Keynote
A darkly comic, introspective debut collection that looks beneath the surface of trans life in 2010s Seattle
Book Title
Crawl
Subtitle
Stories
Cover Image
- “Delsohn captures the pathos and humor of transmasculine life in this entrancing debut. . . . [He] displays enviable craft throughout the collection, evident in the skillfully composed arc of every story and the deftness and wit of individual lines. . . . This is a no-skips collection.”—Kirkus Reviews, starred review
Body
People called it paradise, but baby, it wasn’t.
What to do when starting testosterone unlocks a newfound desire for men? How to respond when your boss’s boss asks if you’ve had “the surgery” and then requests you talk her niece out of transitioning? What obligation do you have to intervene in the faltering mental health of the baby trans drug dealer you’ve met only once while tripping on the acid he sold you?
The young transmasculine characters in Crawl navigate these and other questions in the dive bars, bathhouses, parks, workplaces, music venues, beaches, and college campuses of 2010s Seattle. Max Delsohn’s stories—by turns exuberant, heartfelt, tragic, and wry—portray the pleasures and pains of sex and romance, the possibilities and ambivalences of gender expression, and the joys and failures of community in a city and a time that has branded itself a radical queer utopia but proves much more complicated in reality.
What to do when starting testosterone unlocks a newfound desire for men? How to respond when your boss’s boss asks if you’ve had “the surgery” and then requests you talk her niece out of transitioning? What obligation do you have to intervene in the faltering mental health of the baby trans drug dealer you’ve met only once while tripping on the acid he sold you?
The young transmasculine characters in Crawl navigate these and other questions in the dive bars, bathhouses, parks, workplaces, music venues, beaches, and college campuses of 2010s Seattle. Max Delsohn’s stories—by turns exuberant, heartfelt, tragic, and wry—portray the pleasures and pains of sex and romance, the possibilities and ambivalences of gender expression, and the joys and failures of community in a city and a time that has branded itself a radical queer utopia but proves much more complicated in reality.
List Price
$17.00
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About the Author
Credit: Quinn Tucker
Upcoming Events
Max Delsohn reading and in conversation about CRAWL with Jonathan Dee at Parthenon Books
Date:
Location:
Parthenon Books in Syracuse, NYview map
This event is free and open to the public. Stay tuned for more information.
Praise
- “Dryly humorous and poignant . . . these exacting stories seethe with blunt honesty.”—Publishers Weekly
- “Max Delsohn has a poet’s sense of yearning, a stand-up’s sense of timing, and a 3 a.m. hookup’s desperate frankness about sex—all of which combine to make Crawl one of my favorite story collections of the past few years.”—Torrey Peters
- “Max Delsohn, a wildly talented, very bold, very funny new writer, has the rare gift of knowing how to (wryly) celebrate life, love, and desire in all their forms.”—George Saunders
- “Wonderfully entertaining while also exploring deeper questions about connection, about dignity, about identity.”—Dana Spiotta
