Tran-Sister Radio by Chris Bohjalian

This was a fantasic novel. I read Midwives years ago-when it was an Oprah book of the month-and adored it. Bohjalian seems to see people, issues, events-not just in the black and white in which they occured-but in the three dimension in which real life takes place.
This novel focuses on Dana-who is a 35 year old tenured college prof about to undergo sexual reassignment surgery, Allison-Dana's girl friend who thinks she has fallen in love with the man of her dreams just to discover he is really a she, Will-Allisons ex-husband and friend and Carly-Will and Allisons daughter. Allison is a 6th grade teacher taking a fun and relaxing summer film class. She meets and develops a friendship with her Prof-Dana- which serves to distract her from her daughter leaving home for college in the fall. Will, seems to still be absorbed with Allie even though he is re-married and Allie has not so much as lived with another man in the 11 years they have been divorced. Dana has moved from his family in South Florida to a small Vermont town where he has anonymity, began growing his hair, started electrolysis and hormones as he prepares for gender re-assignment surgery in less than 6 months. Carly is leaving home for college and begining her life as an adult-she is also seeing her parents more as people and less as parents. What unfolds is a fascinating story with depth, girth and courage. That questions everything we as a society-as people-hold to be valid and to have worth. Do you love someone for their soul, for who they are? Is part of what you love about them their sex organs? How much of what you love? What makes a man a man and a woman a woman? I have wondered that often myself. Many years ago I dated a man who confessed to me after a few dates that he liked to dress in womens clothes. I was weirded out and discovered I was not as open in practice as I was in theory. I have watched Normal on HBO and Showtimes recent series on gender dysphoria. But I admit readily that I do not understand it. I have been a woman all of my life, I have a carried a child in my womb and bled every month since I was 10, I have breasts and have held a man inside my body and I could not define what made me a woman. I do not understand when I hear the trans-gendered speak that they were born in the wrong body, that they always knew they were the wrong sex. I have given up trying to understand-it is what it is and I can only believe they must truly be born that way. I would be horrified to wake up tommorrow with a mans body and I as I have suffered many years from a major illness I do know what it is like to feel that your body has betrayed you. I can not imagine the horror and pain of living in a bady you feel does not reflect the real you. I also can not imagine having the courage and conviction to change it-to potentially lose my parents, family, friends, employment, etc. I admit the idea makes me uncomfortable. In the book Allisons ex-husband Will, takes gender dysphoria to another level. White people who feel they should ahve been born black, short people who feel they should ahve been born tall, etc. It is laughable and mocking when looked at from that point of view. But is gender something we as society created or is it a part of our souls? Dana comes to believe it is, that a soul has gender. This book takes everyones emotions on a very real scale, the town who feels like it is harboring a sexually deviant pervert. The woman who is in love with the man enough to fight for him but unsure how she feels about the woman he truly is. A woman trapped in a mans body, a mans roles, a mans life-stuck in a nightmare she can not wake up from, forced to live all her days referred to as "he"-with a penis no less. Until, a whole new world opens up-a world of hormones and procedures and surgeries that correct this horrible condition. Dana says at one point in the novel that no one would seriously expect her to not treat her condition if it was schizophrenia or depression. An ex-husband with unfinsihed business with his ex-wife and ultimately himself. A daughter reaching maturity for the first time and finding that her parents are very fallible indeed. Is gender fluid? Is sexuality fluid? What do you truly love about your mate? How much of that love is conditional in ways you never thought possible.
~~~~Where ever you go, There you are!