Recommendation: Annabel

DonC recommends…

Cover of "Annabel" by Kathleen Winter, showing the naked torso of an androgynous/boyish young teenager, looking straight into the viewer's eyes.

Annabel
A novel

‘Annabel’, by Kathleen Winter, is the story of a child born in 1968 on the edge of the Canadian wilderness. The child is born a hermaphrodite. Shortly after birth, the decision is made to raise the child as a boy, christened Wayne. The child’s true biological status is kept a secret by the parents and the local medical community. Maintaining this secret causes many problems for the child and parents.

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Posted by on November 19th, 2013 at 08:00 am

Category: books, recommendations 6 comments »

6 Responses to “Recommendation: Annabel”

  1. radical/rebel

    I just read the really wonderful book Intersex: For Lack of a Better Word by Thea Hillman, which is a memoir about being intersex and queer. Hillman writes in really lovely and thought-provoking ways about gender, sex, difference, and society–and also about her irritation with authors like Jeffrey Eugenides writing fiction about “hermaphrodites” in a way that invisibilizes real intersex people.

    Anyway I highly highly recommend Intersex to the Genderfork community! I absolutely loved it.

    radical reading,
    radical/rebel

    [Reply]

    tigr replied:

    We’re always looking for recommendations – we get less new submissions than we currently post Recommendation posts – so please feel invited to submit a recommendation about that book, as well as about any other books/films/videos/music/art/articles/people/websites/etcetcetc. relevant to the readership of genderfork that (any of) you might come across!

    [Reply]

    tigr replied:

    (It’s a lot easier for other people to come across something if it’s its own post, and not hidden in the depths of the comments.:))

    [Reply]

  2. Anonymous

    It would blow my mind to hear a legitimate argument against Jeffrey Eugenides writing something like Middlesex; that book was the first exposure I had to non-binary identities and helped me realize I was not alone. The condition the character has is real and the character himself is very complex and developed. I don’t know if it’s just because it’s fiction that Hillman thinks it “invisibilizes” people, but I don’t see that at all. There’s my mini rant because as I said that book was/is important to me and other queer people I know of.

    [Reply]

    radical/rebel replied:

    Thea Hillman’s piece that relates to the book Middlesex is called “Opinion” and it’s in the book Intersex: For Lack of a Better Word. It’s really powerful.

    you’re allowed your mini-rant. I’m allowed to think there’s a problem when non-intersex people write about intersex conditions as if they’re the expert. I’m so over pretty much anything written by cisgender straight white dudes anyway, but there you go.

    today I’m so grateful for my library card that allows me access to books by real intersex people.

    -radical/rebel

    [Reply]

  3. radical/rebel

    “Opinion” by Thea Hillman about Middlesex

    http://www.mindfully.org/Reform/2003/Middlesex-Limitations-MythMar03.htm

    [Reply]


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