Saturday, November 29, 2014

Some Assembly Required by Arin Andrews

I't hard to believe someone as young as Andrews (a high school graduate in 2014) can write so calmly and positively about the challenges he faced growing up transgender in a traditionally gendered world.  Yet he does.  He demonstrates an amazing capacity to appreciate his own gifts and hold on to his own identity even in the face of a mother who wanted her daughter to be a beauty queen and a school that saw non-normative sexuality as evil.  What I found so compelling was Arin's ability to deal frankly and without bitterness with the most painful situations growing up, from having to be a pink bunny for Halloween,  to always having to wear hair bows to please a demanding mother, to being denied contact with best friend Darien, who is lesbian.  Despite these attempts to treat Emerald as a girl, consistent with his body parts, Andrews came to realize fairly early on that  family was one of the greatest resources for support and acceptance.  By junior year in  high school, Arin was ready to start the process of gender reassignment.  The transformation from a little girl to a teenage boy is documented by a photograph at the beginning of each chapter.  The pictures help to chronicle the changes from a troubled young girl to a self-confident young man.  There were definitely bumps in the road, and Andrews emphasizes that this process is different for everyone.  He recognizes that many people in his situation are estranged from their families and suffer far greater rejection.  Andrews has written a book to help everyone better understand young people seeking to understand their gender while in the midst of the hormonal ups and downs of their teenage years.

The Islands At the End of The World and The Girl at the Center of the Worldby Austin Aslan

This proved to be a great Thanksgiving escape!  Aslan's book has a little bit of everything--take an apocalyptic collapse of civilized society; add an an epic journey for teen Leilani and her Dad, who are two islands removed from their home on the Big Island of Hawaii when disaster strikes; and season with  large doses of Hawaiian culture,  the mysteries of space, nuclear radiation, and epilepsy.  The novel starts out slowly as we follow Lei and her dad to Oahu, where she is a subject of research on the effectiveness of a new seizure medication.  As the city gradually shuts down due to a mysterious loss of power and the resulting panic, the Miltons realize they need to get home while they still can.  This means stashing food and their gear in their backpacks and trying to find a way across two islands in the absence of air travel and cruise ships.  The series of adventures includes forced incarceration in a military camp and close escapes from crazed and desperate people struggling for their own survival.

At first this looked like another version of  Cormac McCarthy's The Road.  There is the same desperation, the same conflict between doing what seems right and what is necessary, and the deep love of family.  Aslan adds more hope and a more defined goal that keep Lei and her father going.  There are two problems and two journeys--one, how to get home and find the rest of the family, and the other, to try and figure out why their world is crumbling around them.   Aslan ties it all together in a fast-paced story that also leaves one with lots to chew on, along with leftovers.

The second volume takes up where the first leaves off.  The Miltons struggle to grow enough food and manage scarce resources to survive until order returns to the islands.  Leilani has managed to communicate with an alien presence but life is full of danger--from the warring tribes on the big island and from powers that seek to steal her power.  More Hawaiian culture and a love interest or two add to Leilani's story.