Transgender Book Reviews

String of Pearls: Stories About Cross-Dressing
Edited by Tony Ayres
Copyright 1996, 259 pages
Allen & Unwin (Australia)
ISBN 1-86373-914-9

Capsule: Australia is well represented in the literary world with this collection of short stories with a crossdressing theme. Some of the stories barely touch on the subject while others use it as a continuous theme. Male and female writers are equally represented in these portraits of various gender flavors.

Full review

Following are synopses of stories which captured the reviewer's interest (and speak most to the subject of crossdressing):

The Man from the Caribbean by William Yang. A man puts an ad in a gay Australian newspaper and goes to meet one of the respondents, a married crossdresser, at his home. What ensues when the man's wife unexpectedly walks in after the men have a crossdressed romp is sometimes hilarious. A good take on roles and acceptance.

Crystal by Nick Enright. A respected drama teacher has his students crossdress as part of an unconventional acting exercise. One young man forms a powerful and sexy female persona. After "Crystal" comes on to the teacher, he loses all objectivity. The allure of a man/woman is more than he can handle.

Tsunami by Fiona McGregor. Two under-twenty kids -- he making his living by servicing gay men -- she cleaning apartments -- become allies and friends on the fringes of society, more or less as "punks." Not surprisingly they play at reversing gender roles. Very evocative of the Australian underground and gay scene.

In the Forest of the Eternals by Louis Nowra. The most classically-written story of the collection. An important Australian politician visits England to influence opinion, but finds his mind losing its powers. A seance with a medium while the man is in drag ("he had to become two in order to become one ... [he had] to rise above just being either male or female") leads to a depressing conclusion.

Tottering Towards Darlinghurst by Gary Dunne. Like Tsunami. above, a good portrait of the drag scene in big-city Australia. A dominant and respected "queen" goes to a major awards show expecting to receive an award, but the getting there is the story. Tranny politics, who's young and beautiful and who isn't, and bitchiness and resilience prevail.

Elegy by John A. Scott. From a man/woman comes a monster. Hideous!

My Cock Lives in Hell by Tony Ayres. Similar to the writings of American writer Charles Bukowski. The main character lives for sex. Between women, he finds Lily, a delicate Chinese crossdresser. Lily absorbs him into a climactic sexual scene where the profane mixes with the sacred and the oriental mixes with the bawdy. As in Crystal, above, some men (who don't think of themselves as gay) seem insanely attracted to transvestites.

The Stand-In by Belinda Chayko. An infamous female-to-male crossdresser's dildo is zealously sought. Is it evidence of a crime or evidence of love? There's an interesting ending note: "I do not know how you can love and not be a liar."

Supercollider by Chad Taylor. The final story but perhaps the best of all. Two kindred kinky spirits (a man and woman) share pantyhose and a consuming search for the sexually evocative. Finally they begin to like ... each other.

(Reviewer: Valory Gravois) (Copyright ©1999 by Alchemist/Light Publishing)

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