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Title details for Nevada by Imogen Binnie - Available

Nevada

A Novel

by Imogen Binnie
ebook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available

One of The Atlantic's Great American Novels
"[Nevada] is defiant, terse, not quite cynical, sometimes flip, addressed to people who think they know. It is, if you like, punk rock." —The New Yorker
"Nevada is a book that changed my life: it shaped both my worldview and personhood, making me the writer I am. And it did so by the oldest of methods, by telling a wise, hilarious, and gripping story." —Torrey Peters, author of Detransition, Baby

A beloved and blistering cult classic and finalist for the Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Fiction finally back in print, Nevada follows a disaffected trans woman as she embarks on a cross-country road trip.
Maria Griffiths is almost thirty and works at a used bookstore in New York City while trying to stay true to her punk values. She's in love with her bike but not with her girlfriend, Steph. She takes random pills and drinks more than is good for her, but doesn't inject anything except, when she remembers, estrogen, because she's trans. Everything is mostly fine until Maria and Steph break up, sending Maria into a tailspin, and then onto a cross-country trek in the car she steals from Steph. She ends up in the backwater town of Star City, Nevada, where she meets James, who is probably but not certainly trans, and who reminds Maria of her younger self. As Maria finds herself in the awkward position of trans role model, she realizes that she could become James's savior—or his downfall.
One of the most beloved cult novels of our time and a landmark of trans literature, Imogen Binnie's Nevada is a blistering, heartfelt, and evergreen coming-of-age story, and a punk-smeared excavation of marginalized life under capitalism. Guided by an instantly memorable, terminally self-aware protagonist—and back in print featuring a new afterword by the author—Nevada is the great American road novel flipped on its head for a new generation.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    June 7, 2022

  • Formats

    • Kindle Book

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9780374606626

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9780374606626
      • File size: 1850 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      February 11, 2013
      This debut, the first novel from a new indie press dedicated to publishing transgender narratives, tells the story of Maria Griffiths, a 29-year-old trans woman. When Maria learns that her girlfriend Steph may have cheated, she makes decisions about not only the relationship, but also herself, grappling with her history and identity. After she’s fired from her Manhattan bookstore job, Maria borrows/steals Steph’s car, buys a bunch of heroin, and hits the road to ponder gender, heteronormativity, and social conditioning, reminding herself that a lifetime of emotional repression does not dissipate at the moment of transition. In Star City, Nev., Maria meets James, a young man questioning his own gender and sexuality, and invites him to accompany her to Reno. Throughout, she indulges in long inner monologues, soliloquies that quickly grow tiresome. There’s something immature about Maria and something pat about her thinking. Neither James nor the reader ultimately stands to learn much from spending time in her company.

    • Kirkus

      March 15, 2022
      A funny, free-wheeling novel about the experiences of a trans woman and her reluctant prot�g�. In Part I, readers are introduced to Maria Griffiths, a 29-year-old trans woman crisscrossing New York on her bicycle, barely holding down her job at an oppressive used bookstore, avoiding an inevitable breakup with her girlfriend, and drinking a lot while forgetting to take her estrogen shots. "This is what it's like to be a trans woman," observes the narrator, our witty guide to Maria's complex psyche. "You just don't want your hilarious, charming, complicated weirdo self to be erased by ideas people have in their heads that were made up by, like, hack TV writers, or even hackier porn writers." In Part II, Maria has lost both the job and the girlfriend and heads west in a borrowed (OK, stolen) car. In Star City, Nevada, she strides into a Walmart and encounters salesperson James Hanson. This 20-year-old pothead routinely hotboxes his bathroom, dates a savvy feminist, and secretly, shamefully watches autogynephilic porn, getting off by imagining himself as female. Maria takes one look and declares, "that kid is trans and he doesn't even know it yet." Maria's on a journey to get herself together, but she can't resist mentoring James--whether or not he wants her guidance. This cult novel, brimming with ideas and arguments that only occasionally impede the narrative, was first published in 2013 by indie Topside Press. It's been reissued with a new afterword by the author, who recounts its passionate reception by trans readers. What's it like to be a trans woman? This heady novel offers one indelible perspective.

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Formats

  • Kindle Book
  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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