Trans-Sister Radio
 by Chris Bohjalian
 
        Trans-Sister Radio is a prescient novel for the new
 millennium. As you read the title you are either enthralled
 or repulsed by the intended subject. Or, you envision the
 boom box of an earlier day -- without the tape or CD.

        Chris Bohjalian, the acclaimed author of "Midwives" and
 "Water Witches" brings us an exceedingly well-researched
 work of a subject dear to our hearts, the life of a
 preop-to-postop transsexual. According to Mr. Bohjalian this
 work was inspired by a female friend, who was devastated
 when her male SO confided to her that he was TS and
 contemplating SRS. We don't know how that turned out, but we
 learn how this scenario can evolve in a small Vermont
 village, where some people may have heard of transvestites.
 In this work of fiction he brilliantly constructs a love
 quadrangle whose romantic emotions are displayed for all to
 see. This is not a novel that minces words. On the very
 first page we are invited to listen to a series on National
 Public Radio called the Nature of Love on the subject of
 gender dysphoria.

        The protagonists of this story are Carly Banks, the
 college-aged daughter of Will and Allison Banks and Dana
 Stevens, a young, but tenured male film professor at the
 local university. Will and Allison are long since divorced,
 but consider each other the best of friends whose counsel is
 always appreciated. Will is the local station manager of
 Vermont NPR and is now married to a workaholic lawyer,
 Patricia. Allison is a sixth grade elementary school
 teacher, who is well regarded as a fine teacher and
 upstanding member of the village. And Dana is the current
 love interest of Allison, who is enrolled in his summer film
 course. The summer becomes hot and heavy for the new couple
 and toward its end all are invited to meet each other for a
 picnic at Allison's.
 
       At this point Dana has not begun to transition except for early HRT.
 There is a softness to Dana, which only Will reflects upon.
 To the family women, his soft skin and pony-tailed hair only
 seem to be exceptional qualities of this handsome Prof. Will
 attempts to warn Allie that there is something effeminate
 about Dana, but Dana appears to be the perfect soul-mate for
 Allison and as the school year begins she asks him to move
 in. Life has never been better for her. He cooks, cleans and
 gives a great back massage after fantastic sex. Too good to
 be true you say. Well, we'll see.

        Each individual chapter foreshadows with a page or two of
 dialogue from the NPR interviews and then is narrated from
 the perspective of a single character, so we learn how
 differently everybody perceives this affair. As the intimacy
 grows and each truly falls in love with each other, Dana
 reveals his desire for SRS to Allison and we learn of the
 confusion surrounding Allison in her own words. Somehow she
 thinks she can reverse his foolish notion. Dana relates to
 us his terrible childhood and his yearning to be a woman.
 Carly relates how she copes with this new situation as a
 liberal at Bennington. And Will brings us the definitive
 thoughtful male perspective. "Dana, no matter what, was
 never going to know what it was like to grow up female. He
 was never going to be molded by the challenges that
 confronted Allie or Carly. Dana was never going to be
 formed, at least in part, by the fears and frustrations a
 woman inevitably endures throughout her life. A big part of
 the problem was his world. We're just not very comfortable
 with people who, for example, lack that second X chromosome
 and therefore sport facial hair and a penis, but would
 rather wear stockings and a skirt than a pair of pants. And
 even if we never, ever grew to approve of them, you have to
 admit: Tolerating them is far better than mutilating them.
 Chopping apart their genitals. Disfiguring their bodies."

 He just doesn't get it.

       In the autumn Dana begins to appear in town in feminine
 attire and everybody is talking. The Fundamentalists are
 circulating a petition to the effect that all elementary
 school teachers should be role models of morality. Allison
 is rebuffed by her principal, the school board and the other
 sixth grade teacher, who accepts one-half of Allison's
 students as transfers without a qualm. They can't fire her
 but they try to make her leave town and take a leave of
 absence. She is deserted by everyone except her family and
 her devoted Dana. There are some humorous moments in all her
 grief as when her remaining students do a drag number at the
 Annual Talent show. But Allison is tough and the community
 is not her real dilemma. Her most difficult decision is: "Can
 she continue to love a woman?"

      Well she decides to stand by her man, or woman depending on
 the month, and makes the trip to Trinidad, Colorado on New
 Year's Eve for Dana's surgery. Dana's family will not be
 supportive of his decision, so Allison provides his only
 emotional support after Dana convinces her that she will be
 the same person after surgery only a little lighter. NPR
 interviews the surgeon who is enlightening in his details of
 the surgery. Of great interest to me was, the contrast
 between these two small towns in Colorado and Vermont. The
 rural denizens of Colorado welcome TS's with open arms and
 pockets, while the citizens of Puritan New England shun them
 like Hester Prynne.

    When they return for the recuperative period in the dead of
 winter, everybody in town knows where they have been and
 what has transpired because Will accidentally dropped the
 news to Glen Frazier, the principal, in the Grand Union. The
 hate mail begins with a threat placed on her school desk in
 the form of an Internet pic of a nude TV with a knife
 crudely drawn pointing to his penis. Then graffiti is spray
 painted on Allie's front door saying "faggot cunts". An
 oxymoron if I ever heard one. When Will realizes his
 mistake, he wants to publicize Allie's plight to the hippie
 citizens of Vermont on NPR's "All Things Considered" in the
 form of interviews with all concerned parties. Certainly
 this educative format will swing public opinion in her
 favor.

      But at first Allie does not want to become a public figure
 or a martyr for the cause. Patricia moves out on Will
 because of all the attention he is devoting to protecting
 Allie. She feels he has never extinguished the old flame.
 And Will, in his loneliness, attempts a few one night stands
 with only regrets. But the real drama is Dana and Allie's
 new sex life. We learn about the dildos and the new
 positions with all their adjustments and trepidation. As
 Dana sees it: "At first there is nothing sexy about
 dilation. It is alas, akin to flossing; it's simply a part
 of one's better hygiene regimen. But almost imperceptively,
 something began to change when I would work the different
 dildos inside me that spring. I began to understand the
 desire for - radical feminism be damned - penetration."

     In the end, as you guessed, Allie just couldn't
 see herself living out her years as a Lesbian.
 As the NPR show develops, Will and Dana begin seeing more of
 each other and he cannot help to notice that their
 conversations are easier and "she" is certainly the
 attractive woman described to the listeners.
 Well, I won't tell you how this ends, but I can easily say
 that I have not described one-tenth of the gems in this
 wonderful romantic novel. Chris Bohjalian could well be the
 successor to Dame Barbara Cartland, but I am sure he will
 move on to another challenging area of interest.
 "It's a damn shame!". That's all I can say.  Luv Ya, Cerise