For Today I Am a Boy

This is an excellent book. It's well written, with excellent characters and a good story.

The writing: well crafted, sparse yet the author conveys great feelings. The story: a Chinese family in small-town Ontario where the father has high expectations for his four children, especially for his only son, and a desperate need to fit into Canadian society. The mother is virtually invisible unless she is angry. The only son (Peter) is, in his mind and heart, a girl. The story evolves around Peter's coming of age and how he deals with his sexuality. His feelings aren't discussed with his family, yet each seem to know that Peter isn't the kind of boy his father wanted. I loved the way other characters related to Peter, ranging from total show more oblivion to trying to "fix" him; from tolerance to acceptance. Ms. Fu manages to tell Peter's story in a way that is both subtle and, at times, shocking. show less

The only son among three sisters in a Chinese Canadian family, Peter Huang is under enormous pressure to live up to his father’s ideals of Western masculinity. However, Peter struggles with his father’s expectations, for he knows in his heart that he is really a girl.

This book wasn’t quite what I expected, but I don’t like it less for that. This is not an “issue” book about what it means to be transgender. It doesn’t contain gender theory or a deep internal struggle with identity. It’s about family relationships and the coming-of-age of a character who just happens to be transgender. Peter’s sexuality is just part of his character — like it is for all of us — and not a defining characteristic. I really appreciated show more Fu’s treatment of her narrator. In making Peter’s sexuality just one aspect of his character, she shows him the respect and empathy he deserves — that we all deserve. She makes him well balanced, relatable, and oh so human.

I also loved how Fu portrays Peter’s relationship with his sisters; for secondary characters, they are well drawn — flawed and kind in their own ways. Their sibling relationships felt real, and as a family they have their ups and downs.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wishes to diversify their reading. For Today I Am a Boy is a fresh portrayal of a transgender boy growing up in a small-town Chinese Canadian family and later facing the world on his own in a major city.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review. show less

Peter is celebrated by his Chinese parents, who had been waiting for years to have a son, from the moment he is born. As he grows, he feels forced to live up to the high expectations of his overbearing father while surrounded by his three vastly different sisters and submissive mother. Yet, from a young age, Peter feels sure he is a girl, making the norms set by his father seem like impossible goals to reach.

Where Peter's female identity is silently recognized by his sisters from childhood, he never breaches the subject with his parents, though his father routinely drills him on the importance of masculinity. Still, his struggle with gender identity is not necessarily the central focus of the novel, as it is not a public feature of show more Peter's life. Instead, it weighs as a burden, hidden in the private thoughts and actions that impact every decision in his coming-of-age story.

After reading Golden Boy by Abigail Tarttelin, a novel with similar themes that I also loved, For Today I Am a Boy stands out for its willingness to embrace the differences in individual experiences. Fu gracefully balances ideas of self, cultural identity and acceptance in a novel that readers won't soon forget.

Read more at: www.rivercityreading.com show less

Sparse and beautiful, this novel aches with loneliness, but in such a good way: elegiac, sort of a novel-length poem filled with intimate moments and a profound examination of family.

Professional reviews of this book call it 'sensitive', but for me 'dreary' is a better description. I think the book does a good job giving a feel of being a Chinese outsider in a very white Canadian town, and how it affected and molded each member of the family differently. I was especially moved by Peter's mother, who grew up privileged in China, but felt marooned and lost in Canada, dominated by her husband and disappointed in her children. This sentence captures her so well and so simply: Mother, a pilgrim who walked a thousand miles only to find the sacred grove was just a clump of trees."

This is one of those books that I didn't enjoy while reading, but appreciate more afterwards. I like the idea of writing Peter as a character who show more - slowly, painfully and all alone - has to figure out that he is trans. But he didn't feel entirely real to me, as if the author didn't do enough research into trans struggles to create a fully authentic character.

On a technical note, the transitions from Peter's voice to an omniscient voice were too abrupt, and broke the flow of the writing. show less

A good, thoughtful book about living with other people's expectations and embracing your own. Peter and his three sisters are being raised by their strict Chinese parents in a small town in Canada. The father has plans for each of his children, especially his son. As his older sisters rebel against their father's demands, Peter struggles with his gender identity. With his older sisters gone and his younger sister finding her own way to rebel, Peter must find a way to overcome his father's expectations and become the person he was meant to be.

An excellent story with well-drawn characters. Peter and his family are all realistically flawed, struggling to overcome the isolation imposed by their father's expectations and find themselves as show more individuals and as a family. The supporting characters are well developed, so that when the story jumps forward, the reader wants to know what happened to those left behind.

Note: this review is based on a ARC received from the publisher show less

I wanted to love this book, but I never quite connected with Peter. His struggle never really felt strong enough? Deep enough? Something, anyway. When he had suicidal thoughts, I didn't feel that he had gotten that desperate. And, yes, I'm well aware that the trigger for these thoughts and actions is different for each person and what one may find bearable, another may feel is completely unbearable. However, as a reader, I spent the time inside Peter's head and still didn't believe his despair deep enough to get to that point. The book is beautifully written and the story well told, but there is something--and maybe it's something in me--that kept me from connecting to Peter's journey emotionally. There were times when I should have show more cried and times when I should have cheered and I recognized those moments intellectually, but they didn't spark any emotional response. It's a good book, but not a great one. show less