Many authors have their own unique ways to present themselves to the audience. To be more specific, their very own way to present their stories through their writing. In class we’ve been given the opportunity to do our research on any of these authors: Jaquira Diaz, Meredith Talusan, and Kiese Laymon, before choosing one of their books to read. At the beginning, I was interested in reading Ordinary Girls by Jaquira Diaz, but I found myself researching more about Meredith Talusan. I’ve come to the conclusion that I would like to read Fairest by Meredith Talusan because it will help me know more about the transgender population.
When I first laid eyes on the books, I really loved the color Talusan used for her book cover. Turns out there’s a meaning behind the way it is designed, which I learned while annotating the article named “The Cover of My Face,” written by Talusan herself. In the article, she expressed the idea of how so many trans authors would put their face on the cover of their memoirs, and it was a common trend. She did her own research and found out as to why this might be the case. To the authors, they are well aware that by putting their face in their covers, it attracts more people because they focus on the looks of the person. On the contrary, that’s not what Talusan wanted her readers to focus on. What I loved about her is the fact that she is capable of putting herself in her reader’s shoes in order to see what her readers would understand from her memoir. The eyelash on her cover is simple but it very well represents who she is even without a photo of herself. The white background also demonstrates how her skin is white and how even that factor takes a part of her life experience or transition.
According to her, her memoir is not only about her transition to becoming trans but also the many transitions she’s been through in her whole life. Madeline Ducharme, a Slate assistant producer for podcasts, had interviewed Talusan about her memoir and in the published online magazine, Talusan described that she felt pressured into writing her book only about her trans experience. At the time, she felt as though people were more interested in that subject and wouldn’t really care about anything else in her life. Just because she’s trans, it shouldn’t be the only reason as to why people are interested in her. She’s a human being, and she has gone through other problems she would love to share. I am glad that in the end, she did end up writing about her other transitions- besides becoming trans- in life like from being a rural to urban citizen, or from being poor to being in a relationship with someone rich. In her book I’m curious to see what other problems she encountered before discovering her gender identity. In other words, I’m genuinely curious about who she is because there just aren’t that many authors out there that care about their readers.
While reading a book review she read and wrote about, I analyzed the way she searched in depth of Sarah McBride’s way of writing. Many people would say that McBride’s important moments from her book was the fact that she made “public history” with it, however, what Talusan sees as her important moments is the many private moments McBride went through in her personal life with the people around her during her transition, you could say. For Talusan, it’s the fact that McBride was able to find her voice through her tough experiences. She continues and explains that this is what she would want the readers to focus on. She points out the different messages in the review in order to communicate just how the readers would interpret it. This caught my attention in general because if she pays attention to the interpretations the readers would make, then that means her goal in her memoir is to be able to speak the right message through to her audience.
Meredith Talusan picked a good book cover for her memoir Fairest because she caught my attention even without putting her face in it. After doing research on her, the symbolism behind her book cover, the consideration she gives to her readers, and idea of writing about who you are and not completely giving the public what they want, are reasons as to why I choose to read her book.
Bibliography:
Ducharme, M. (2020, May 26). Do queer memoirs have to be political? Slate Magazine. Retrieved September 13, 2021, from https://slate.com/human-interest/2020/05/meredith-talusan-fairest-memoir-interview.html.
Talusan, M. (2020, March 13). The Cover of My Face. Guernica. Retrieved September 20, 2021, from https://www.guernicamag.com/the-cover-of-my-face/.
Talusan, M. (2018, March 25). Lost in Transition. The New York Times Book Review, 18(L). https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A532125861/LitRC?u=cuny_ccny&sid=bookmark-LitRC&xid=5916dc9c
