need to return to the comfort of heterosexuality to find happiness? Should we read that into the ending? Perhaps that is Bohjalian's answer, but it sure isn't mine.
What do You think about Trans-Sister Radio (2001)?
Does it All Come Down to Muscle Spasms?This was the choice for our December book club and, as it turns out, the only reason I read it. Overall, it was a highly unpleasant reading experience because I had little interest in the subject matter. That’s not to say the writing wasn’t good and the characters weren’t well drawn . . . it is to say, that the core of the story was completely outside of my comfort zone.This is the story of a male college professor, Dana, who falls in love with an adult female student named Allie, just prior to his gender reassignment surgery. Set in a small Vermont town, when Allie decides to stand by Dana during and after the surgery, she becomes the town pariah. As a sixth grade teacher, Allie faces an unsupportive school administration and parents who pull their kids from her classroom. Meanwhile, her ex-husband, Will, and their daughter, Carly, are featured prominently through chapters of first person narration (interspersed with accounts from both Dana and Allie), and we learn about the evolution of their acceptance (and lack of acceptance) of the situation facing their family. Will works for the local public radio station and gets to the core of the story of the male to female transsexual and his female lover’s decision to standby him/her for broadcast, and ultimately it’s Carly who brings the story to NPR’s All Things Considered.I’m willing to bet it’s the NPR angle that led my book club to this choice. Trans-Sister Radio succeeds at indirectly showing how the seeds of an extraordinary story comes to fruition on a respected show like All Things Considered; however, as for the story itself: Descriptive details of either male or female genitalia and the intimate act of coupling, for me made this book distasteful at best. Regardless of whether the sex acts were about male/female or female/female, throw a transsexual into the mix, too often it made me want to throw the book aside. It was an odd feeling to juggle the concept of people wanting their private lives to remain private, and yet readers are given a magnifying glass to look inside AND know that the entire story was broadcast over the airwaves not once but twice.Unless you have a strong interest in the subject of gender reassignment or you know a transsexual and would like to understand the mindset of this individual, I don’t see any reason to spend time reading this book. If you’re a public radio fan and want to know more about the inner workings of a radio operation, perhaps All I Did Was Ask by Terry Gross would be a better choice.
—Michele
My book club chose this one, and because I am fascinated by the whole transgender issue, I found it a worthy read. When a divorced 40-something year old teacher, Allison, falls for her college professor,(Dana, and finds out after the fact he is transitioning to a she,there are a lot of questions raised. Will Allison still love Dana after he becomes a woman, if not, why? If so, does this make her a lesbian? Along the way of discovering what she wants, the town, the principal of her school, her daughter and her ex-husband have to deal with their own perceptions of Allison and Dana's relationship. I found the character of Dana not as well developed as I'd have liked. What I liked were the descriptions of what it was like to experience this radical change, and to see it through Allison's eyes. I would have liked it better if I could have understood whoDana was and what made her make the choices she did.
—Nitya
An account of a transsexual who has his/her gender reassigned, and the effect this has on her relationships and the community in which she lives. I suppose Bohjalian really believed he was doing a service to transsexuals by writing a sympathetic account of their experience, and maybe he would have been if it had been a better book. In fact, it's both plodding and prurient -- an amazing achievement! It's about genitals, not about the people who have, or change, those genitals. Bohjalian doesn't bother to give the characters credible personalities, and they all sound alike. Each chapter is told by one of the four principal characters in turn, but that soon becomes monotonous and gimmicky since none of them has a voice sufficiently distinctive to make us give a care about what he or she thinks. Compare this book to, say, Jeffrey Eugenides' Middlesex, and it's obvious what a trashy potboiler it is.
—Vicky
