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Window Dressing
Elliot and Rita are clothing designers at Tush, the trendy apparel company in Seattle. More than their friendship is tested when Elliot confesses that he is really a she.
Would you have the courage to change, the daring to be who you've always known you were, even if it meant testing every relationship with family, friends, clients, and lovers?
Would you have the courage to change, the daring to be who you've always known you were, even if it meant testing every relationship with family, friends, clients, and lovers?
292 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 9, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 14, 2017
Window Dressing by Maitri Sojourner is the story of Ellie, formerly known as Elliott, a transgender dress designer. It follows her brief path of self-discovery from when she first began to suspect she was a transgender woman to her public coming out and the reactions of her friends and co-workers—most of whom are surprisingly supportive, more so than one might expect in the public at large. But that is understandable considering the novel is set in the LGBTQ-friendly city of Seattle.
I had the pleasure of attending a book launch party at Traditions Café in Olympia, Washington. In her talk there, Sojourner said she knew next to nothing about transgender persons when she started writing the book, but that she talked to a couple of transgender women who helped guide her.
While reading the early chapters of the book I felt like she should have learned a little more before writing it, because the narrator kept stumbling over names and pronouns, but then I realized that she was writing the story as if she were coming to terms along with Ellie’s friends and, indeed, Ellie herself.
Ellie is a loveable character. In fact, most of the characters in this book are likeable, even to some degree bad guy Jerome. Only Ellie’s bigoted boss is truly unlikeable. The upshot is that Sojourner approaches her characters with sympathy.
My one criticism is that at times she seemingly forgets who the main character is and what the main dramatic arch of the story is. Some of the secondary characters and side stories become as important as or even more important than the main character—especially Granger, a homeless veteran who lost a leg in Afghanistan, and his friend Toby, a shy youth who escapes into playing his guitar in a cemetery at night.
I wish there had been more about Ellie and in particularly her boyfriend, about whom the reader knows very little.
Window Dressing is a smart, sensitive and engaging novel, and quite a helluva start for a first-time novelist. The cover art and cover blurbs make it look like chick lit, but it should appeal to a much wider audience than that.
I had the pleasure of attending a book launch party at Traditions Café in Olympia, Washington. In her talk there, Sojourner said she knew next to nothing about transgender persons when she started writing the book, but that she talked to a couple of transgender women who helped guide her.
While reading the early chapters of the book I felt like she should have learned a little more before writing it, because the narrator kept stumbling over names and pronouns, but then I realized that she was writing the story as if she were coming to terms along with Ellie’s friends and, indeed, Ellie herself.
Ellie is a loveable character. In fact, most of the characters in this book are likeable, even to some degree bad guy Jerome. Only Ellie’s bigoted boss is truly unlikeable. The upshot is that Sojourner approaches her characters with sympathy.
My one criticism is that at times she seemingly forgets who the main character is and what the main dramatic arch of the story is. Some of the secondary characters and side stories become as important as or even more important than the main character—especially Granger, a homeless veteran who lost a leg in Afghanistan, and his friend Toby, a shy youth who escapes into playing his guitar in a cemetery at night.
I wish there had been more about Ellie and in particularly her boyfriend, about whom the reader knows very little.
Window Dressing is a smart, sensitive and engaging novel, and quite a helluva start for a first-time novelist. The cover art and cover blurbs make it look like chick lit, but it should appeal to a much wider audience than that.
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August 3, 2017Kindle edition.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews