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Drag King Dreams
Max sobrevive como puede. Después de años militando en el movimiento LGTBQ se siente solo y perdido. La violencia constante que sufre por su expresión de género, su orientación sexual y su clase social ha hecho que se aísle y se encierre en sí mismo. Su único contacto con el exterior es su puesto como portero en el club drag en el que trabaja todas las noches sin contrato. El resto del tiempo lo dedica a deambular por una Nueva York golpeada por los atentados del 11S, donde las redadas se han incrementado y la policía se ha vuelto más racista que nunca. Las agresiones, desapariciones y torturas que sufren sus amigas, compañeras de trabajo y vecinas le harán darse cuenta de que no puede quedarse al margen.
Tras Stone Butch Blues, esta segunda y última novela de Leslie Feinberg nos sumerge de nuevo en una historia emocionante, comprometida y valiente. Esta vez el escenario que rodea al protagonista ya no son las fábricas del cinturón de óxido estadounidense, sino los clubs nocturnos del East Village y el incipiente espacio virtual de internet. La clase trabajadora ya no está organizada en grandes sindicatos, pero las luchas siguen siendo las mismas. Como Jesse, Max también tendrá que enfrentarse a la precariedad laboral, al racismo y a la violencia de quienes no están dispuestos a permitir que sea quien es.
Tras Stone Butch Blues, esta segunda y última novela de Leslie Feinberg nos sumerge de nuevo en una historia emocionante, comprometida y valiente. Esta vez el escenario que rodea al protagonista ya no son las fábricas del cinturón de óxido estadounidense, sino los clubs nocturnos del East Village y el incipiente espacio virtual de internet. La clase trabajadora ya no está organizada en grandes sindicatos, pero las luchas siguen siendo las mismas. Como Jesse, Max también tendrá que enfrentarse a la precariedad laboral, al racismo y a la violencia de quienes no están dispuestos a permitir que sea quien es.
370 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 2006
100 people are currently reading
3771 people want to read
About the author
Leslie Feinberg
10 books1,001 followersLeslie Feinberg was a transgender activist, speaker, and author. Feinberg was a high ranking member of the Workers World Party and a managing editor of Workers World newspaper.
Feinberg's writings on LGBT history, "Lavender & Red," frequently appeared in the Workers World newspaper. Feinberg's partner was the prominent lesbian poet-activist Minnie Bruce Pratt. Feinberg was also involved in Camp Trans and was awarded an honorary doctorate from Starr King School for the Ministry for transgender and social justice work.
Feinberg's novel Stone Butch Blues, which won the Stonewall Book Award, is a novel based around Jess Goldberg, a transgendered individual growing up in an unaccepting setting. Despite popular belief, the fictional work is not autobiographical. This book is frequently taught at colleges and universities and is widely considered a groundbreaking work about gender.
Leslie Feinberg was Jewish, and was born female. Feinberg preferred the gender-neutral pronouns "hir" and "ze". Feinberg wrote: "I have shaped myself surgically and hormonally twice in my life, and I reserve the right to do it again."
Feinberg's writings on LGBT history, "Lavender & Red," frequently appeared in the Workers World newspaper. Feinberg's partner was the prominent lesbian poet-activist Minnie Bruce Pratt. Feinberg was also involved in Camp Trans and was awarded an honorary doctorate from Starr King School for the Ministry for transgender and social justice work.
Feinberg's novel Stone Butch Blues, which won the Stonewall Book Award, is a novel based around Jess Goldberg, a transgendered individual growing up in an unaccepting setting. Despite popular belief, the fictional work is not autobiographical. This book is frequently taught at colleges and universities and is widely considered a groundbreaking work about gender.
Leslie Feinberg was Jewish, and was born female. Feinberg preferred the gender-neutral pronouns "hir" and "ze". Feinberg wrote: "I have shaped myself surgically and hormonally twice in my life, and I reserve the right to do it again."
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 192 reviews
March 24, 2020
I read a lot of reviews of this book before finishing it. A lot of them were negative, and I want to respond to those even if no one reads it.
"The writing is too simplistic." The writing is simple, but is simple bad? Of course not. Leslie Feinberg, tapping into the mind and experience of a working class person who is not immersed in academia, creates a well-written, accessible text. Not everything has to be Butler or Foucault-esque in writing style. Especially when it comes to a groundbreaking work such as this text, a fictional text that celebrates so many different types of people.
"It's like ze just tried to check off everything on a diversity checklist." There is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting a book to be accessible to and representative of, everyone, especially its most oppressed readers. My god, there is a deaf, genderqueer drag performer in this book who isn't the butt of a joke but in fact, is celebrated and affirmed!! How can that be chalked up to "checking things off on a diversity checklist"? There are absolutely people out there who can relate to that character. There are Jewish transgender people and butch women who can relate to Max, the main character. There are Black trans women who can relate to Ruby. This isn't some "diversity checklist", it's a bold statement affirming characters who have only recently come to be represented in literature.
"It's so annoying when older people write about the internet with so much fascination." This is just goofy. Leslie Feinberg was born in 1949, so ze was an adult already in the late 1960s, when gay bars,.often underground, were the ONLY ways to meet and celebrate ourselves. Maybe some DL house parties here and there, but back then computers were not personal and something like social media was just a dream for those who could even conceptualize such a thing. It is absolutely not farfetched for an older queer/trans person to write with so much fascination and romance of the internet or the personal computer. I loved it. Fuck, i don't even play video games but i want to play AvaStar [with some tweaks, of course]!!
Dreams is Leslie Feinberg's 2nd and final book of fiction -- it is captivating; i read it in just a few days. In the book, Leslie intricately brings together current [even reading this 14 years later, i'd still call it current] material conditions of oppression, but at the same time, imagines a response that is street organizers giving unconditional solidarity to one another. What really captivates me about this book is how open, communicative, and supportive everyone is of their comrades in this book. It is possible, of course, but to see the mutual aid and solidarity here played out so effortlessly is inspiring. The way the main characters keep watch on Ruby during her hospital stay,.how they all collectively push back against their shitty boss. Its amazing.
This book, as mentioned above, has an element of technology to it that makes it even more enjoyable. Leslie addresses not only the issue of transphobia in real life,.but in digital life! Honestly, who was writing about video game characters and transphobia 15 years ago? Hell, people are still writing about it now. I loved that aspect. While reading about this fictional game called AvaStar, i honestly felt like i could see it being played in real time. Like perhaps i was sitting at my desk in new york city at 3 a.m., playing this game. I loved it.
Two major themes that are seen again and again here are aging and burnout. I was a good number of pages in before i realized Max is older, over 50 years old, and so is Ruby -- which makes me happy because that's another angle Leslie quietly added: older queer/trans people who,.despite the odds, have survived, who are just as revolutionary as us younger fags. Max's burnout is a recurring issue throughout the book; his passion for the struggle is reignited, and how fitting! I cant speak to how those who survived the Stonewall days and the AIDS epidemic, must've felt circa 2005, but i imagine burnt out was probably a general feeling. What a wonderful call to action Leslie brings in this book to our queer/trans elders: you're never too old for the struggle.
Finally, something i really loved here is the very realistic lack of resolution -- the book ends in, to me, a very suspenseful scene that offers no solace, in the same way the book begins -- there is a brutal murder that remains unsolved. People are kidnapped, disappeared, attacked, and killed. And there are no resolutions. There is very little justice -- this is not, ultimately, a "feel good book" -- it is a testament and reflection of the times; there is no justice, no solace. Everything colonized and/or oppressed persons have won has been through arduous struggle -- and of course, a luta continua! The struggle continues. There is no happy ending here because we have not gotten to one in the struggle. This book reflects that.
I can't recommend this book enough. It is as good as Stone Butch Blues.
"The writing is too simplistic." The writing is simple, but is simple bad? Of course not. Leslie Feinberg, tapping into the mind and experience of a working class person who is not immersed in academia, creates a well-written, accessible text. Not everything has to be Butler or Foucault-esque in writing style. Especially when it comes to a groundbreaking work such as this text, a fictional text that celebrates so many different types of people.
"It's like ze just tried to check off everything on a diversity checklist." There is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting a book to be accessible to and representative of, everyone, especially its most oppressed readers. My god, there is a deaf, genderqueer drag performer in this book who isn't the butt of a joke but in fact, is celebrated and affirmed!! How can that be chalked up to "checking things off on a diversity checklist"? There are absolutely people out there who can relate to that character. There are Jewish transgender people and butch women who can relate to Max, the main character. There are Black trans women who can relate to Ruby. This isn't some "diversity checklist", it's a bold statement affirming characters who have only recently come to be represented in literature.
"It's so annoying when older people write about the internet with so much fascination." This is just goofy. Leslie Feinberg was born in 1949, so ze was an adult already in the late 1960s, when gay bars,.often underground, were the ONLY ways to meet and celebrate ourselves. Maybe some DL house parties here and there, but back then computers were not personal and something like social media was just a dream for those who could even conceptualize such a thing. It is absolutely not farfetched for an older queer/trans person to write with so much fascination and romance of the internet or the personal computer. I loved it. Fuck, i don't even play video games but i want to play AvaStar [with some tweaks, of course]!!
Dreams is Leslie Feinberg's 2nd and final book of fiction -- it is captivating; i read it in just a few days. In the book, Leslie intricately brings together current [even reading this 14 years later, i'd still call it current] material conditions of oppression, but at the same time, imagines a response that is street organizers giving unconditional solidarity to one another. What really captivates me about this book is how open, communicative, and supportive everyone is of their comrades in this book. It is possible, of course, but to see the mutual aid and solidarity here played out so effortlessly is inspiring. The way the main characters keep watch on Ruby during her hospital stay,.how they all collectively push back against their shitty boss. Its amazing.
This book, as mentioned above, has an element of technology to it that makes it even more enjoyable. Leslie addresses not only the issue of transphobia in real life,.but in digital life! Honestly, who was writing about video game characters and transphobia 15 years ago? Hell, people are still writing about it now. I loved that aspect. While reading about this fictional game called AvaStar, i honestly felt like i could see it being played in real time. Like perhaps i was sitting at my desk in new york city at 3 a.m., playing this game. I loved it.
Two major themes that are seen again and again here are aging and burnout. I was a good number of pages in before i realized Max is older, over 50 years old, and so is Ruby -- which makes me happy because that's another angle Leslie quietly added: older queer/trans people who,.despite the odds, have survived, who are just as revolutionary as us younger fags. Max's burnout is a recurring issue throughout the book; his passion for the struggle is reignited, and how fitting! I cant speak to how those who survived the Stonewall days and the AIDS epidemic, must've felt circa 2005, but i imagine burnt out was probably a general feeling. What a wonderful call to action Leslie brings in this book to our queer/trans elders: you're never too old for the struggle.
Finally, something i really loved here is the very realistic lack of resolution -- the book ends in, to me, a very suspenseful scene that offers no solace, in the same way the book begins -- there is a brutal murder that remains unsolved. People are kidnapped, disappeared, attacked, and killed. And there are no resolutions. There is very little justice -- this is not, ultimately, a "feel good book" -- it is a testament and reflection of the times; there is no justice, no solace. Everything colonized and/or oppressed persons have won has been through arduous struggle -- and of course, a luta continua! The struggle continues. There is no happy ending here because we have not gotten to one in the struggle. This book reflects that.
I can't recommend this book enough. It is as good as Stone Butch Blues.
April 24, 2023
Not a work of fine literature, nor an emblem the way SBB was. But this is a five-star story for me, sitting on this long train journey from my girlfriend’s place to mine. Filled with the complexity of early-digital queer politics, struggles with Jewish identity, and the aftermath of the AIDS epidemic meeting with the upswing of the war on terror, Feinberg captures the ambivalence and unexpected sites of hope and love amidst a desolate and confusing period.
April 14, 2021
I really wish I could give this a better review! The writing was stale and heavy-handed, and the characters felt more like vessels for a political message than fleshed out people. The book was so self-conscious about its whiteness and that really detracted from the narrative.
April 20, 2007
This little feller made me throw up all over the place, over and over and over. I think I hate Feinberg as a fiction writer. Which is fine- ze still does lots of really good work as a historian, organizer and union activist- I just feel like the characters were kind of flat, the idea that different oppressions are connected was SO overstated, video game narratives make me explode, instant messenger conversation transcriptions make me want to die, and you do NOT ask a transwoman what her "real name" is. If she's told you her name, she's told you her real name.
Also: all femmes and all transwomen are not sweetheart caretakers. (My roommate pointed out that this is what goes on in Feinberg's books, I didn't put it together on my own. Gross.)
I got pretty invested in being mad at this book, though, so I might be typing through ANGRY GLASSES.
Also: all femmes and all transwomen are not sweetheart caretakers. (My roommate pointed out that this is what goes on in Feinberg's books, I didn't put it together on my own. Gross.)
I got pretty invested in being mad at this book, though, so I might be typing through ANGRY GLASSES.
April 13, 2021
4.5/5 stars. This is such an incredible and important story. There were parts of the characters I'd like to have seen more fleshed out, but ultimately I think it all worked. But the themes, the point of this book was incredible. I would end up writing an essay if I started going into it all. But if you are interested in activism in any way, you need to read Leslie Feinberg. This embodies a lot of what ze said in some of their nonfiction about solidarity -- within the LGBT movement and outside of it. It discusses nuances of identity and nuances of connection. So many excellent things happening.
CW: death, hate crime, HIV/AIDS and hospitalization, medical trauma, police brutality, deadnaming, homophobia, transphobia, antisemitism, xenophobia... Basically all the hateful "phobia"s honestly.
CW: death, hate crime, HIV/AIDS and hospitalization, medical trauma, police brutality, deadnaming, homophobia, transphobia, antisemitism, xenophobia... Basically all the hateful "phobia"s honestly.
October 24, 2023
En verdad no me gusta leer libros yankis xq no entiendo nada de lo q les pasa en esas calles tan largas o en la lavandería
Pero me lo he terminado xq me lo prestó raq y raq es mi familia y no sé si todo el mundo necesita una familia pero para la gente queer seguro que si o sea no para existir porque yo ya existía antes pero no ahora existo de verdad o sea existo siendo queer y con una familia queer y me leo sus libros y muchas más cosas
Pero me lo he terminado xq me lo prestó raq y raq es mi familia y no sé si todo el mundo necesita una familia pero para la gente queer seguro que si o sea no para existir porque yo ya existía antes pero no ahora existo de verdad o sea existo siendo queer y con una familia queer y me leo sus libros y muchas más cosas
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January 4, 2023Was Leslie Feinberg a *skillful* writer? Maybe not in the words-way, but ze punches hir readers in the throat with hir work. So yeah, there’s some craft. The art of spooning raw emotional responses out of you. Anyway, it’s sad, much like Stone Butch Blues, but a little sadder.
I definitely see where some of the characters and narration was clouded by like, rose-colored retrospection about the 80s and 90s, because there was some questionable handling of diverse characters. I think ze would have found more nuance and tact if ze was still here writing today.
I definitely see where some of the characters and narration was clouded by like, rose-colored retrospection about the 80s and 90s, because there was some questionable handling of diverse characters. I think ze would have found more nuance and tact if ze was still here writing today.
March 12, 2024
reading this in the current climate makes a lot of these things hit harder - Palestine and Trans lives especially. i wept like a baby towards the end, leslie feinberg’s writing is so raw, even when writing fiction, i loved every word
August 22, 2025
leslie’s geist atmet aus jeder seite und es ist extrem toll das lesen zu dürfen. mochte das setting anfang der 00er jahre sehr, und auch die art aus dem alltag dieses kleinen grüppchens familie zu erzählen. hat mich viel über solidarität nachdenken lassen. und habe während dem lesen glaub endlich begonnen, einen für mich sehr (trans)männlich konnotierten umgang mit gefühlen besser zu verstehen.
January 28, 2008
After reading Stone Butch Blues, I expected so much from this book. I had seen Feinberg speak and I loved what I heard; however, after doing so many inspirational talks, Feinberg seems to have lost the literary spark that made Stone Butch Blues so incredible. I found Drag King Dreams to be an incredibly obvious book. Lessons intended to shock and educate fell flat and failed to enhance the story. Many details were not well researched (ie: a Deaf drag king performing with an amazing multimedia display at a regular gay bar, as though drag kings operate within budgets that allow for multimedia displays). I also thought the whole community was idealized: everyone is incredibly enlightened, conflicts only arise so the main character can grow as a person or respond by expressing Feinberg's own progressive values. This book made me mad because it underestimated its audience and overly simplified real issues it could have done more with. I read the whole thing because I had faith in Leslie Feinberg's ability to weave a beautiful story, and I was terribly disappointed. Hopefully this was just the curse of the irritating second novel, but it's going to take some convincing to get me to pick up the next one.
June 9, 2015
I honestly don't understand why this has so many negative reviews. I loved it! It reminded me so much of my life living in the queer neighbourhood in Seattle post 9/11 and why we left America. Like Stone butch blues there were parts that made me cry and parts that made me smile. The main character wasn't perfect but I could identify with hir struggles. I liked the way people were able to reach beyond their own communities to start helping each other. The message of this book was that the oppressed need to stand together. That people are connected. It was a lovely character piece as well as a call to action.
February 16, 2024
Las expectativas altas han jugado en mi contra en esta ocasión. He pretendido encontrar la misma sensación que cuando leí “Stone Butch Blues”, pero obviamente es otro libro.
Aún así he encontrado una gran novela en la que destaca una muestra valiente y reflexiva del género, la religión y la guerra. Y sobre todo insiste desde la novela en la necesidad de colectivizar la vida, los cuidados y la lucha.
Aún así he encontrado una gran novela en la que destaca una muestra valiente y reflexiva del género, la religión y la guerra. Y sobre todo insiste desde la novela en la necesidad de colectivizar la vida, los cuidados y la lucha.
January 10, 2014
This is one of those books that's more important than it is good. Books like this need to exist, but it has a few flaws. It's formulaic, the prose is naïve, and it's more than a little obvious in its message. Full marks for being good for the community, but it's hard to say that it's good.
It's not bad.
It's not bad.
March 15, 2020
the ending of this book. oh my god. every day i just hope leslie feinberg would be proud of me
March 17, 2025
Con lo mucho que me gustó Stone Butch Blues, me da pena que éste no me haya conseguido enganchar para nada. Veo el mérito y la historia entiendo que es sobrecogedora también, pero es que no me ha tenido ahí. Qué mal.
December 11, 2025
pura emoción... ser-elegirser mientras eres-eligesser... dudando de ti y siendo rechazado por el resto pero con la confianza puesta siempre en lo colectivo
violencia policial, racismo, género, identidades, religión, guerra... en el brutal capitalismo de un eeuu post 11S.
cuantísimo que contar. ojalá existiera una novela para cada amigue de max ❤️
violencia policial, racismo, género, identidades, religión, guerra... en el brutal capitalismo de un eeuu post 11S.
cuantísimo que contar. ojalá existiera una novela para cada amigue de max ❤️
May 15, 2025
(Por fin) he terminado este libro tan bonito que me regaló Mazu en nuestro bookclub particular. Un abracito queer para el corazón ❤️🩹
September 7, 2023
M'ha agradat molt. El record de Stone Butch Blues m'ha fet afrontar aquest llibre amb les expectatives altíssimes. Així i tot, les ha complert. És tendre, però també és dur. És íntim i personal, però sobretot és polític i col·lectiu. La lluita queer i antiracista unides contra la repressió i violència policial de la "guerra contra el terrorisme" post 11s.
petonets cuirs<3
petonets cuirs<3
April 3, 2025
this book did so much for my gay yiddishe heart. leslie feinberg’s words & perspective are a gift to us all
June 29, 2024
I found it empowering reading about gender queer, trans, etc characters finding their family and finding strength in their identity and community to fight for others. I thought this book was a quick and easy to follow read… but that doesnt mean i found it boring! I thought it was an interesting view into the happenings of that time.
Found comfort in max’s vulnerability with friends/found family and how none of them could really show up 100% for each other yet they showed up as best they could and filled each other’s gaps.
I genuinely enjoyed this book so much.
Found comfort in max’s vulnerability with friends/found family and how none of them could really show up 100% for each other yet they showed up as best they could and filled each other’s gaps.
I genuinely enjoyed this book so much.
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May 5, 2025As I once felt when I read Stone Butch Blues, Leslie Feinberg does it again with Drag King Dreams: a book that seems to speak directly to my worries, my longings, what I care about, my self. A novel whose characters and conflicts are as real as life itself, and whose struggles are still ever present 20 years after it was written. I hope people aren't missing out on this book, vastly different from the classic that is Stone Butch Blues but which shows what Feinberg wanted to transmit later in hir life, a progression of hir queer, revolutionary existence. I feel like I'm growing up next to hir books, somehow.
November 5, 2019
This is one of those books I can't talk to anyone about, because it came for me specifically at so many junctures that to have someone I know read it would be to bare WAY more of my soul than I need to be baring right now. The simultaneous reflection of difference (the characters are decades older than me, queer norms have changed in the last 15 years, the world in some ways and for some queers is much safer than it was) and sameness (Max... I cannot, as previously mentioned, say too much about how I feel about Max. The new feeling of urgency of activism and the ambivalence and danger around it, the solidarity between and within communities, the messiness of tight queer community, the way trauma informs everything that happens but doesn't excuse those actions, the way we both disappoint and uphold our values) made this a quite painful reading experience. But it came to me at a time when I needed it, and it showed me myself, or some versions of myself, and it showed me versions of my community, and that fundamental specificity of experience, and reminded me that despite everything, people have been living this life for a long, long time.
February 24, 2024
As a "bad queer" I haven't yet read Stone Butch Blues before reading Drag King Dreams by the same author Leslie Feinberg. Many reviews here seem to compare the two in the sense of author's non-fictional work vs fictional writing, mostly preferring SBB and other NF work. I am reviewing solely on this book itself.
This book is a near 5/5 for me. Is some of the writing simple? Sure. However, I feel so appreciative to have read this book at this moment in time. When it's easy to feel hopeless and powerless about US's complicity with the genocide of Palestinians by Israel as days go by with more and more violence. Or news of young trans and queer youth losing their lives and rights in the US. But reading this book I am inspired just like Max in activism, reempowered to find my people and reinvigorated to make a change and stand for what's right. To walk away from a book feeling so strongly, I think is an honor.
This book is a near 5/5 for me. Is some of the writing simple? Sure. However, I feel so appreciative to have read this book at this moment in time. When it's easy to feel hopeless and powerless about US's complicity with the genocide of Palestinians by Israel as days go by with more and more violence. Or news of young trans and queer youth losing their lives and rights in the US. But reading this book I am inspired just like Max in activism, reempowered to find my people and reinvigorated to make a change and stand for what's right. To walk away from a book feeling so strongly, I think is an honor.
June 6, 2018
There were parts of this book that I really loved and really spoke to me, but overall it was just good, not great. I wish it were longer, the ending feels so rushed and the ultimate message of solidarity is a little overwrought.
November 30, 2022
Oh, I thought this would be better. It sounded so good, about drag kings and genderbenders and queer people and activism in post 9/11 New York. I was there in those times, yet how I remember it was so much different from how this book paints it. This doesn't make the book bad, yet I'm irritated by it. I recall the New York of 2001 being a place of opportunities, of openness, of nobody caring how you are, how you do stuff, how you look - the place where you can be what you want to be, yes. Adam, published in the same year, is an example for how I perceived it. (this book got criticism for other reasons, but still)
Feinberg describes it way more narrow minded, maybe also because it is not about young people, but folks in their mid40s. Max, the protagonist (whom I would never call "she" as the goodreads description does - the author follows not the sex assigned at birth, but gender expressions, and I think the book desription should do the same) encounters homophobia/queerphobia/transphobia all the time - sure, that still happens today, but I would have thought there would be a network of friendly places around: a coffeeshop where you go because you know they are queerfriendly there, a barber that doesn't give you a look because a perceived woman wants a "male" haircut.
Max has been living in NYC his whole life, he should have those places. Not only because I think it would be more realistic, but also to balance what is happening in the book. there is so much harassment, so much negativity. It all feels like the US are on the brink of being toppled into a fascist state. Especially the end feels like that, when Max and his friends are in prison, get one after another brought away by cops who call them by the names that are written in their documents. It feels like they are brough to execution.
Maybe that's how it was in the early 2000s, the US seemed to be an almost fascist state, but with today's knowledge of how certain politicians are trying to abolish US democracy, we have to say: It was so much better back then. So this is maybe not so much a novel but a time document of left wing activism in the early 2000s. And a manifesto of how left wing people should work together to achieve their goals. An outdated manifesto, I'm afraid.
Another example of how time has advanced since this book was published in 2006 is pronouns. Feinberg uses genderneutral pronouns (ze/hir) for people without or of unknown gender identity. Today people would just use they/them. It's interesting how everytime ze or hir was used, I wanted to fill in they or them, how normal it is nowadays.
Feinberg describes it way more narrow minded, maybe also because it is not about young people, but folks in their mid40s. Max, the protagonist (whom I would never call "she" as the goodreads description does - the author follows not the sex assigned at birth, but gender expressions, and I think the book desription should do the same) encounters homophobia/queerphobia/transphobia all the time - sure, that still happens today, but I would have thought there would be a network of friendly places around: a coffeeshop where you go because you know they are queerfriendly there, a barber that doesn't give you a look because a perceived woman wants a "male" haircut.
Max has been living in NYC his whole life, he should have those places. Not only because I think it would be more realistic, but also to balance what is happening in the book. there is so much harassment, so much negativity. It all feels like the US are on the brink of being toppled into a fascist state. Especially the end feels like that, when Max and his friends are in prison, get one after another brought away by cops who call them by the names that are written in their documents. It feels like they are brough to execution.
Maybe that's how it was in the early 2000s, the US seemed to be an almost fascist state, but with today's knowledge of how certain politicians are trying to abolish US democracy, we have to say: It was so much better back then. So this is maybe not so much a novel but a time document of left wing activism in the early 2000s. And a manifesto of how left wing people should work together to achieve their goals. An outdated manifesto, I'm afraid.
Another example of how time has advanced since this book was published in 2006 is pronouns. Feinberg uses genderneutral pronouns (ze/hir) for people without or of unknown gender identity. Today people would just use they/them. It's interesting how everytime ze or hir was used, I wanted to fill in they or them, how normal it is nowadays.
August 12, 2025
such a beautiful book!! love hearing about my brothers, my sisters and every warrior that came before me
they are my heroes, the reason i can stand tall today
such descriptive and poetic writing, lush lush lush
feinberg is a huge activist and whilst reading about the wars and marches for palestine in this book it is so unbelievable that we are still in that state today many years later
been reading so much gender/identity/label stuff recently and it was honestly perfect reading this book without knowing how XYZ identified because at the end of the day it will never change how we are as people (how we love and laugh), but how we are treated by the world around us
magic and tragic all in one lol
trans lives matter <3
they are my heroes, the reason i can stand tall today
such descriptive and poetic writing, lush lush lush
feinberg is a huge activist and whilst reading about the wars and marches for palestine in this book it is so unbelievable that we are still in that state today many years later
been reading so much gender/identity/label stuff recently and it was honestly perfect reading this book without knowing how XYZ identified because at the end of the day it will never change how we are as people (how we love and laugh), but how we are treated by the world around us
magic and tragic all in one lol
trans lives matter <3
September 27, 2025
set in post 9/11 new york, seeing the surveillance, violence, and kidnapping by the state that was and still is impacting queer people, muslims, and those that fall in between made me think about how much fear & pain those who were both visibly muslim AND visibly queer must have experienced during this specific time period of history. obviously the marginalization and oppression that comes with being a queer/ trans muslim is on-going and not in any way exclusionary to the immediate years post 9/11 but i just can only imagine how much worse it would have felt during that time. i wish i could talk to a queer muslim who had experienced that. i wish i knew older queer muslims who made it out and not just survived but thrived
November 16, 2025
(3.5) Un poco triste por pensar que no puedo leer más novelas de Leslie Feinberg.
En esta novela el tema y el enfoque no tienen nada que ver con Stone Butch Blues, aquí lo trans y la persecución trans, LGTB y a inmigrantes tras el 11-S en Nueva York lo ocupan todo.
Me ha parecido muy interesante esta nueva deriva de la autora y es una novela muy muy disfrutable porque escribe maravillosamente.
La historia me ha parecido muy interesante y mucho más política que la anterior, cosa que empezó encandilándome y que se desinfló al final por la no resolución o desarrollo de algunos conflictos.
Pero está bien. Los personajes son muy realistas y redondos, los temas no pueden ser más actuales.
En esta novela el tema y el enfoque no tienen nada que ver con Stone Butch Blues, aquí lo trans y la persecución trans, LGTB y a inmigrantes tras el 11-S en Nueva York lo ocupan todo.
Me ha parecido muy interesante esta nueva deriva de la autora y es una novela muy muy disfrutable porque escribe maravillosamente.
La historia me ha parecido muy interesante y mucho más política que la anterior, cosa que empezó encandilándome y que se desinfló al final por la no resolución o desarrollo de algunos conflictos.
Pero está bien. Los personajes son muy realistas y redondos, los temas no pueden ser más actuales.
October 31, 2023
No está al nivel de Stone Butch Blues, pero aún así me ha gustado mucho. La representación de las luchas y militancias Queers, antirracistas, antisionistas e izquierdistas en general me ha encantado. Me hubiera gustado que se detuviera más en explorar a cada une de les amigues de Max porque realmente me parecieron personajes muy interesantes con un gran potencial, pero al no hacerlo siento que se ha quedado en la superficie.
En resumen, tiene algunas cosas que mejoraría pero igualmente me encantó :).
En resumen, tiene algunas cosas que mejoraría pero igualmente me encantó :).
April 9, 2023
Como sucede con Stone Butch Blues, esta novela no destaca y se hace imprescindible por su elaboración literaria, sino que lo hace por su historia y los temas que abarca. En un contexto como el actual en el que la violencia y el odio hacia los diferentes grupos minorizados, hacia cualquier diferencia o disidencia, crecen casi sin control, estas historias aportan la esperanza de volver a aliarnos de nuevo desde los márgenes.
"Uno no puede cambiar el mundo si tiene miedo de ir a la cárcel".
"Uno no puede cambiar el mundo si tiene miedo de ir a la cárcel".
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