Close to Spider Man

Britta Santowski is a freelance writer in Victoria, B.C.

This collection of stories is an autobiographical account of a woman who
is at odds with her own gender and her sexual attractions to other
women. The stories chronicle Dorothy’s (a.k.a. Ivan’s) life growing
up in the Yukon, in an unidentified social space between two genders. We
get a glimpse of a four-year-old who refuses to wear dresses and is
judged by her grandmother (“Walks Like”). In “No Bikini,” the
same girl, two years older, learns the shame associated with her gender.
We look on as the tomboy grows up, and see a normal mischievous child,
an awkward teenager in love, always situated somewhere slightly off the
edge of normal. “You’re Not in Kansas Anymore” describes
“Dorothy’s” name change: “[I]f you will just allow me to write
Ivan down ... I just turned thirty, Your Honour, and it’s about time
that something about me matched.”

Close to Spider Man offers some wonderful images of, and insights into,
gender assumptions and identity, and Coyote’s writing is stark and
honest. Sadly, the stories are too brief to provide anything more than a
skin-deep glimpse of the subject matter.