Sarah O'Connor

“A child’s worry was not like an adult’s. It gnawed deep, and was so unnecessary. Why did people not realize children could withstand the truth? Why did adults insist on filling children with the deceptions their own parents had laid on them, when surely they remembered how it had felt to lie in bed and cry over fears no one had bothered to help you face,” (Winter).

In 1968 Labrador, Canada an intersex baby is born and only three people know, the baby’s parents and their neighbour and midwife Thomasina. Treadway, the baby’s father, decides to raise the baby as a boy named Wayne while his mother Jacinta and Thomasina secretly nurture his feminine side. As Wayne grows up in the patriarchal world of his father he thinks of an image of a girl curled inside of him Thomasina has called Annabel. Wayne must leave Labrador for St. John’s in order to finally come to terms with his identity.

Right away I’ll warn you that I’m going to spoil some pretty major parts of Annabel. Considering some of the things that happen in this book it’s necessary. I will also be using the word intersex to describe Wayne instead of hermaphrodite as is used in the book. The book is set between 1968 and the 1980s and was published in 2010, much of the language used between then and now has changed and I’ve chosen to use the terms we use now.

I will start by saying that I think Winter is a talented writer. I enjoyed her writing style and could visualize Labrador and the other settings she was describing. I do think some characters were unnecessary to the plot, like Wally, and thought it was strange that Wayne’s father seemed to do a 180 in personality and his mom all but disappeared. But as a whole the writing was good, the story was easy to follow. I also think it’s wonderful she chose to write an intersex character. While the world has come a long way in terms of understanding and accepting gender identities, intersex people are still seldom talked about. While only 1.7% of the population is born with intersex traits, much of the understanding around intersex people are played off for jokes and surgery on intersex individuals is still done at birth and assigning a gender to them at birth instead of allowing them to live in their bodies as they are.

All of that aside, it is shocking that Winter, her publisher, editors, and everyone in-between let this book be published with such wrong facts about the biology around intersex people. To spoil the book, when Wayne is a child he is admitted into the hospital and surgery is performed on him where it is revealed that he has impregnated himself and do to some serious medical issues the fetus is removed. An intersex person cannot impregnant themselves. While they may have two sets of reproductive organs only one will work. This is not something that can happen, and the fact that this was such a huge plot-point in the novel, that Wayne even worries that it might happen again only furthers harmful misinformation about intersex people. Yes, the argument can be made that this is a fictional book so it doesn’t have to be accurate, but I’d argue that a book firmly set in a very real place and time should have some fact checking done. People come to fiction to understand topics when non-fiction books can appear intimidating, and this disregard for fact when intersex characters are so rare in fiction is plainly insulting to intersex people. The fact that this book was a Giller Finalist astounds me.

The medical inaccuracies of Annabel make me warry to return to Kathleen Winter’s works. Unless something of hers really catches my interest, I can’t see myself returning to her work.

Publication: May 31 2010
Publisher: House of Anansi Press
Pages: 464 pages (Libby)
Source: Library
Genre: Fiction, Canadian, Literary, Historical Fiction
My Rating: ⛤⛤
Summary:

In 1968, into the devastating, spare atmosphere of Labrador, Canada, a child is born: a baby who appears to be neither fully boy nor fully girl, but both at once. Only three people are privy to the secret—the baby’s parents, Jacinta and Treadway, and their trusted neighbor and midwife, Thomasina. Though Treadway makes the difficult decision to raise the child as a boy named Wayne, the women continue to quietly nurture the boy’s female side. And as Wayne grows into adulthood within the hypermasculine hunting society of his father, his shadow-self, a girl he thinks of as “Annabel,” is never entirely extinguished.
When Wayne finally escapes the confines of his hometown and settles in St. John’s, the anonymity of the city grants him the freedom to confront his dual identity. His ultimate choice will once again call into question the integrity and allegiance of those he loves most.