Close to Spider Man

By Ivan E. Coyote

Book Overview

Close to Spider Man marks the debut of an exciting new literary talent: a collection of connected stories whose female narrators seek out lives for themselves amidst the lonely, breathtaking landscape of the Yukon. The young women in Ivan Coyote's deeply personal stories are looking to make a break from their circumstances, but the North is in their bones: so is their connections to family, friends, and other women. Like the protagonist in the title story, a waitress whose attempts to help a young co-worker saddled with a lunatic father finds her running across rooftops and climbing ladders; by getting close to Spider Man, she gets closer to freedom. Startling in their intimacy, the stories in Close to Spider Man make up a moving scrapbook of what it's like to be a young queer woman in the North, journeys imbued with the colours of a prescient sexuality and an honest heart.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1551520869
• ISBN13: 9781551520865
• Release Date: July 2002
• Publisher: Arsenal Pulp Press
• Length: 95 Pages
• Weight: 0.34 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

what boyz know

ivan's is a clear and tender voice that is never sentimental. as a feminist what i found consistently striking was how powerful an unanalytical voice can be when it simply details again and again what it means to experience life as a girl when your imagination is hungry enough to identify and crave the different sorts of freedoms that boys have.ivan is a performer and each story lends itself to being read aloud . try reading one aloud to yourself and be something new - or remember something lost - in your own imagination.i recommend this volume to educators looking for appropriate stories for grade and high-school exploration of gender, sexism and homophobia. there is wry gentleness here - an open style that lets the reader choose to do as much work as each is ready to. start with "no bikini."

Eloquent and savory

These various tales of women growing up queer and as tomboys in the Yukon are all amazing in their wit and their power. Coyote is a member of Taste This, whose book "Boys Like Her" is still one of my favorites. Two of my favorites in the book are "You're Not in Kansas Anymore" where the narrator (Coyote) faces the name she was given at birth and finds one that reflects her real self, and the last story, "Red Sock Circle Dance", which concerns families of choice and a sort of passing the queer torch to a younger generation of queers. I wish this book were longer!

Beautiful stories

Ivan E. Coyote is a member of Taste Taste, the lesbian performance collective that published the amazing book Boys like Her a few years ago. This is her first solo story collection, and they're amazing: about growing up as a dyke in the Canadian North. A strong, intimate voice!