Disappoint Me
A Novel
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
“One of the sharpest and most emotionally vulnerable novels on the complicated dynamic of dating cisgender straight men as a trans woman.”—Autostraddle (7 New Trans Novels to Read this Summer)
“Dinan writes like some kind of demigod. Her fictions make thinkable new realities for how we live and what we might expect from each other.”—Torrey Peters, bestselling author of Detransition, Baby
ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR (SO FAR): Elle, Vogue, BookRiot
You can fall in love with an outline, you can even make a home with one, but there will come a time where you can’t deny the bones their flesh. A person is no fewer than two things.
Thirty years old with a lifetime of dysphoria and irritating exes rattling around in her head, Max is plagued by a deep dissatisfaction. Shouldn't these be the best years of her life? Why doesn't it feel that way? After taking a spill down the stairs at a New Year’s Eve party, she decides to make some changes. First: a stab at good old-fashioned heteronormativity.
Max thinks she’s found the answer in Vincent. While his corporate colleagues, trad friends, and Chinese parents never pictured their son dating a trans woman, he cares for Max in a way she’d always dismissed as a foolish fantasy. But he is also carrying baggage of his own. When the fall-out of a decades-old entanglement resurfaces, Max must decide what forgiveness really means. Can we be more than our worst mistakes? Is it possible to make peace with the past?
Funny, sharp, and poignant, Disappoint Me is a sweeping exploration of love, loss, trans panic, race, millennial angst, and the relationships—familial and romantic—that make us who we are.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In the sharp and insightful latest from Dinan (Bellies), a British trans woman from Hong Kong searches for love and fulfillment in London. Max Murphy, a 30-year-old poet and legal adviser at a tech company, is struggling with writer's block following a recent breakup. After deciding to date again, she meets Vincent Chan, a cis corporate lawyer and son of Chinese immigrants. Despite their genuine connection, not just as Asians in the London business world but as kindred spirits, their relationship is tested by Vincent's occasional thoughtless remarks about Max's trans identity and her emerging health concerns resulting from her gender-affirming care. Complicating matters further are revelations from Vincent's gap year in Thailand in 2012, where he and his best friend Fred formed a love triangle with a beautiful young woman named Alex that led to harrowing results. During a trip to France with Max, the old friends nearly come to blows, and the truth about the way they treated Alex threatens to tear Max and Vincent apart, just when Max needs Vincent the most. Dinan portrays her characters with staggering depth and sharp nuance as they grapple with each other's complexities and frailties. With this striking work, Dinan establishes herself as an invaluable voice in contemporary fiction.
