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Southern Voice April 20, 2003 View article at SouthernVoice.com The Kindred We Find Indigo Girl Amy Ray and performance artist Kt Kilborn 'give props' to freshman novelist T Cooper at local reading by Mike Fleming photo: The Indigo Girls' Amy Ray was so touched by T Cooper's Some of the Parts that she agreed to lend her acoustic talent to the book's local reading and signing next week. (Photo by R. Radisch, courtesy Daemon records) * * * There is literature, and then there is gay literature. And much of gay fiction is, well, awful. Some publishers create big business on the assumption that gay book enthusiasts will read anything just because it's gay. Even fewer are quality novels that effectively portray characters with mixed gender identity. Exceptions exist, of course. And as readers increasingly demand substance over mere content, author T Cooper can add her name to the ranks of classic gay voices like Oscar Wilde and James Baldwin as well as still-producing greats like Alan Gurganus, Dorothy Allison, Will Self and Tom Spanbauer. Cooper's first novel, Some of the Parts (Akashic Books, 2002), has a subtle strength that sneaks up on readers and lingers after the story winds its way to conclusion. The book effectively draws four distinct characters that form a family of choice as they grapple with their individual families of origin and heady personal issues. As Some of the Parts opens, we meet Isak, a biological female who is so frequently mistaken for a man that she joins a carnival sideshow in a "guess my gender" act. She is attracted to women but matter-of-factly earns money as a male prostitute for unsuspecting gay male customers. Isak lives with Charlie, a gay man with HIV who is bitter about his most recent breakup and is looking for a change. Charlie's sister Arlene is a highly neurotic shopkeeper. Arlene's daughter Taylor is as beguiling as she is inept, bouncing between relationships and cities manipulating both women and men with her sex appeal. Each chapter is told from one of those flawed, but likable points of view as the characters crisscross the continent toward coming together as a makeshift family. Cooper makes sure none of the characters outshines the others and leaves the ultimate truth up for interpretation. Just as the characters in Some of the Parts find each other, Cooper and her novel are drawing support from some famous local favorites who identify with the tale, including Amy Ray of the Indigo Girls. "When I read T's book, it really struck a nerve with me," Ray tells Southern Voice. "I like her ability to create so many different voices/characters within a story and have them obviously all relate to one central voice." Ray and local performance artist Kt Kilborn will perform to introduce Cooper's March 19 reading and signing at Outwrite Bookstore & Coffeehouse. "When I read Some of the Parts, I appreciated the way she managed the complexities of being--gender, sexuality, age, familial relationships-- with ease and believable, sympathetic characters," Kilborn says. "I deal with similar themes in my own work, so that I can appear in support of her work... shows a broad and deep engagement with important social themes across artistic genres." At the Outwrite reading, Ray promises acoustic performances of new material as well as a few songs from her solo venture "Stag," some of which deal with gender issues. Kilborn will "bring it into a literary vibe" by reading some of her poetry as well as a short bit from her hit show "Underground TRANSit," she says. Cooper's novel entwines gender issues with everyday life that should appeal to audiences across lines of sexual orientation and other demographic signifiers, Ray says. "I would love to get to a place where we are more fluid and recognize the gender combinations within ourselves and have it add to, rather than subtract from, how we see our potential in the world as lovers and citizens," Ray says. "T's book speaks to this part of me." Kilborn agrees. "As T Cooper's characters exemplify, every person is a unique whole-- common perceptions of what constitutes a 'real man,' 'real bisexual,' 'real transperson,' 'real mother' be damned," she says. "One's character turns on the dimes of far more complex notions than this sex organ or that, this orientation or that... Too often, we do underestimate one another in that way." Describing Some of the Parts further is problematic, because Cooper's tale is in some ways a story about nothing. There are no shocking revelations or overt climactic events. To offer details out of context is to ruin the story's hook. But the everyday thoughts and movements of each narrator create a powerfully rich subtext. The book compiles small moments of deeply personal, meaningful actions that strike unexpectedly before the complexity sinks in. Much like the family built by its characters, Some of the Parts is greater than the sum of its parts. * * * back to top back to press