{"id":1153,"date":"2013-06-13T15:57:45","date_gmt":"2013-06-13T20:57:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/?p=1153"},"modified":"2013-05-29T16:00:03","modified_gmt":"2013-05-29T21:00:03","slug":"first-spring-grass-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/first-spring-grass-fire\/","title":{"rendered":"First Spring Grass Fire"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-1145\" style=\"border: 0pt none; float: left; padding-right: 10px; padding-bottom: 0px;\" alt=\"Cover of First Spring Grass Fire\" src=\"http:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/Picture131-205x300.png\" width=\"205\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/Picture131-205x300.png 205w, https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/Picture131.png 318w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 205px) 100vw, 205px\" \/><a title=\"Find this book in a library near you!\" href=\"http:\/\/www.worldcat.org\/oclc\/783154073\">Rae Spoon. First Spring Grass Fire. Arsenal Pulp Press, 2012. Paperback. 137p. $14.95. 978-1-55152-480-1.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>In this thin volume, Spoon tells several stories at once, some more effectively than others. It\u2019s a fairly straightforward memoir, interesting and engaging but still indulging in the navel-gazing inherent in the genre.<\/p>\n<p>Spoon relates the various hardships of their life (a fervently religious family, a schizophrenic father, angst over a nonconforming gender) with precise, at times beautiful, prose. Woven in are other aspects of their life, hinting at a burgeoning musical career and a unique fashion sense, but these are only glimpses in the fairly traditional story of a rough upbringing and subsequent escape.<\/p>\n<p>The narrative jumps and skips around in time, not confusingly, but enough to obscure any sense of momentum. Mentions of an eating disorder and self-harming behaviors show no sense of resolution. While Spoon\u2019s queer identity (or at least, their attraction to girls) is well-described, there is no corresponding detail given about their gender identity or how they related to the word \u201ctrans.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In some ways this style is refreshing. It\u2019s an important step that a queer and trans person can write a typical memoir without feeling the need to excruciatingly explain their identity or have the storyteller\u2019s natural voice and authorial inclinations be overcome by a coming-out narrative. Unfortunately,\u00a0 for a work dedicated to self-exploration and explication, there is unsatisfyingly little of it.<\/p>\n<p>That said, however, it\u2019s an enjoyable, clearly-written story, valuable both on its own merits and for what it represents in the genre of queer memoir. This is recommended for any library with a public readership. There is enough in this memoir to appeal to those who are already fans of Spoon, or are fellow travelers, or just appreciate a well-told story.<\/p>\n<p>Reviewer: <strong>Kyle Lukoff<\/strong>, Librarian<\/p>\n<p>Corlears School, New York City<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rae Spoon. First Spring Grass Fire. Arsenal Pulp Press, 2012. Paperback. 137p. $14.95. 978-1-55152-480-1. In this thin volume, Spoon tells several stories at once, some more effectively than others. It\u2019s a fairly straightforward memoir, interesting and engaging but still indulging in the navel-gazing inherent in the genre. Spoon relates the various hardships of their life [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1164,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[27,42,19],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1153"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1164"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1153\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}