Customer Reviews

Annabel

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

First off, I have to say that this was definitely one of the best books I've read this year. Interesting, beautifully written, unique. Winter writes with elegant simplicity. As the blurb on the cover by author Michael Crummey says, "It's a beautiful book, brimming with heart and uncommon wisdom," and that sums it up perfectly.

Annabel is the story of a baby born in 1968 in a remote village in Labrador---itself a remote region of Canada--with both male and female genitalia . A decision was made somewhat reluctantly by his mother and her best friend/midwife-- to raise the baby as male, and so his vagina was stitched shut, he was given life-long meds, and the female side of little Wayne was hidden inside himself. By the time Wayne reaches puberty though, it is clear to him that he is not like any other child, and the truth is revealed to him in bits and pieces. More than just a story of what it's like to live an intersex life, this is a story of silences and secrets, and all about identity and how we all perform our genders. Winter approaches this all with great dignity and sensitivity. If I have quibble about this book, it's just that Wayne's poor mother disappears from the book about 2/3rds of the way through. What happened to her?

I received this book back in July, but between the frosty blue cover with the deer on it and the author's name "Winter," the book just seemed too cold to read in the height of summer. Having read it now I wonder why I took so long--this is a great read any time of the year.

One more small thing: Gabriel Fauré's "Cantique de Jean Racine" is important to a three of the characters in a few spots. When it came up right near the end I was curious and so pulled it up on YouTube. Of course I recognized it right away. It's a stunning piece of music, and listening to it as I read the final pages was an enriching experience that brought tears to my eyes.

Annabel was nominated for the literary triple crown in Canada: the Roger's Writers' Trust Fiction Prize (which was recently awarded to Emma Donoghue for Room), the Governor General's Literary Award, and the Scotiabank Giller Prize.

Winters has written a hauntingly beautiful novel. It is beautiful in its craftsmanship. It is beautiful in its natural,rugged Labrador coastal setting of the 1960's. It is beautiful in its simplicity of characters and story. What is not so beautiful is it topic...hermaphroditism. And yet, Winters shows us that this abberation of nature is not necessarily ugly and sordid. It is not one which must be immediately surgerically corrected upon birth. Indeed her message resonates in the midwife's words "That baby is all right the way it is. There's enough room in this world." And so Wayne grows up, ostensibly,a male,receiving testosterone shots from the island hospital, while simultaneously possessing female organs and emotions. The truth is kept a huge secret.

The main characters...Wayne, himself;the midwife,Thomasina; Jacinta,the mother; and Treadwell,the father, are the only ones who know why Wayne sometimes prefers "less manly" activities. Tension builds as Jacinta understands and sympathizes with Wayne's proclivities, while Treadwell openly castigates them. Many times in the novel, the reader sympathize with Wayne's frustrations. It is only when he has left home and finally met up with Wally, a primary school friend with whom he had always felt comfortable, that he can truly relax. The setting has changed to a college in Boston, where Wally is studying music. Sitting among the other students there, Wayne suddenly realized that he finally "fit in". Finally,"he did not feel out of place because of his body's ambiguity".

While the story has been one of great angst,and while Winters may not have convinced the reader that it is best to leave nature alone, the reader at least awakens to the deep humanity of hermaphroditism. And, regardless of the amount of surgical intervention, all people are comprised of both male and female characteristics, and all combinations need to be accepted.

The Globe and Mail calls it "Beautiful...Absolutely riveting from the very first page." and that is a fact. Kathleen Winter is a very capable storyteller and I look forward to future works.

I love when the cover of a book intrigues me. The blurred vision of an animal confused me at first, but became a profound imagery in several ways throughout the introduction to Labrador and its inhabitants.

In this story the author weaves a tale about people and community and the challenges of youth, all of which has been complicated further by the hidden truth of a child's identity, dictated to by gender and society beliefs.

I felt tremendous sympathy for Wayne throughout, and was often angered or bewildered by the actions of the adults in his life. However, I was also touched by the depth of love and respect amongst these individuals, and moved by the sense of innocence and trust that remained at the core of Wayne's character from childhood into his adult life. As a parent, I also understand that we are often called upon to make decisions in our children's lives and that community, family traditions and upbringing play such a strong role for all of us in who we become as adults and how we make those decisions.

From the time I first heard about his story through the Giller prize shortlist, I was compelled to read it. At a young age, I remember my mother and aunts talking about a distant cousin that was born a hermaphrodite, though that word never entered the conversation. They spoke about the fact that his parents chose to raise him as a son, and that through the years that decision became a struggle for him.

I never understood, or even contemplated, what kind of struggle he would have had or the depth of physical and mental pain he may have been subjected to.

Thank you, Ms. Winter, for opening my eyes and touching my heart through Annabel.

The author tells a poignant story without leading the reader to judge anyone's behavior or decisions.

The "scene" is wonderfully set: 1968 rural Labrador (nearly-Northern Canada, very isolated and "rustic" living environment) where a true hermaphrodite child is born. Even today this would be a challenging and difficult moment for parents, now imagine 40 years ago in a rural hunting/fishing community.

There is no sense of judgment as to whether or not the parents made the "right" choice, or handled it the right way - they made the choice they did, knowing what they know. I can't imagine what any parent would do if they had to decide just after birth, what gender they should choose for their child.

And how would they feel about themselves if they chose wrong? When do you tell your child? At what age will he/she be old enough to understand, or to forgive your decision on their gender?

Some terrific questions explored via Wayne/Annabel as he/she grows up.

We rarely get to read novels about hermaphrodites and it was a courageous enterprise for Winter to discuss such an unusual subject, and one that must have required extensive research. "Annabel" challenges our ideas of what is normal; it encourages us to accept what is, underlining the pain and shame we create when we try to make people fit into stiff categories when they simply can't. Winter makes it easy for the reader to feel compassion for the young hermaphrodite, Wayne/Annabel, and we witness his/her evolution with great eagerness. The book is at times filled, however, with unnecessary details, detours and poetic envolées that distract the reader from the main story line and make it hard to follow. But we put the novel down satisfied, with smarter and wiser perspectives on life.

This book was well written. Very thought provoking. The writer brought out the emotions of the characters well. I could relate to these emotions. Ethics to think about. I recommend this book. Be aware if you cry easily this book will make you cry

There are a couple of things I love about reading well written literature by Canadian authors that I sometimes miss in the writings of other nationalities: the connection to things that are real in my life, like Maple Leaf bologna; and the (really hard to find the right word here) Canadian-ness of the characters. If you've spent any time in Newfoundland and Labrador, I'm sure you would find an even deeper connection to this book than I did. The setting, the landscape, community and characters were familiar to me from the first page. I love that! I also really enjoyed watching the growth and transformation of the characters over the course of the novel.

Wayne/Annabel was born in Labrador in 1968. He was born at home and he was born both male and female. Because I found the book so interesting, I did what I tend to do, and googled some 'facts'. It is up for debate whether there is such a thing as a true hermaphroditic human and still more unlikely that an 'intersex' body (using politically correct terminology) could or would behave in the some of the ways Wayne/Annabel's body did in the book. I would be very interested to hear from an intersex person who has read the book. I wonder how well Kathleen Winter captured the experience of being an intersex person.

This story had the potential to become too bizarre for the reader to believe. It had the potential to become bogged down in a physiology and psychology too foreign for the reader to bear. It didn't do either of these things. Although I, occasionally, felt Ms Winter walked a fine line, she managed to keep the novel real. A story about a family and community faced with all of the normal difficulties one would expect in a small, isolated place and, one family, trying to keep a secret in a place where secrets are notoriously difficult to keep. Each if the main characters in this book struggles to be true to who they really are and, as we would expect, some succeed better than others.

My favorite quote in the entire 461 pages (OK, maybe my favorite quote of all time):
'Vengence is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.
"When?" asked Treadway. "When is the Lord planning on getting around to it? Because I can have it done by this time tomorrow."'
pg 446

If I were to describe this book in just a couple of words, (and, of course I am about to do just that) I would say engaging and worthwhile.

A lone white caribou would be an extraordinary site in the remote southeastern coastal area of Labrador. The blind hunter senses its presence, standing among the trees, watching him. Is it real or a vision? Why would it leave its herd in the North and come so far south? "Why would any of us break from the herd?" The hunter cannot answer his profound question, yet, maybe, after reading the novel, we have a sense what the answer could be and what the vision could represent. The white caribou is just one of several allegorical animals that appear or are called upon at different decisive moments in the story. Kathleen Winter places nature and landscapes into a prominent position in her debut novel, ANNABEL, and conveys its mystique in a perceptive, almost poetic language, and, later on, convincingly contrasts it to the cityscape of the capital of Newfoundland. With her primary focus on the small fishing and hunting community on a remote part of southeastern Labrador, Croydon Harbour, "where... human life came second to the life of the big land, and no one seemed to mind...", the author alerts us from the outset that her story would have played out differently if the events had not occurred in this community and at that time...

Treadway Blake,traditional hunter of Innu background, is much more in tune with the sounds of the wild, the language of the duck's movements in the wind, the rushing of the waters, than with domestic life and talking to human beings. "[H]e considered the house to belong to his wife, while the place where waters changed directions belonged to him, and would belong to any son he had." Yet, when his child is born, it is not the son he had expected: the newborn is a hermaphrodite. The father's hopes and his deep-seated need for the son overwhelm any hesitation or doubt on the part of the child's mother, Jacinta. He is named Wayne. While doctors in the district town have simplified answers to the "problem", i.e. surgery, supplemented by ever heavier doses of medication to suppress the female side in the growing child, the parents have no language to communicate their emotions and concerns regarding their child. Wayne grows without knowing his dual identity. The duality of the child becomes a strictly kept secret that only Thomasina, friend and midwife at the birth, shares with the parents. However, she secretly names Wayne Annabel, partly in memory of her own daughter recently lost to the sea, partly because she can clearly detect elements of Wayne's female side.

While Winter tells the story of Wayne/Annabel more or less chronologically, the narrative is not linear. Instead it concentrates on events and developments that place one or the other central character into view, allowing the reader to understand situations, individuals and relationships from different angles. It also keeps the storyline richer. Wayne remains, of course, the central character and we follow him into onset of puberty with its growing uncertainty as to why he is different and why he feels the way he does. When Treadway is at home, Wayne does everything to please his father and to fulfil the role of a good son. His relationship to his mother suffers from the barrier between them that the secret of his birth had imposed on her. Wayne needs friends and confidantes to seek answers to his questions. His one real childhood friendship, with the girl Wally, is rather special, in a deep emotional way. But neither with her nor with Thomasina,who he admires, does he find the courage to confide his confusions and concerns. Thomasina, however, responds immediately to his urgent need for helf when the facts of puberty become evident. In the aftermath of yet another surgery, decisions affecting Wayne's future have to be taken and Thomasina takes charge. She develop into Treadway's counterpart by forcefully challenging his stubbornness and inflexibility as regards his child. At this stage Wayne's situation has become intolerable in the family and the community and, not surprisingly, he, like the allegoric white caribou, has to "break away from the herd" to embark on his or her self-discovery. Will the city which can offer him anonymity be the place where Wayne/Annabel can find who he/she is? Treadway, in his own quiet and reflective way, has retreated more and more to the wild, yet eventually learns to confront his own demons with surprising results. Jacinta, on the other hand and quite surprisingly, totally fades into the background.

With ANNABEL, Kathleen Winter has, in the first place, written a touching coming of age story of an unusual young person, torn by his dual gender identity and striving to fulfil the societal role expected of him. She explores a topic that while uncommon, but not rare, has not been treated very often in fiction and she does it with great sensitivity and empathy. By placing her protagonists into the specific time (i.e. starting in 1968) and into a remote traditional society, the author can go deeper into exploring the challenges a young person would face, trying to fit into his/her environment while being physically, mentally and/or emotionally different from the perceived "typical" gender stereotypes of that society.

For me, what stands out in the novel is how the author captures the inner struggle of this young person who grows up living in total ignorance of the fundamental facts of his/her sexual duality, surrounded by secrets, overbearing demands and without the confidence to share his own secrets. There is much beauty in descriptions of the landscapes and gentleness in the depiction of Wayne/Annabel's emotions. One can find weaknesses in the story in terms of plausibility of some aspects or the introduction of convenient coincidences. Some characters were less developed as they could have been, especially Jacinta whose fading away is surprising to say the least. Still, they do not outweigh the tremendous achievements in a debut novel. It is overall a very absorbing story and leaves one pondering gender stereotypes and the gender continuum on which everybody has a place. [Friederike Knabe]

Slow to start...but the book grows on you....so stay with it. A great Eastern Canada read, so I recommend it!

This book should be read by all human kind. You should never jusge a person until you have walked a mile in his moccasins. Enlightening and well written.