For Today I Am a Boy
Peter’s Chinese name may be Juan Chaun (“Powerful King“), but when he is in the first grade, he declares, “I want to be a mommy.” When reminded he’s a boy, he wails to his oldest sister, “But I want to be like you. I want to be pretty like you.” Though he continues to want to be a woman, he learns to mask his feelings as he grows up and endures failed relationships with two women. Only when he’s alone, locked in his apartment, does he put on makeup and don dresses. Then he meets John, a charismatic, cheerful, female-to-male transgender, who challenges Peter to be himself, calling him a coward when he continues to resist. Today he is a boy, but tomorrow? In her episodic first novel, Canadian author Fu does an excellent job of conveying the desperation of one trapped in the wrong body as well as the confusion and frustration of that condition. In a larger sense, she examines what it means to be a woman when, like Peter, you’re born a man. An interesting, thought-provoking novel. --Michael Cart