Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters is a novel about a trans woman, Reese, a once trans woman, Ames (Amy), and Katrina discussing and prepping to have a child together. Reese and Ames used to date when Ames had once been Amy, a trans woman. However, when Reese begins to secretly date a married man, Stanley, and Amy finds out, their relationship turns sour. This creates a rift in their relationship, and is one of the suspicions Reese has of Amy’s detransition: that Amy was scared not of being a woman, but of how others saw her. Ames then comes back into Reese’s life after he gets his boss pregnant and isn’t up to being a parent, so decides to enlist Reese, who really wants to be a mother, in raising Katrina’s child. As they get to know each other, Katrina invites Reese to an essential oil party where Katrina reveals to her friends that she’s pregnant and Reese reveals that she’s trans. Then, at a dinner later that day, they are at a restaurant when a man Reese recognizes, her boyfriend, arrives to the dinner as the husband to one of Katrina’s friends. This causes Katrina to truly question Reese as a person, and whether she would be fit to be included in her family. Eventually, after an angry email, and a walk into the frigid ocean, Reese tries to convince Katrina to keep the child, though Katrina is already at this point apprehensive. Though, the novel ends at this moment before the abortion appointment, with the rest of what happens being implied.
I really liked the frankness of the novel as well as the way Peters weaves in the past and present. It feels as though I’m getting a close look at the intricacies of queer relationships, how people view them, and what it means to be a person. Peters shows her characters, not as the quintessentially perfect queers some media tends to do, but as people who make mistakes and have to owe up to their actions. It’s a beautiful rendition of what it means to desire motherhood, exist as trans, and what people will do to fight for created families. Final Rating: 4.5/5
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The Florida Review 47.2 features a collection of poetry, fiction, and non-fiction of which I enjoyed a few. I particularly liked ‘Antidote’ by Ben Kline, ‘Indulgences’ by Garrett Biggs, ‘Elegy with Snake Twisting my Blistered Tongue’ by Alejandro Lucero, ‘Suspended in Flight’ by Diane Gottlieb, ‘OWLS’ by Kathryn Campo Bowen, and ‘A Chest of Drawers’ by Jason Brown. I liked the flow of ‘OWLS’ in the way that the two men try to find their friend, Vanessa, after a night drinking where she wanted to have sex with one of the men. All the characters are studying law, with the speaker planning to write a novel but it never comes to fruition. In the end, they find Vanessa, as she is not lost, and is annoyed they went looking for her. I found this collection to be a generally solid read.
Final Rating: 3.5/5 Let’s Go Let’s Go Let’s Go by Cleo Qian is a collection of stories mainly about Asian American women living lives that are surreal, magical, or supernatural. There were many stories I enjoyed, particularly, ‘Chicken. Film. Youth’ about a man who has a theater attached to his chicken restaurant, ‘Wing and the Radio’ about a famous singer and a radio host, ‘The Girl with the Double Eyelids’ about a girl who can see strange tattoos on people’s skin after she gets surgery on her eyes which then leads to finding out her best friend is dating their Chemistry teacher, ‘Let’s Go Let’s Go Let’s Go’ about a group of friends doing an experimental art piece by streaming their lives in a remote house online, ‘Power and Control’ about a woman who is an alchemist and tries to keep her girlfriend with her by manipulating and controlling her, and ‘Seagull Village’ where a woman, Miho, is the only surviving person in the town after the earthquake in Japan. It’s a brilliant collection and I was completely enthralled by the drama that ensued within ‘The Girl with the Double Eyelids’. Qian uses the surreal and supernatural in ways that aren’t overbearing, but lead to the story’s climaxes (either in the weird tattoos revealing something about the character’s inner lives or the changing or reality to benefit a relationship). Overall, I really enjoyed the collection.
Final Rating: 5/5 Story Winter 1993 is a collection of short stories. Many of the story were decent, either dealing with grief, adultery, or loss of a child. Though, I particularly liked ‘The First Snow’ by Daniel Lyons, which is about a father whose family finds out he’s gay after cops catch him in the park, and his son, who is a high school senior, tries to understand and deal with the revelation of his father. The father, it seems then “over corrects” for him being gay by taking his son out shooting birds. Other stories I found interesting were ‘God’s Door’ by Sally Savic, and ‘Jacinta’ by Charles D’Ambrosio.
Final Rating: 3.5/5 The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie is a collection of interwoven stories about the people living on the Spokane Indian Reservation. The stories deal with alcoholism, generational trauma, poverty, and what it means to be Native American. I particularly liked ‘Amusements’ about a few friends who leave their passed out friend on a roller-coaster, ‘This is What it Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona’ about a man and his friend going on a trip to collect the ashes of his father, and ‘The Trial of Thomas Builds-the-Fire’ about a man on trial where he describes the atrocities his past generations have faced with white Americans. Though, my favorite story in the collection is ‘Jesus Christ’s Half-Brother is Alive and Well on the Spokane Indian Reservation’ which is about a man who has to care for an orphan with a head injury. The story goes on to describe the character’s desires, life, and interactions with the child who continues to grow but not speak. It reminds me of the grief found in Kenzaburō Ōe’s short story, ‘Aghwee the Sky Monster’.
In reading this collection, I have reflected on how Alexie’s sexual harassment has tainted his reputation and his writing. In part, I was curious as to the merits of his writing, which in the case of this collection to be substantiated. Though, also I am conflicted with reading and supporting work from a person who abused his power. For this reason, while I enjoyed the writing and the stories, I have felt that giving it a lesser rating makes the most sense. Final Rating: 3/5 Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar is a novel following the recovery of an addict, Cyrus Shams, and his desire to make himself a martyr. After his mother dies in a plane shot down by US forces, Cyrus and his father, Ali, move to America to try and leave their grief behind. Ali gets a job at a chicken farm cleaning eggs and tries to support Cyrus until he goes to college. Cyrus attends Keady University where he meets Zee, a soon to be friend/lover, where they start doing drugs, at one point nearly chopping Cyrus’s toe off while high with an axe for a voyeuristic man. However, Cyrus begins to spiral into addiction where he finds himself finally crawling out of with the help of his sponsor, Gabe. While two years sober at an open mic, and attempting to write his book on martyrs, one of their friends suggests Cyrus travel to New York City from Indiana to meet an artist. The artist, Orkideh, is doing her final show, ‘Death-Speak’, in which she sits and converses with visitors on death as she will be dying from cancer soon. Cyrus can see it as a huge part of his book and so enlists the help of Zee to join him in New York for the weekend. While at the museum, Orkideh and Cyrus meet and begin to have a conversation over the next few days about death, martyrdom, other visitors, and addiction. On one of the nights, Zee and Cyrus have a large argument about how Cyrus sees Zee’s life amounting to nothing while he is trying to make something of his death. The following day, Cyrus goes to the exhibit, though finds Orkideh had taken pills and died the night before. Then, after fainting and recovering, Cyrus gets a phone call from the curator needing to discuss Orkideh, where it is eventually revealed that Orkideh is Cyrus’s mother. The curator and Cyrus meet at the park, where she describes what happened to his mother, that her lover got on the plane instead of her, how she fled to America after, and how she built her life as an artist. Afterward, Zee calls Cyrus where they meet at the park. Though, this time Cyrus can see how selfish he was dragging Zee along, not only to New York, but how terrible of a friend he is. The novel ends in a surrealist moment where the city is morphing and changing around them after all the death and the truths that had been revealed.
Along with the main narrative, Akbar weaves moments of Cyrus’s mother’s past into the story as well as dream sequences of famous people talking to people Cyrus knows. Also spread throughout are draft excerpts of Cyrus’s book about martyrs. It’s a really engaging, passionate, and intensely visual novel about addiction, recovery, and friendships. I was deeply moved by the conversations Cyrus has with Orkideh and astounded at the way Akbar pulled in references to religion and the philosophical nature of the inner thoughts of the characters. I also found it especially powerful when a story that is recounted about a man serving two military drafts (one for his dead brother and one for himself) parallels with how Orkideh’s lover dies and she must take her identity in the beginning to continue her life in America. A truly awe-inspiring novel. Final Rating: 5/5 The Greensboro Review Spring 2024 contains a few stories and poems that I found interesting. First was the story, ‘Trailer Park Gothic’ by Josh Bell, then ‘Mantis’ by Daniel S.C. Sutter, and finally the story, ‘Interiors’ by Leah Yacknin-Dawson. They all had intriguing and memorable characters and I particularly liked the sibling relationship in ‘Interiors’. I also enjoyed the poem ‘February: A Dictionary’ by Weijia Par with the lines “I know every inch of my body/is a danger to no one; I like history; my great-grandpa/survived all the wars for me.” A fine issue.
Final Rating: 3.5/5 Memorial by Bryan Washington is a novel about two men, Mike and Benson, navigating their strained relationship in Texas. After Mike’s mom, Mitsuko, arrives for a trip from Japan and tells him that his father is ill and dying, Mike immediately flies out to see if he can be of any help. This leaves Benson and Mitsuko to live together at Mike’s place for an undetermined amount of time. Mitsuko is initially cold with Benson as he goes about his weeks working at a day care. Benson then gets a call from his sister that their father is always drunk and likely will run himself into the ground. Though, Benson dislikes the idea of going to his father because he had kicked Benson out once he found out he had HIV. One day, the brother of one of the kids Benson daycares for, Omar, begins to take a liking to him. They go on a few dates, which they don’t call dates, and in fact Omar calls Benson over to help calm his younger brother down. At the goading of his sister, Benson goes to his father’s place where he sees the state his father lives in. Then, at a coworker’s wedding, Benson gets the call that his father had fallen down, and Omar rushes with him to care for his father. The whole time, Mitsuko and Benson’s relationship starts to warm up where they cook together. Then, Mike returns home after his father dies.
Meanwhile in Japan, Mike returns to his father’s place where he is coldly welcomed. His father, Eiju, runs a bar mainly filled with locals and is helped out by a clumsy young man, Kunihiko. As his father refuses treatment for his illness, Mike begins to see the deterioration before him. One of the customers that comes in, Tan, takes a liking to Mike where they begin to have an undefined relationship. Mike has a difficult time trying to understand his father, and why he had left their family years ago. Though, Mike also sees Eiju has started to act like a father to Kunihiko in ways that Mike couldn’t experience. Then, one night Eiju passes away in his sleep and the future of the bar is left undetermined. Eiju had given the choice to Mike on running the bar or on giving it to Kunihiko. Though, Mike decides to return to Texas and come back once he is able to figure things out with Benson. Upon Mike’s return, Mike and Mitsuko begin making arrangements and Mike and Benson’s relationship is pulled into focus with the contrast of the relationships they started when Mike was gone. Eventually, it all comes to a head when Benson’s family arrives at Mike’s door with his father planning to apologize for how terrible he was about the fact that Benson is gay. Though, Mike and Mitsuko also arrive at the house a little later with groceries where Mike and Benson cook a large meal for both families. Mitsuko then decides to return to Japan, and Mike plans to follow her, leaving Benson back in Texas. Mitsuko pushes back, telling Benson essentially that going back to Japan is not the right decision for her son and that she thinks Mike staying with Benson is. The night before Mitsuko leaves, they go and spread Eiju’s ashes at a park and go to a restaurant where Mitsuko gets quite drunk. Yet, she tells them through a story of how her and Eiju met that Eiju was cowardly to leave the family and tries to say that Benson needs to convince Mike to stay. The novel ends with Mitsuko at the airport, with Mike intending to leave a few weeks later. The book is structured in a way that pulls the reader very close to the two main characters. First, we get to see what it’s like for Benson when Mike goes to Japan, then from Mike’s perspective in Japan, and finally from Benson when Mike returns. It’s a novel about fathers being terrible to their sons and how those sons deal with the trauma they received. One instance of a father kicking his son out, another of the father leaving his family. I was floored at how well the interactions between the characters are rendered, and the tension riding between their conversations. And while the novel leaves us with a question of whether Benson convinces Mike to stay or not, it shows the depth and nuances of their relationship. A sometimes humorous and witty novel that has left me breathless. Final Rating: 5/5 The Storm We Made by Vanessa Chan is about a Malay family living both before and during the Japanese occupation. Two storylines parallel each other, the first in which the mother, Cecily, helps an undercover Japanese officer, Fujiwara, thwart Britain’s stronghold on the country. Cecily provides information to Fujiwara from her husband who works closely with the municipal government. They learn there is a plan to build a port, so Cecily and Fujiwara concoct a scheme to gather as much information as they can on when/where it will be built. Eventually, the constructed port goes up in flames and Fujiwara evades detection by leaving. Along with their schemes, Cecily and Fujiwara begin to have an intimate relationship. Fujiwara then returns with a woman, Lina, who once lived in Bintang, but left because her first husband had been accused and killed for starting the fire. Lina and Fujiwara return, where Fujiwara continues to gather information, while having an affair with Cecily. Both Lina and Cecily become pregnant, and both have girls. However, Fujiwara leaves right before Lina gives birth. Lina waits for Fujiwara to return before giving birth, which starves the child of oxygen, and the midwife has to pull the baby out, scarring her head forever. Lina then dies as Cecily helps her create names for their children.
Years later once the Japanese occupy Malay, they take Cecily’s son, Abel, and force him to work at a camp building a railroad for transport. At the camp, Abel is beaten, raped, and thrown into a chicken coop where he becomes an alcoholic. Abel is then forced to kill the person who took him from his home. He meets a slightly younger boy, Freddie, who likes to draw and who helps Abel in his drunken stupor. As the war begins to wane, Freddie leads the rest of the boys in creating an exit plan while Abel is barely able to stay alive. Once Japan surrenders, Britain bombs the camp they stay at, killing Freddie in the process. Finally, Abel returns with Freddie’s drawing to a home that has seen so much loss. In the time of Abel’s disappearance, the two remaining children, Jasmin and Jujube, try to survive under the occupation. Jujube works at a teahouse serving Japanese soldiers where she meets Takahashi, a school teacher, who is not violent like the rest of the men. They begin to have a friendship, though it’s strained when Takahashi discusses his daughter back in Japan. Cecily, knowing that young girls are taken by soldiers to be workers at a brothel, disguises Jasmin as a boy, cuts her hair short, and hides her in the basement when soldiers come by. One day, another girl, Yuki, finds Jasmin in the basement where they begin to have a friendship. Jasmin then leaves the basement with Yuki where they go to the brothel where Yuki is held. After returning, Jujube finds out Jasmin has been leaving the basement where she becomes furious and that causes Jasmin to run away. Jasmin goes to a storeowner to get Yuki’s blood off her pajamas where she meets Fujiwara. Fujiwara takes her into a mansion where she stays most of the day and at night returns to the brothel to meet with Yuki. Jasmin convinces Yuki to join her at Fujiwara’s mansion where they get discovered by Cecily who was looking for her daughter. Fujiwara returns to the house as well where it is revealed that Yuki is his daughter he had with Lina and they fight about what is to happen to the girls. As the adults talk, Jasmin and Yuki run away to the brothel, but once it’s set on fire they hunker down in a wheelbarrow where they are burned alive. Fujiwara, Cecily, and Jujube run to the fire and search for the daughters, but soon realize they have been burned up. In the end, once Abel returns, they watch as Fujiwara surrenders. Finally, the family receives a letter from Takahashi with flowers drawn in calendar dates and they hang it next to the drawings and the tin with bones the family believes are Yuki and Jasmin. This novel is deeply tragic, devastating, and powerful in the way it renders the occupation, the violence, and the relationships of the characters. It confronts questions of colonialism, and shows that any occupation completely devastates a people. The novel also weaves the past and the present seamlessly through Cecily and her children’s eyes. I am completely floored at the depth and breadth of which these characters are explored and how they confront oppression in all of its forms. While reading, I was reminded of the novel Beasts of a Little Land by Juhea Kim which also confronts Japanese occupation and violence, though in Korea. I am utterly astounded at both how Chan wrangles the subject matter and how she explores how the characters navigate devastation. Final Rating: 5/5 Blackouts by Justin Torres is a novel about a young man returning to the bedside of an older gay gentleman who is dying. It’s a story framed within the context of both a conversation as well as archival images and text that is blacked out. The discussions of the men range from the author and researcher, Jan Gay, and her work in the book Sex Variants: A Study of Homosexual Patterns all the way to their own lives, their sexual encounters, and loves they experienced. In the end, the old man, Juan, begins to forget everything, and then dies in the young man’s arms one night.
What Torres does absolutely well here is the blurring of fiction and non-fiction—of lies and truth. Jan, the book, the studies, and some of the characters are firmly from history. However, Torres plays with us when the speaker discusses Juan and if he ever met/talked with him. Though, I don’t feel that whether Juan existed or not is what’s important, rather it was the connection the speaker and Juan had and their conversations which provided an outlet for them to digest their lives. I also found some of the novel’s framing to be interesting, particularly when they start describing their lives and memories as movie scenes. The novel feels as though we are peeking into such private moments, and I appreciate the vulnerability and humor of the characters. Final Rating: 4.5/5 |
AuthorMaxwell Suzuki is a writer, poet, and photographer based in Los Angeles. Archives
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