“Louise Dawn Alder was born on the 8th of September 1978 to Peggy and Irving Alder of Casablanca, Maine.”
Gender seems a hot topic these days. I’m a cis man, but I have friends and acquaintances across the gender spectrum, and I find it an interesting subject. I’m a big believer in letting people live their happiest life, as long as they aren’t actively harming others, so how people identify doesn’t bother me, and I don’t see why it should bother anyone else. In this novel, we see how a single life can end up entirely differently just because of a change in a single chromosome.
In one timeline, Louise Alder is born on September 8th. In another timeline, Louis Alder is born. They are the same person, with exactly the same personality, appearance, friends, hobbies and goals, but one is male and one is female. As they grow up in small-town Maine, they learn who they are and explore their hormones and urges. But then, the night after graduation, something catastrophically awful happens to both of them, and they leave town.
Thirteen years later, they are summoned back to town as their mother is dying of cancer. Each of them must return to face the consequences of the night they ran away from. Louis is in the middle of a divorce, and Louise is a single mother raising her daughter, so right now going back to the place they’ve tried so hard to forget is just about the last thing they need. But you can’t run away from the past forever…
I think I expected a straight up story about how the patriarchy constantly puts women on the back step and ensures they generally have a much harder time of it in the world. Cohen, however, is better than that. Yes, Louis has more success in some ways, but his life isn’t anything like as perfect as it could be. Louise, in turn, has a job that she likes and is raising her daughter well, but her struggle is, for the most part, subtler. The fact that the two differ only in name and genitals is also interesting, meaning they look the same too. This means Louis is regarded as quite attractive, but Louise is seen as plain. Presumably she has quite a masculine looking face, but on Louis he seems more feminine.
As it progresses, you see that they are similar in every which way. In both timelines, there are days where they both wear the same t-shirt, or have the same thoughts. Even the novel they each write is on an identical subject. Rather than being a deconstruction of what the patriarchy does to women, it’s actually more an exploration in how little our gender should matter, which is very obvious to many. As children, it is accepted that Louis climbs trees, but Louise is encouraged not to. One telling moment in how the genders are “trained” comes when we learn that Louis eventually only cuddles his soft toy at night when no one else can see, and when Louise whistles, she is encouraged to turn it into a tune rather than be loud and boisterous with it. The relationships they have with other people also differ slightly. The events of the single catastrophic night mentioned in the synopsis are only different because of their gender, but one does wonder what would’ve happened had the nights happened the other way around. Elsewhere, Louis has an easier relationship with their mother than Louise does, but in both their father is kind but distant, although to Louise this is frustrating and to Louis this is just how men are. The subtleties are well observed.
A fascinating split timeline tale that is full of surprises.
Looking for something else? Try my novels, The Atomic Blood-Stained Bus (the story of a cannibal and an ex-god) and The Third Wheel (a comedic alien invasion tale), test yourself with a quiz from my book Questioning Your Sanity, or visit my website and I’ll cultivate you a whole quiz on whatever subjects you like. If you just want more reviews, guide yourself around my blog with the navigation bar and find hundreds of reviews at your fingertips.