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Loading... Annabel (2010)by Kathleen Winter (Author)
Work InformationAnnabel by Kathleen Winter (2010)
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Finished reading in less than 2 days. One of the best recent books and should have won at least one of the awards it was nominated for. ( ) Ugghh. I still have 100 pages left, but I can't contain myself any longer. I loved this book until a little after the halfway mark where the whole thing started to fall apart. The sensitivity and care shown towards the subject of an intersex person are completely destroyed by the author's sensational use of a biological impossibility on the main character. Why throw in a horrible urban legend instead of featuring the real issues and concerns an intersex person is faced with daily? I also can't help but feel that the story itself would have been much more interesting if it had involved Annabel's coming to terms with the male/female duality of her nature, not merely focusing on the feminine half she had been denied. And don't even get me started on the heavy-handed symbolism of Annabel's friend, the girl who "lost her voice," or the rape scene haphazardly thrown in seemingly for the hell of it. In other words, don't even bother reading this one. End of rant. Nominated for the three top Canadian literary prizes, this debut novel is beautifully written. There were passages and descriptions that I had to keep rereading, they just blew me away. I had some problems with the character development (the mother just fades away...), but most of the narrative rang true. The novel left me wanting more...
Read it because it’s a story told with sensitivity to language that compels to the last page, and read it because it asks the most existential of questions. Stripped of the trappings of gender, [Kathleen] Winter asks, what are we? --The Globe & Mail, June 25, 2010 But can someone of two genders really find acceptance—even self-acceptance? Kathleen Winter explores that question in her utterly original debut novel, Annabel. Annabel’s strength lies in probing the dilemma of sexuality and self-knowledge. I have never read such an intimate portrait of a person struggling to live inside a self that the world sees as a dreadful mistake. Born with the capacity to be both male and female, Wayne must become one and lose the other. His parents, too, must embrace a son and lose a daughter. In the end Wayne/Annabel’s mysterious, unachieved duality shimmers beside the streams of his birthplace like the mythical white caribou, while he has gone on to a compromised but acceptable existence elsewhere. Finely observed detail and gut-wrenching honesty, together with some rich characters and a perfectly rendered world, make Annabel a rare treat, and [Kathleen] Winter a welcome new voice in Canadian writing. -- Winnipeg Free Press, June 26, 2010 AwardsDistinctionsNotable Lists
Born a boy and a girl but raised as a boy, Wayne or "Annabel" struggles with his identity growing up in a small Canadian town and seeks freedom by moving to the city. No library descriptions found.
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LibraryThing Early Reviewers AlumKathleen Winter's book Annabel was available from LibraryThing Early Reviewers. Current DiscussionsNonePopular covers
Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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