Book Review: "Nevada" by Imogen Binnie

“The problem wasn’t the coping mechanism, the problem is that the coping mechanism becomes a pattern of behavior, and it is really hard to just up and end a behavior pattern.”

- Nevada by Imogen Binnie

When I went to the Queer Lit Bookshop in Manchester, I could not help myself - I had to buy some books. One of these books was Imogen Binnie's novel Nevada. Described as having started a movement of Queer Literature in the post-modern age and for me to have bought it alongside my Derek Jarman books made it seem like a big deal. I had not heard of the book before this and had only read the first chapter of about two pages in the bookstore before buying it. I returned to my seat in the Social Refuge Coffee Shop attached to the bookstore and proceeded to read Jarman, tucking Nevada into my backpack. After returning home to Birmingham, I started reading the Binnie novel and, I am pretty glad I bought it.

Maria is coming to terms with what I would call an emotionally abusive relationship she is in whilst also coming to terms with being a regular woman in the real world. Alongside this she is also hoping she does not have to communicate that she is a transwoman to people who are either disgusted by it or those who believe that is her only interesting trait and hyperfocus on how 'brave' she is. She is trying to live normally, working at a bookshop with a horrible boss and going to brunch with Steph are just some of the things she does. On the whole, her life is pretty boring.

She muses on the past of what it was like to grow up in a boy's body, noting how every teenager feels weird and so, she didn't think anything was wrong. But it got worse, and worse and grew around her. It was only further on into being an adult that she finally knew and understood who she was.

The trouble is that Maria finds out that her girlfriend, Steph, cheated on her. After stealing her car, she hitches up herself for a wild ride across America in what has been called one of the Great American Road Trip novels. Meeting James along the way just makes it better and the two of them have a deep interpersonal connection that they never would have seen coming. A love letter to the Great American Road Trip and all of its forms, this book takes the doom-narrative of The Grapes of Wrath and turns it spiralling into a fantasia of inner-monologues on sexuality and reflections on the lives of transgender people. It sends us on a thought-provoking tour of the post-modern age as it comes rumbling towards our protagonist at top speed. She embraces it fully with all its flaws.

One thing I loved about this book is the voice. Although it is told in third person, it feels like it could also be told in first person without much change. The third person limited narrative creates a structure of an entire world nested within Maria's head waiting to go wild when she escapes into the Great American Road Trip. It almost as if Jack Kerouac's On the Road was published with more interesting characters that actually have empathy and internal monologues. (Of course, I like On the Road, but it doesn't come without its problems for a modern audience). Maria is a character who is constantly coming to life, we learn tips and toes about her as the book carries on and yet, none of it feels like its been added in there for the sake of the story. We feel like we have known her for ages and she has just been holding back.

All in all, I think that this has to be one of the most heartfelt books I have read about travelling across America and meeting new people. It is really up there with the books of that category in which the protagonist escapes an emotional entrapment in the only style that is possible at that moment - physical escape. With thought-provoking and profound musings of the human soul, Imogen Binnie makes a modern classic that will be read for years to come.