Juliet Jacques

This is an interesting and diverse collection of stories where the idea is sometimes better than the execution. It's a collection of short pieces based on archive and found material, and its not always clear what is history and what is fictionalised. These are fascinating stories of trans people throughout history (it's roughly in chronological order I think, with the first story based in 1846 and the last in 2014) and different formats are used in the telling. I think I just found some of show more the writing a bit flat. show less

I really enjoyed this collection of short stories by Juliet Jacques. She uses a variety of writing styles to describe the experience of trans people from 1846 to the present day. Each story is fictional but rooted in real events, and together they build a history of trans experience that is moving and accessible.

I read this as part of the #transrightsreadathon and rather than giving my own words to the book I think it’s better to let Juliet speak for herself.

Moving memoir and insightful examination of transgender politics

“Six weeks before sex reassignment surgery (SRS), I am obliged to stop taking my hormones. I suddenly feel very differently about my forthcoming operation.”

In July 2012, aged thirty, Juliet Jacques underwent sex reassignment surgery—a process she chronicled with unflinching show more honesty in a serialised national newspaper column. Trans tells of her life to the present moment: a story of growing up, of defining yourself, and of the rapidly changing world of gender politics.

Fresh from university, eager to escape a dead-end job, she launches a career as a writer in a publishing culture dominated by London cliques and still figuring out the impact of the Internet. She navigates the treacherous waters of a world where, even in the liberal and feminist media, transgender identities go unacknowledged, misunderstood or worse. Yet through art, film, music, politics and football, Jacques starts to become the person she had only imagined, and begins the process of transition. Interweaving the personal with the political, her memoir is a powerful exploration of debates that comprise trans politics, issues which promise to redefine our understanding of what it means to be alive.

Revealing, honest, humorous, and self-deprecating, Trans includes an epilogue with Sheila Heti, author of How Should a Person Be?, in which Jacques and Heti discuss the cruxes of writing and identity. show less

I enjoyed this a lot.
I'm conditioned by the contemporary moment to expect virulent transphobia at every turn whenever I read trans narratives — both within the text and externally in coverage of it. And while there is, naturally, moments of transphobic violence in this book (and thus in Jacques' life), I find there are many more moments in which it is demonstrated that acceptance and support do exist and can exist.
Her relationship with her parents is extremely moving, and I found her show more journey with them in particular to be very poignant. show less