Book Chat: The Booker Prize
By Elizabeth
Parker
This
month I'd like to
discuss two books by very prominent authors which a number of you
have called to my
attention. Both of these books were in the running for the
prestigious Booker Prize
this year and as a result were mentioned in numerous
reviews.
I would not presume to
compete with the Washington Post's reviewer, but I will present
the
transgendered
perspective.
I've decided to feature "Breakfast on
Pluto",
by Patrick McCabe, even though I will not recommend it for your
purchase. This is
because the entire book is about a transvestite prostitute,
"Pussy"
Braden. Even though there really are some good scenes in the
book, but it is
written in a very artsy manner, skipping around in time, and
consequently suffers from the
standpoint of enjoying a transgender read.
Patrick Braden grew up during the Troubles, not
far
from the North/South
border in the small town of Tyreelin, Ireland. He was the
bastard of the local
priest and his beautiful mother, who turns into an alcoholic
tyrant. Fleeing their
influence for the questionable life to be found on the streets of
London, he becomes
Pussy, plying her trade in miniskirts.
Through Pussy's vulnerable quest for love in all
the
wrong places and all
the wrong people, she has some interesting encounters along the
way
to say the
least. I found these to be quite amusing. She also
naturally gets drawn into
the struggle for independence, and inadvertantly makes her mark
for
the cause.
As a work of literature, this is quite good, well
worth being a candidate
for the Booker prize. I found it by turns amusing and
poignant. It is also
significant in that McCabe chose to write such a literary work
about
a subject near to our
hearts. But as I mentioned earlier, the thrill factor just
is
not there.
The next book, "Amsterdam", by Ian
McEwan, actually won
the Booker prize.
You may remember McEwan. He is the author
of
"First Love,
Last Rites", a book of short stories with one of the best
mainstream transgender
forced feminization scenes around. He has also written at
least one other book with
a crossdressing subplot; however the name escapes me.
Amsterdam follows two main characters, old lovers of Molly
Lane,
recently deceased.
Clive Linley is a prominent British composer, and Vernon
Halliday is the editory of
a classy broadsheet, The Judge. However the
character
of interest to us is
Julian Garmony, the British Foreign Secretary, a notorious
right-winger who many think
will be the next prime minister. Vernon comes into
possession
of pictures showing
Julian crossdressed, taken by a sympathetic Molly. The
depiction of Julian in the
pictures rings quite true to our experiences, and the remembrance
of
Molly and how she
must have aided Julian is quite good. These scenes of
interest
are somewhat minor.
What makes this book delightful is what happens as Julian
and
his family deal with
the blackmail, and how Vernon and Clive each handle the
situation. Suffice it to say
that this does not turn out the way you would think.
Again though, I would not recommend this for a purely
transgender
oriented purchase.
And the final update on MX Book Finder, and my travails with
Q.M.
Dabney &
Co. They finally got me the book I requested, 3 months after
request. Only one
problem, they double-billed me, after promising a 10% discount due
to my problems! But
they finally made good on both the book, and the correct
price. So all four
bookstores I tried through the service have now come
through.
I will use it again.
Once again, my web site
awaits your browser. I am very slowly updating the
references. I hope to pick
up speed during the holidays.
And your tips
and some of the
discussion threads you've generated are great! Keep up the
good work and we'll all
benefit!
Bibliography
McCabe, Patrick, "Breakfast on Pluto",
HarperFlamingo, 1998,
ISBN: 0-06-019340-9
(Hardback)
McEwan, Ian, "Amsterdam", Doubleday,
1998,
ISBN: 0-385-49423-8 (Hardback) McEwan, Ian, "First Love, Last Rites",
Vintage Books, 1994,
ISBN: 0679750193 (Paperback)
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