Conversation is at the heart of politics. It is at the heart of change. And it is at the heart of families.
Over the past decade we have heard politicians repeatedly say, “These are conversations people need to have around the kitchen table.” The phrase is usually used about topics—race, in particular—that require a change of hearts and minds, and require more than legislation or judicial decisions to solve; topics that are difficult and approached best by dialogue, openness, and honesty. As clichéd as this phrase has become—and to be fair, it is also used as a way to avoid discussing some of these issues publicly—there is truth to the claim that change happens through conversation. At the Broken Places: A Mother and Trans Son Pick Up the Pieces is a beautiful example of a conversation—between book covers, though, not around a kitchen table—that can transform hearts, feelings, and even how we live in the world.
In this coauthored book, Mary Collins and her son, Donald Collins, share their feelings, pain, hopes, and frustration with each other, discussing their often conflicting feelings about Donald transitioning, in his teens, to being a transgender man. The emotional vividness and candor of these pieces—which speak to one another, across one another, and sometimes at one another—are riveting, occasionally upsetting, and ultimately illuminating. This is the emotional clarity—even as Mary and Donald sort through their myriad feelings about each other—that is the essence of social change. At the Broken Places is not a superficial, feel-good journey but rather a book that pushes us, through the emotional evolution of its writers, to face emotions and concerns we might be tempted to side-step or avoid. In the past two decades there have been a plethora of books dealing with transgender lives, histories, theory, medical and psychological issues, many of which have been excellent. There have been books addressing parents, concerns about transgender children, and how to “come out” as transgender to family and communities. At the Broken Places breaks from the usual genre limitations of these past works to take us into the hearts and minds of a mother and son who are learning to love one another all over again.
—MICHAEL BRONSKI
Series Editor, Queer Action/Queer Ideas