An Ivy League-educated scholar of literature, Talusan deftly evokes the themes and motifs of 'traditional' trans narratives, all the while refusing to settle for easy answers to the questions raised by a life lived beyond the conventions of gender, race, and class identity ... pays homage in both style and structure to Talusan’s predecessors in the trans memoir genre. Shades of Janet Mock’s Redefining Realness and Jennifer Finney Boylan’s She’s Not There: A Life in Two Genders, as well as others, come through in the sharp, journalistic voice with which Talusan captures and studies her own life ... Crisp, lucid prose belies the fairy-tale quality of Talusan’s lived experiences ... like the best of trans memoirists, Talusan refuses the call to sensationalism and political proselytizing that so often characterizes writing about 'different' or 'exceptional' people. Instead, Talusan spends much of the book focusing on the sensory, emotional, and relationship details that give texture to any life ... Talusan’s spare, journalistic prose blossoms into a lyrical poeticism that further distinguishes Fairest as a work of literary nonfiction ... By painting her life in such exquisite detail, Talusan breathes new life into the well-worn body of the transgender life story, showing the reader deep wells of complexity where, in a less truthful or less talented writer’s hands, oversimplification and cliché might reign. Talusan leans into the pain and heartbreak — as well as the beauty and hope — that have emerged from each of her choices, allowing her full humanity to shine through ... while Talusan is certainly politically aware, she is neither pedagogue nor polemicist. In Fairest, she grants herself the freedom to tell her story on her terms, which is a kind of magic all its own.
In Fairest's carefully nuanced and detailed analysis, Talusan articulates the ways in which people of color create solidarity when there are only one or two non-white individuals in these elite, predominantly white spaces of privilege ... This nuance, this careful attention to looking and attempting to understand this journey not just from her own perspective, but also from those affected by it, gives a welcome maturity, depth and resonance to Talusan's memoir ... While an argument can be made that the vehicle of a mirror as a tool for self-reflection is a bit on-point, a bit overused, it does hold a productive presence both narratively and structurally in this gorgeous and lyrical debut ... The language we have now, the spaces and community support to exist firmly within a gender fluid and/or nonbinary gender identity are developments made mostly within the last 50 years. They have been made, in large part, because of the work of inspiring trans activists like Talusan. Because of them, people are no longer faced with erasure or binary opposition as the only realities.
.... render[s] an intellectual debate intimate ... Talusan navigates these complex dynamics graciously, acknowledging both her privileges and their cost: the constant threat of being exposed as herself ... Bounding between place and time, Fairest’s shaky structure and inelegant sentences can sometimes threaten its momentum. But Talusan also toggles between emotional planes as well ... Although her account can grow tedious with anecdotal detail, there’s enough material in Talusan’s life story to fill several memoirs ... In telling this story, Talusan finds something like resolution: She gives voice to a self that somehow always existed, she just couldn’t yet see it.
At each step of her journey, Talusan interrogates the complex intersection of who she feels herself to be and how others perceive her. Through this fearless self-awareness, Talusan demonstrates her intellect, creativity, sexuality and, most of all, a true dedication to expressing her inner self. For anyone who has wondered how their identity is impacted by the ways others see them, Fairest is an extraordinary story of one woman’s self-reckoning.
... a thoughtful, complex exploration of life as an 'in-between.' In it, Talusan uses vivid detail and a richly introspective voice to illuminate her world ... Talusan’s unique perspective as a Filipina person with albinism allows her to make insightful connections around all the labels that cling to appearances ... This memoir is a gorgeous rendering of Talusan’s coming-of-age that shines a revelatory light on the illusions of labels with a deft hand. Talusan’s descriptive language places the reader in the center of every moment before she asks them to take a closer look, before she asks them if they’ve really seen what they think they saw. Her interiority is sparkling and incisive, inviting the reader to investigate new emotional depths and to question alongside her. It is truly a captivating book, one that will speak to anyone who has ever felt in-between.
In her reckoning with her own racial and gender identity, Talusan offers insight into the ways that these concepts are linked with colonialism and the violent impact, demands, and reach of the United States ... Talusan invites us to question our own understandings of whiteness and power as she reflects upon her own, openly and without hesitation. Though, at times, the shifts in time period muddle the narrative, and an adult Talusan’s voice occasionally distracts from her younger self’s perspective, Fairest feels most successful when Talusan is candid rather than careful and honest rather than right.
Talusan excavates the complicated intersections of her own identity in this exquisite, unapologetic gem of a memoir ... I’m so grateful that Talusan breaks this ground. Her intimate interrogation into race, sexuality, gender, desire and love is a fierce, vulnerable, refreshing narrative. She never positions herself as the hero. She leans into the intricacies of her truth, her mistakes and her hurts, the messy work of loving others and loving oneself. And as she writes from a place that defies so many labels, she evidences both the porous permeability and imposed impermeability of perception and expectation ... Please read Fairest. Its complexity is rewarding, not only because of Talusan’s powerful, vibrant language, unique perspective and fresh, self-aware voice, but because of what she refuses to answer. Nothing of existence is binary, but this poignant book is wholly triumphant.
I’m willing to bet you’ve never read a memoir like Fairest ... But despite what seems like a rigid narrative structure, there’s cohesion as Talusan shares anecdotes from different periods of her life ... Talusan details her story with care, honoring not just the person she ultimately became, but the iterations, however flawed, that existed before. She writes vividly of her time as a child star in a Filipino sitcom.
The author is well versed in juggling competing feelings of sameness and difference. In her first memories of life in the Philippines, Talusan tactfully examines her experience growing up with white skin and blond hair in a place where such an appearance made her stand out as a Western ideal ... Unfortunately, these are the scant moments that address Talusan’s adjustment to life in Los Angeles, as the book quickly skips over those three years. However, the author gives readers a sense of how the above complications would inform a new relationship to whiteness and sexuality at Harvard ... As it plunges into the complexities of how race is woven into sexuality and gender, Fairest attests to an inexhaustible performativity of identity. Talusan masterfully traces the narrative of her life, from the departure from and sporadic return to her homeland to the myth of an American Dream that only requires dreamers to sustain its false reality, to the heartbreaks that let her revel in her idiosyncratic uniqueness, to the transgressive and gender-bending art practices she developed at Harvard and beyond ... Ultimately, Fairest rejects the prescriptive qualities of the gender/sex system and functions as a rallying cry for whiteness to be rethought of as a blank canvas, as a snowflake.
Even for avid readers of memoirs, Talusan’s...debut will stand out from the crowd, not only because of the author’s unique experiences, but also because she presents them with a rare, frank vulnerability ... in perhaps the most compelling part of the book, readers follow her journey and relationships after college, which ultimately led to her gender transition ... Gender, race, and sexuality are all foremost themes throughout the book, and it is a notable read for those particularly interested in these topics. However, Talusan’s account also offers an intensely personal example of how one’s relation to oneself changes over time, shaped by circumstances and personal choices, making it a compelling story for a wide variety of readers.
The author examines queer otherness with relentless honesty, and she investigates how accidental whiteness did not automatically lead to the fairest outcomes, either for herself or others. A captivatingly eloquent memoir.
... an assured debut memoir with a cinematic flair ... This elegant memoir examining whiteness, womanhood, and the shaping of identity will resonate with readers of any community, LGBTQ or not.
Her carefully detailed story is notable for its introspection...and emotional depth. The account of her earlier life as a man and her decision to become a woman—including reassignment surgery—is psychologically acute, enlightening, and occasionally heartbreaking as her decision to transition spelled the end of her relationship with the man she loved. Fairest is a welcome addition to transgender literature.
