Fiction lets us experience the daily lives of the characters in a way no other form does, and the time is particularly apt for readers to walk for a while in the footsteps of trans women. Casey Plett is a prizewinning Canadian author and trans woman with two previous highly acclaimed books to her name: the novel Little Fish and the short story collection A Safe Girl to Love.
Her latest short story collection, A Dream of a Woman, falls in between the short story and novel forms, as it
includes separate short stories and also a long story broken into shorter
fiction that appears here and there throughout the book. This more sustained
tale is about David and Iris, who meet at school and have a friendship, become
a couple, and then develop a more complex relationship that they keep coming back
to for years as David transitions.
The other stories reflect similar themes to
Plett’s first short story collection, with trans women living their experience
in as many varied ways as there are characters. The stories can be positive but
not in a simplistic way as they show the stream of consciousness of the women
as they search for love.
Plett is not a highly descriptive or poetic
writer, instead bringing her characters to life in specific detail and
plain-spoken prose that also evokes the settings, across Canada and the US. Like
David, the other characters are at various stages of transition and make
different decisions about surgery and relationships. Deeply aware of their own
changing bodies, they show the reader how they feel and what transition is in
practical and emotional terms. I learnt from this, even though as a trans ally
I have read widely already.
The stories don’t shy away from sex and are
specific and vivid rather than erotic and definitely not written to titillate.
They portray trans women in a way that lets the reader step into their world,
drawing us in and increasing our understanding. With so much misunderstanding
about trans people, good fiction is a perfect way to counteract the raised
voices of so much discourse on this subject.
The stories are not strong on plot, pulling
the reader in and holding them in the world Plett creates, rather than motivating
the reader on to find out what’s going to happen. The longer story of David and
Iris is helpful in this, as it does follow the plot of their lives and how they
and their relationship develop. I was left wanting to know more about them,
which is a good sign.
I listened to this as an audiobook read by
the author and thoroughly enjoyed it.
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