The relative power of Annabel
BOOKS / Kathleen Winter offers a debut novel about intersex experience
Marcus McCann / Toronto / Thursday, December 16, 2010
http://www.xtra.ca/public/Toronto/The_relative_power_of_Annabel-9556.aspxLet's put aside the intricacies of Annabel, Kathleen Winter's debut novel, for a minute, and admit that a mainstream novel, nominated for several of the country's biggest literary awards, that deals in a nonjudgmental way with an intersex main character is, on balance, a good thing.
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For gay readers, however, there are two cheats that keep Annabel from being a great novel. The first is the investment of Wayne, the intersex main character, with an eerie, otherworldly birth narrative. It's a throwback, a strange choice for a book that wants to look intersex experience directly between the eyes. Then, inexplicably, the magical qualities of the infant Wayne evaporate as the novel progresses.
