The Bearded Lady

Tweets and Jessie Foster are orphaned sisters in early 20th-century rural Georgia who, thrown out of the house by their loathsome aunt, are taken in by kindly circus folk in this atmospheric but somewhat forced first novel. Enchanted by the ""freaks, misfits and managerial conjurers,"" the sisters are determined to survive by attaching themselves to the troupe. The teenage Jessie, however, has a secret that makes her of special interest to her new friends--she shaves twice a day in order to prevent the growth of a beard. The focus of the novel, Jessie's feelings of self-hatred about her facial hair, proves to be an unfortunate narrative trajectory. Even after she accepts her fate and becomes the Bearded Lady in the circus's freak show, Jessie seemingly never grows more secure about her identity, which is frustrating and unsatisfying for the reader. By centering on sourpuss Jessie, Dieguez neglects potentially more rewarding fictional opportunities: the freak characters remain in the background and are sketchily drawn; Jessie's love interest, Marion, ""the famous horse lady,"" is brooding and boring; and the possible exploitation of the performers by the circus owner is barely hinted at. Most disappointingly, Tweets, the younger, wilder sister, is never fully explored as a character. The conventionally beautiful Tweets wants to be a boy, is jealous of her sister's beard and aspires to be a lion tamer. The novel comes alive whenever she narrates the action, only to fade once more when Jessie takes over, suggesting that despite this author's attempts at exploding the myths of conventional beauty, ""freakish"" and ""fascinating"" are not synonymous. Author tour. (May) FYI: Dieguez was a finalist for the Maui Writer's Prize.