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mxunsmiley's review
This collection frequently felt very jarring to me. I can see how it was an adaptation of a live show rather than original pieces meant to be published. Only a few pieces really stuck out to me. I enjoyed Ivan's contributions most, with Lyndell's next, which especially hit very hard at my core. I did enjoy Anna's poems as well, particularly "Things Happen in Threes." I do think it would have been more worthwhile to see the live show rather than read an adaptation of it overall.
yeahohyeahyeah's review
5.0
This book is fantastic, beautiful and oh so rare. I read this as a stolen copy from a public library, sold on the internet and bought by my good friend Shannon who is the number one world advocate for this book and it's powers to make everything make sense.
At first I felt like a poser, like I shouldn't be reading these stories on gender ambiguity, but as I read on, I realized that the point of this book is to show the reader that there is a little bit of all these gender representations in all of us.
This book is amazing, in that it brings four different points of view to this incredibly empowering and powerful work. These four people are interconnected in relationships, performing and writing, and are so creative in so many forms that reading Boys Like Her could set off a chain of cultural opportunities from music to photography to other books and writing.
If this book were available to purchase I would buy a copy, and probably another couple of copies to give to people I love who need to read this, but can't because there are only a select number of copies available and we must find stolen library copies on the internet.
At first I felt like a poser, like I shouldn't be reading these stories on gender ambiguity, but as I read on, I realized that the point of this book is to show the reader that there is a little bit of all these gender representations in all of us.
This book is amazing, in that it brings four different points of view to this incredibly empowering and powerful work. These four people are interconnected in relationships, performing and writing, and are so creative in so many forms that reading Boys Like Her could set off a chain of cultural opportunities from music to photography to other books and writing.
If this book were available to purchase I would buy a copy, and probably another couple of copies to give to people I love who need to read this, but can't because there are only a select number of copies available and we must find stolen library copies on the internet.
jordy__d's review
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
4.5
butchriarchy's review
This collection frequently felt very jarring to me. I can see how it was an adaptation of a live show rather than original pieces meant to be published. Only a few pieces really stuck out to me. I enjoyed Ivan's contributions most, with Lyndell's next, which especially hit very hard at my core. I did enjoy Anna's poems as well, particularly "Things Happen in Threes." I do think it would have been more worthwhile to see the live show rather than read an adaptation of it overall.
sensei_oddsox's review
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
bought because I was a fan of Lyndell Montgomery from when they were in the band Ember Swift. Came away as a fan of Ivan Coyote. Great Queer gender bending stories .
caseythecanadianlesbrarian's review
5.0
Boys Like Her: Transfictions (1998) is, above all, a collection concerned with border crossings, both literal and figurative. In fact, what Boys Like Her really made me understand is that literal crossings are always figurative in some way and that, perhaps, figurative journeys can be understood in a unique way by thinking of them as literal. The event that Boys Like Her begins with and keeps coming back to is the literal Canada-U.S. border crossing that the troupe Taste This (comprised of Anna Camilleri, Ivan E. Coyote, Zoë Eakle, and Lyndell Montgomery) undertakes on their multi-disciplinary performance tour. This initial border crossing repeats and reinvents itself throughout the book, particularly in terms of gender and genre—word suspiciously similar, don’t you think?...
see the rest of my review here: http://caseythecanadianlesbrarian.wordpress.com/2012/06/11/review-of-boys-like-her-by-the-collective-taste-this/
see the rest of my review here: http://caseythecanadianlesbrarian.wordpress.com/2012/06/11/review-of-boys-like-her-by-the-collective-taste-this/
notwellread's review
4.0
4.5 stars.
I’m definitely too young to remember this era of queer lit and culture, but I loved the style of this anthology: it’s full of explorations and take-downs of gender concepts, both straightforward and ambiguous, prosaic and poetic. I will be honest and say that Ivan is my favourite writer (and pretty much my favourite living writer in general) but none of the other three let down the standard at all – though they might seem to be coming from alike perspectives on the surface, in practice they all had unique perspectives to contribute. They also bring them together in the comparison of gender ‘crossing’ (hence the ‘trans-' prefix so ubiquitous today) and physical border crossing (which takes up a significant middle portion of the book, and provides its own ‘crossing’ between the more colloquial, anecdotal first half and the emotionally-heightened, bordering on avant-garde second half. The crossing challenges the validity of these categories – after all, both gender and national ‘borders’ are social constructs at their hearts.
On top of that, book mixes humour, sorrow, and rage, lightening and weighting the tone and mood and bringing the reader into their particular atmosphere as though you’re really watching a performance. I loved that Kate Bornstein’s Foreword made a serious point but was still so funny about it – after all, how many books start “Hi there, and welcome to the book”? I like to think it signposts a new approach to the book as a format for storytelling, since it’s pretty unusual to see performance art adapted for paper.
I have to say I felt it got saucier and more explicit as it went on, and I found myself a bit out of my element (I don’t read erotica, though arguably I sort of just did), but artistically these were some of the most evocative parts of a generally great read. The power-play aspects played in to the questions of gender dynamics in a very challenging way, and, though sexual content in books tends to get dated quickly, it still remains daring and provocative. The aesthetic charm of the time marks it out as ‘of its era’, but the contents are just as pressing and relevant as if they were written today. (It made me want to see the performances they describe, too, but I don’t think they’ve been recorded.) I think the most telling thing in all this is that the authors didn’t have to pull out all the stops for a book only meant to correspond to their live performances, but even flicking through this book and glancing at all the effort put into the photographs, formatting, and written content demonstrates what a labour of love this must have been.
I’m definitely too young to remember this era of queer lit and culture, but I loved the style of this anthology: it’s full of explorations and take-downs of gender concepts, both straightforward and ambiguous, prosaic and poetic. I will be honest and say that Ivan is my favourite writer (and pretty much my favourite living writer in general) but none of the other three let down the standard at all – though they might seem to be coming from alike perspectives on the surface, in practice they all had unique perspectives to contribute. They also bring them together in the comparison of gender ‘crossing’ (hence the ‘trans-' prefix so ubiquitous today) and physical border crossing (which takes up a significant middle portion of the book, and provides its own ‘crossing’ between the more colloquial, anecdotal first half and the emotionally-heightened, bordering on avant-garde second half. The crossing challenges the validity of these categories – after all, both gender and national ‘borders’ are social constructs at their hearts.
On top of that, book mixes humour, sorrow, and rage, lightening and weighting the tone and mood and bringing the reader into their particular atmosphere as though you’re really watching a performance. I loved that Kate Bornstein’s Foreword made a serious point but was still so funny about it – after all, how many books start “Hi there, and welcome to the book”? I like to think it signposts a new approach to the book as a format for storytelling, since it’s pretty unusual to see performance art adapted for paper.
I have to say I felt it got saucier and more explicit as it went on, and I found myself a bit out of my element (I don’t read erotica, though arguably I sort of just did), but artistically these were some of the most evocative parts of a generally great read. The power-play aspects played in to the questions of gender dynamics in a very challenging way, and, though sexual content in books tends to get dated quickly, it still remains daring and provocative. The aesthetic charm of the time marks it out as ‘of its era’, but the contents are just as pressing and relevant as if they were written today. (It made me want to see the performances they describe, too, but I don’t think they’ve been recorded.) I think the most telling thing in all this is that the authors didn’t have to pull out all the stops for a book only meant to correspond to their live performances, but even flicking through this book and glancing at all the effort put into the photographs, formatting, and written content demonstrates what a labour of love this must have been.
neurodivengeance's review
3.0
I enjoyed this a lot BUT had gaps of time where I just wasn't motivated to read it. I loved Anna Camilleri's stuff, and I really like the way Ivan Coyote writes (although I get the impression we would not at all get on irl). I'm kind of over AFAB-only queer trans stuff though, so I guess that accounts for me not feeling totally into it. I also think I probably would have preferred it as performance. Still, will prob read again, there was some really pertinent, poignant and hot stuff in it, and it inspired me to think about stuff I want to do around writing and performance.
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