Crawl Stories

Delsohn debuts with a dryly humorous and poignant collection featuring an eclectic cast of characters navigating trans life in 2010s Seattle. The title entry sees 26-year-old warehouse worker Jack wondering if he'll ever find love. Having struck out after a night of barhopping, he winds up at a bathhouse where he knows he can at least find sex. After the college student protagonist of "All Time Low" is left by her girlfriend for a trans man, she begins dating Julie, a self-identified "straight girl" who makes her feel "disgusting." In "Same Old," trans man Simon's weekend acid trip is interrupted by a "cry for help" in the form of a voicemail from the recently transitioned Harold, his sister's drug dealer, a "friendless, baby-trans burner who felt stuck in the wrong world, the wrong life." Aware that others mock Harold and routinely call him by his dead name, and increasingly worried about his well-being, Simon reluctantly sets out to check on him. Throughout, the stories' bold sex scenes often give way to humor, as in "Sex Is a Leisure Activity," when the narrator, a transmasculine comedian, confesses his ignorance about the purpose of a cock ring; or vulnerable emotions, as when Jack convinces himself he's experiencing love while having sex with a stranger. These exacting stories seethe with blunt honesty. Agent: Audrey Crooks, Trident Media Group. (Oct.)

Delsohn captures the pathos and humor of transmasculine life in this entrancing debut collection. They share a city (Seattle), an era (2010s), and a demographic (trans men, overwhelmingly in their 20s). Many name-drop the same clubs (Pony, Object), some share a doctor (Dr. Rolfe), and a handful frequent the same amusingly named triad of drug dealers known collectively as the Furniture Guy. But there is a greater kinship among the protagonists in these 10 stories: a true grappling with their understandings of themselves and what it means to be a member of a specific queer community. Each narrative drops us in a moment of tension or discovery. The opening story, "Crawl," follows Jack's one-night odyssey to explore the attraction to men that has blossomed in the wake of his transition. The technician who maintains the titular manufacturing device in "The Machine" must contend with his boss' invasive personal questions. The narrator of "Don't Be Boring" begins the difficult work of disentangling himself from a caustic but charismatic college friend. Delsohn displays enviable craft throughout the collection, evident in the skillfully composed arc of every story and the deftness and wit of individual lines. (Of a gregarious acquaintance, the narrator of "The Bubble" says, "We'd walk into a bar and he'd always know somebody; we'd walk into a gay bar and he'd always knoweverybody.") This is a no-skips collection, but perhaps Delsohn's most ambitious and moving work is the closer, "Same Old," which follows 30-year-old Simon's attempt to help the vulnerable, younger trans man who sold him acid--all while tripping. Attempts and embarrassments, workaday triumphs and acts of kindness--Delsohn brings all this and more to shimmering life. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.