Lynda C. (Readnmachine) reviewed on 7/20/2013 + 1474 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 1

Bohjalian gives a face and reality to the issue of "gender dysphoria" -- the notion that one has been born into a body with the wrong gender -- with his odd love story between a Vermont college professor who falls in love with a woman just as he is about to make the surgical transition to the female body he believes he was destined to inhabit. Bohjalian says a lot of things about the nature of love, the "straight" community's discomfort with (or active dislike of) transgendered individuals, and sometimes provides TMI about the surgery itself. There are indeed moments here that will make you squirm, but there are also many moments that will make you think. He loses points for setting up a truly odd love triangle at the very end, which Constant Reader has seen coming for a while, but kept hoping wouldn't develop.

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