Mysterious Boy

When we first saw local author Charlie Anders across a Japantown karaoke bar, we took in the long blond hair, the dress, the masculine posture, and thought, "that's either a boyish girl, or a girlish boy." As we discovered, Charlie's use of the feminine pronoun to describe herself does nothing to clarify matters; but that dichotomy's nothing compared to Berry, the main character of Charlie's new novel, Choir Boy. It's the story of a shy, misfit preteen boy, dreading the impending expiration of his youthful voice and mandatory graduation from church choir, the only place he really feels he belongs. Luckily, a tranny hooker with a heart of gold has a solution for him: preserve his voice by taking female hormones. Gender-hijinks and coming-of-age ensues.

Berry's parents, friends, shrink, religious leaders, doctors, and the ambiguously sexual eccentrics who admire his moxie all seem to have their own plans for Berry; none of them help him to figure out what he is, or what he's becoming. That search for comfortable identity is a common theme in Charlie's work; the bay-area writer's other book, The Lazy Crossdresser, is a guide for, well, exactly who it sounds like. She's also responsible for GodHatesFigs.com, as well as locally-produced other magazine, "pop culture and politics for the new outcasts." Scott Heim, author of Mysterious Skin, uses words like "strange" "complex" and "engrossing" to describe Choir Boy. That pretty much covers it.