Trans-Sister Radio
by Chris Bohjalian
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Book Summary Information
Author: Chris BohjalianEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2001-08-14
ISBN: 0375705171
Number of pages: 368
Publisher: Vintage
Book Reviews of Trans-Sister Radio
Book Review: Despite some legitimate complaints, I'm going to give this five stars
Summary: 5 Stars
I discovered Trans-Sister Radio, and its author, Chris Bohjalian, entirely by accident after stumbling across this book in a junk store in almost near-perfect condition priced at a dollar. When I saw the cover of the book and read the title, I was sure I'd hate. "Trans-Sister Radio" continues to be one of the worst titles for a book I've ever encountered, even if I understand that the pun has more layers to it than I immediately suspected (at the time, the only apparent one was the obvious "trans" pun, which didn't amuse me, and, in fact, seemed positively juvenile). Aspiring writers, please take note: a decent title can mean the difference between a reader purchasing a book or sitting it back on the shelf. I have no doubt I would not have paid the high retail price for a book that was apparently so inconsequential to the novelist that he used a sophomoric pun as a title. "TRANS-Sister Radio;" ha-ha-ha. Anyhow, the title struck me first, and probably colored my perception of the cover art, which is a strange photo of a nude woman's feet. She's holding a flower in-between two of her toes, and you can tell she is nude because her feet are covering her out-of-focus butt. Or is that someone else's butt her feet are somehow propped up on? No matter. The whole thing struck me as fetishistic. I had no doubt that the book was nothing short of sensationalist smut meant to smear transsexuals, but since the book was in such fine shape and was only a dollar, I figured I'd buy it and sell it.
Well, earlier this week, I unpacked a box I hadn't touched in awhile and discovered that I'd not sold this. Having nothing else to read, and spurred by the kind of morbid curiosity that leads me to watch Jerry Springer, I decided to crack open the book and see how long I could last.
Well, color me shocked. This is definitely one book that you shouldn't judge by its cover.
The entire book is centered around the gender-transition of Professor Dana Stevens, and it manages to be simultaneously character-oriented, focused, AND suspenseful. The book is structured around four alternating viewpoints, and the author manipulates this device alongside others (several small instances of effective non-chronological storytelling, for instance) to build suspense. I do not know if Mr. Bohjalian has any experience in writing magazine serials, but he is also excellent at creating non-artificial cliffhangers (usually through some bit of foreshadowing, and all of the events in this novel are being related to us from some future point in time by all of the characters, I presume). It has been a long time since I've felt the bleary-eyed joy of having read a book for seven hours and continuing to say to myself "just one more chapter, and that's it," as it it were a mantra, knowing I'd read to the end of the section (the novel is organized into five sections), and sometimes beyond, even as I would have to fight an onslaught of sleepiness in order to do so. I read at a very deliberate pace and will often linger on individual words, sentences, or passages for long periods of time when I find something to be well-written or thought-provoking before I continue (I feel speed-reading to be an absolute crime when one is dealing with quality literature). Most 300-400 page novels that I only find moderately interesting will take a month for me to read, as I'll read in small bursts before going on to something more interesting. It was this quality of mine which lead me to spend a week reading this, rather than one or two days. Needless to say, it takes a very engaging novel for me to read in seven-to-nine hour bursts. This book has reawakened some of the joy I felt when reading Dostoyevsky, or Salinger: the joy of reading about interesting people. This is not to say that there aren't any number of clever plot-based novels that I have enjoyed immensely, but I find it is only a good character-driven novel which can engage and hypnotize me so.
The characters all have very distinct personalities and voices, and most of the relationships are handled expertly. The dynamic between Allison and Dana is especially well-done (although I am unsure how cissexuals who have never entered a relationship with a transsexual will react to it: I can see it as potentially baffling to them). The character psychology is honest, especially when it comes to Dana. I think a lot of his research was probably on the mentalities of transwomen regarding their predicament, because Dana rings VERY true-to-life.
One aspect of the novel I enjoyed was the seeming benevolence of the author himself. The whole book is colored by a sunny optimism, even when things become rough for the characters. There is pain and loss here, but is always seems as if it is being viewed from some higher plain. You never get the sense that any character is beyond salvation, and even the most vicious bigots seem to be viewed with a sympathetic, if sad, smile. It is hard to describe, but the impression of the book I get is that it is, on a very fundamental level, life-affirming.
I do have some caveats about it aside from the title. Even though the author did some excellent research on this novel, there are a few points of Dana's transition that concern me. One that stuck out is that Dana never seems to attend any sort of therapy. Professional therapy, I mean. She attends a support group for awhile, but no therapist of any sort is ever mentioned. It is very possible for a transwoman to find her hormones from black market sources, but she seems to be legally transitioning from all the other details we're allowed. Who wrote her recommendation letters for Gender Reassignment Surgery? She didn't go to some unsanitary chop-shop in Bangkok, after all. There is no way a legitimate surgeon who is experienced in this sort of thing would proceed without the proper documentation required by the standards of care. Another bit that comes off as incredible is how she manages to spend only three weeks on the Real Life Experience. Why was she even doing the RLE if she didn't have a therapist?
I also have some problems with the way certain storylines end. Without revealing too much, there's a problem with a lack of closure for a major character near the end of the book. Also, a prominent secondary character just drops out 3/4 of the way through without much explanation. I don't like the way the author treats some of the characters who drop out of frame.
Normally, this would make me drop a star, but two things keep me from doing this:
The emotional honesty of Dana's character. No other piece of fiction I've encountered has so well explored the psychology of the transsexual.
and
The sheer engagingness of it. This has taught me to love reading fiction all over again.
For these two things, it gets five stars.
I am definitely going to read his other novels now.
Summary of Trans-Sister Radio
With Trans-Sister Radio, Chris Bohjalian, author of the bestseller Midwives, again confronts his very human characters with issues larger than themselves, here tackling the explosive issue of gender.When Allison Banks develops a crush on Dana Stevens, she knows that he will give her what she needs most: attention, gentleness, kindness, passion. Her daughter, Carly, enthusiastically witnesses the change in her mother. But then a few months into their relationship, Dana tells Allison his secret: he has always been certain that he is a woman born into the wrong skin, and soon he will have a sex-change operation. Allison, overwhelmed by the depth of her passion, and finds herself unable to leave Dana. By deciding to stay, she finds she must confront questions most people never even consider. Not only will her own life and Carly?s be irrevocably changed, she will have to contend with the outrage of a small Vermont community and come to terms with her lover?s new body?hoping against hope that her love will transcend the physical.
This sympathetic novel about the effect of a sex change on a romantic relationship, a family, and a community could almost be sold as a textbook--a kind of transgender Guide to the Perplexed. With its calming tone and scrupulous sensitivity to the feelings of all involved, it sometimes reads like a textbook, too. But while nobody is likely to launch a protest campaign over the cautious revelations of Trans-sister Radio, that's precisely the subject of Chris Bohjalian's seventh novel, in which a male college professor in a small Vermont town transforms himself into a woman. Even Dana Stevens's initial step in this direction--donning women's clothing--elicits a powerful reaction from the community.
And what about Dana's new girlfriend Allie Banks, a beloved local schoolteacher who fell in love with him before learning of his plan? Her initial instinct is to end the relationship. Then she decides to stand by Dana, inspired rather than daunted by her stuffy ex-husband Will's opposition to the "effeminate" guy she's dating, and by the horrified reactions of the parents at her school. She does, it's true, continue to love Dana after the sex reassignment surgery. And she stoically endures the threatening notes in her school mailbox and the crude graffiti on her front door, as well as the minor vindication of a local public radio story on their battle. Yet Allie never makes the emotional shift from heterosexual woman to lesbian. Breaking off the affair, she spends months mourning the man she had fallen in love with.
Assuming, as we are meant to, that Dana is outwardly becoming the person she always was inside--that biology is anything but destiny--there's only one character who undergoes a profound change over the course of the novel. That would be Will, Allie's ex-husband, who recoils from Dana's initial sexual ambiguity. After her surgery, however, he finds himself increasingly aware of her as a woman.
And so when I'd hug Dana or touch the inside of her palm with the inside of mine (a handshake, yet so suggestive) or my fingers would find their way to one of her arms, I would experience a sexual ripple and wonder why I had felt such a thing--why I had courted such a thing. And the answer would be because she was pretty and she was smart and she was feminine.
Structuring his story around the transcript of a fictional National Public Radio feature on transgender, Bohjalian shifts the point of view with every chapter: the characters often seem to be enlarging on comments they had made for broadcast. We hear from Dana, Allie, and Will in turn, as well as Carly, the daughter of the divorced couple. In this sense, Trans-sister Radio gives everyone equal time. And for good or ill, it has none of the bluster or transgressive charge of Gore Vidal's late-1960s bombshell, Myra Breckinridge. Instead it brings transgender home, rendering it (to quote Dana herself) "domestic as a balloon shade or a perennial garden. And just as harmless." --Regina Marler
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