I’m a trans guy who’s been looking for fiction that resonates with me for quite a long time, so rather than taking a turn making the regular weekly “why is there no good trans male representation” post on the ftm sub I figured I’d make a request that clarifies all my priorities here for a change to see if we can cut through what I already know I don’t like and get to the stuff I’m looking for for once. I’m assuming there’s a high chance I won’t get any replies on this at all, but it means I won’t get repeats of things I already know about and ruled out.
I’m looking (primarily) for a literary novel (especially realist) with a trans male protagonist, especially one that address themes of alienation, manhood, various systems of domination, etc, and ideally one with a bit of a cynical bent to it.
Some realists I’ve enjoyed in the past include Anna Gavalda, Isabel Allende, Mark Twain and Gabriel García Marquez. Also, I don’t know how much they count as realist and haven’t read them yet, but I’ve been recommended No Longer Human and Steppenwolf for their themes of alienation and isolaton, and from the little I know about them they seem to be exactly the kind of thing I’m looking for minus the trans perspective.
Some disclaimers:
\- **No YA and/or SFF, no exceptions**. The protagonist in question should also be an adult, and preferrably a passing trans man who has generally already been living as a man for long enough to be used to being treated as one;
\- **I’m asking for a book specifically about a trans male**, so please no suggestions that have other manner of trans characters without also having binary a trans man;
\- **the author should also be a trans male or at least transgender or male**;
\- **the protagonist’s transness can either be explicit or implicit,** I prefer implicit as in the book does not go through much effort to spell it out for the reader that he is trans. **I want a story written with the assumption of a trans reader already deeply familiar with trans topics,** *I do not* want a book that presumes to any level a cisgender and/or ignorant audience to whom they still have to explain concepts related to transness. It can also be some manner of metaphorical, but generally avoid it unless the other requirements seem to be fulfilled too well to pass up;
\- **I am** ***not*** **interested in protagonists who are attracted to other men.** There are a few asterisks to that, but once again unless they seem to fulfill the rest of the requests too well to pass up please do not recommend them;
\- **the protagonist should not be substantially depicted as a victim**. This one is a little more subjective and hard to ascertain, but assume that if something happens to the character that if it were happening to a cis male character instead it would be widely viewed as humiliating and emasculating, and evoke feelings of pity and/or disgust, probably don’t mention it;
\- **the protagonist absolutely should not be depicted as vulnerable to sexual violence nor even considered as the object of sexual interest from heterosexual cisgender men. No exceptions;**\- **no biographies.** They may (and probably will) have an autobiographical bent to it, but I am strictly interested in intentionally fictional works;
\- **the more obscure the better.** As I said, I have been looking for a pretty damn long time, so I am largely skeptical that a major book published by a major publisher is something I haven’t already seen and ruled out. Once again, if it seems to line up with my request well enough that I would enjoy it, suggest all manners of popular books, but otherwise experimental, weird, and amateur-ish texts from itch.io and such are the name of the game, even if they’re not strictly realist, so long of course as you can vouch for their quality/worth;
\- i**t can be any kind of prose text** so long as it’s a prose text. I am not looking for comic books or any kind of visual media for the moment.
If you cannot provide any suggestions, pointing me in the direction of people who you believe could help would also be appreciated.
by TimeCubePriest