Darling Days

Genderqueer activist and writer Wright (Lose My Number) aims to create the next great New York City memoir, but stumbles along the way. Wright’s tale of growing up in Manhattan in the late 1980s and ’90s, is in broad strokes a tale of love and loss—both referring to her mother Rhonna, a force of nature whose fierce, unconditional love for her child morphs over years to become an abusive, substance-addicted relationship. That chaos bleeds into all theaters (sometimes literally—both Wright and Rhonna are performers) of Wright’s life. The book’s most vital aspect is its exploration of growing up gender-variant, and Wright’s passionate descriptions of her fear of gendered bathrooms and locker rooms, self-baffling relationship with sex and sexuality, and attempts to “pass” as a boy from the age of six have never been more timely. The prose is beautiful and aches with emotion. However, Wright may put off her transgender readers with her casual use of transmisogynist slurs. Cisgender readers will derive a great deal of insight into the developing mind of a trans child. (Sept.)