Annabel

Annabel, by former Newfoundland resident Kathleen Winter, explores gender identity and society’s constructed definitions of what it means to be male or female. Based on the experiences of Wayne Blake, a hermaphrodite growing up in Croyden Harbour, Labrador, the story spans this main character’s life from his birth in 1968 into early adulthood.

Wayne enters the world in his parent’s house surrounded by his mother, Jacinta, and close family friend Thomasina Baikie. Within seconds of his first breath, it’s obvious that Wayne has both male and female sex organs. Initially, Jacinta conceals the truth from her husband Treadway, a hunter, who, with “no intention of lollygagging in the house during the birth,” prepares his dinner of caribou cakes and tea as his wife delivers their only child.

Set in a rural community influenced by its geography, Annabel is filled with rich references to the natural world. In describing Treadway’s growing awareness of his baby’s reality, Winter’s writes: “He (Treadway) felt the secret in the house exactly as he felt the presence of a white ptarmigan behind him in the snow, and he understood the secret’s details, its identity, as easily as he would know the bird was a white ptarmigan before he turned around and saw it.”

Sensing his child’s gender ambiguity, Treadway, a pragmatist who buys all the same style and colour socks in case one becomes lost, believes a decision is necessary. After consulting a doctor, Jacinta consents to raise the baby as a boy, but struggles with the denial of her child’s true nature. Supported by Thomasina, Jacinta quietly nurtures Wayne’s feminine side. As he ages, Wayne’s inner self fights with the external world, and those closest to him, to find its rightful place. Moments of heartbreak are the result.

Among the many reasons to read Annabel is Winter’s simple, yet eloquent, writing style. “Did boys have moments of softness, moments of more incredible tenderness than girls did? Who was to say which moments were which? Many times during Wayne’s childhood a wind had whipped through Jacinta’s mouth. The world had breathed through her and told her that her son was also a daughter.”

Ultimately, Wayne is given a second chance to be his true self. Consistent with the novel’s suggestion that nothing is black and white, that chance is enabled by someone who—on the surface—appears as an unlikely source of support. An engaging and important story, Annabel is the first novel by the Montreal-based Winter. Let’s hope it’s not her last.  —Clare O’Connor