Choir Boy - Hardcover

Anders, Charlie

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1932360816 ISBN 13: 9781932360813

Publisher: Soft Skull Press, 2005

Synopsis

Twelve-year-old choirboy Berry wants nothing more than to remain a choirboy, surrounded by perfect notes, as opposed to his imperfect, quarreling parents. Choral music and the prospect of divinity thrill him. Desperate to keep his voice from changing, he tries to injure himself, and then convinces a clinic to give him testosterone-inhibiting drugs. The hormone pills keep Berry's voice from deepening but also cause him to grow breasts. Suddenly Berry faces a world of unexpected gender issues that push him into a universe far more complex than anything he has experienced. A fantastical coming-of-age story, Choir Boy combines off-kilter humor and its own brand of modern day magic in a rollicking, bittersweet story about growing up different.

About this title

About the Author

A former choir boy, Charlie Anders still sings in choirs and karaoke bars. She's the publisher of other, the magazine of pop culture and politics for the new outcasts. Her writing has been published in the anthologies Pills Chills Thrills & Heartache, It's All Good!, Pinned Down By Pronouns and The Anti-Capitalism Reader, and in Salon, the San Francisco Bay Guardian, Tikkun, Genre, and ZYZZYVA.She is the author of The Lazy Crossdresser (Greenery Press, 2002), a guide for anyone—especially those born male—who feels inadequate in women’s clothing.

From School Library Journal

Grade 10 Up–Berry, 12, lives a lonely and disconnected life at home and finds his only moments of fulfillment and transcendence as a standout soloist in the choir. When he notices that puberty is beginning to crack the pristine pipes of other boys his age, he begins to fear his own transition to manhood. He decides that, in the tradition of the Castrati, he needs to terminate his impending flow of pitch-bending testosterone before it's too late. After an impulsive hack with a kitchen knife leaves his gonads smarting but intact, Berry is able to obtain a pharmaceutical solution: a mixture of testosterone inhibitors and female hormones meant for aspiring transsexuals. He has not yet begun to unravel the complex subtleties of his sexuality, nor does he fully fathom the side effects the regimen will produce. He soon finds himself with a pair of strapping breasts and is thus forced into some difficult life-altering decisions. The story features a cast of over-the-top characters and is delivered in a glib, hipsteresque narrative style reminiscent of Tom Robbins. While some readers may relish the underground tone, others will find it effete and annoying. The sometimes cartoonish treatment, while it does provide some mild comic enjoyment, ultimately subverts the emotional gravity of what are very weighty personal issues. That shortcoming, combined with the adult language and themes, makes this title unsuitable for most collections.–Jeffrey Hastings, Highlander Way Middle School, Howell, MI
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About this edition

• Publisher: Soft Skull Press
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 1932360816
• ISBN 13: 9781932360813
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320