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Tiny Pieces of Skull: Or, a Lesson in Manners Kindle Edition

by Roz Kaveney (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 23 ratings
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In the 1980s, poet and activist Roz Kaveney wrote a novel, Tiny Pieces of Skull, about trans street life and bar life in London and Chicago in the late 1970s. Much admired in manuscript by writers from Kathy Acker to Neil Gaiman, it has never seen print until now... Funny and terrifying by turns, and full of glimpses of other lives, it is the story of how beautiful Natasha persuades clever Annabelle to run away from her life and have adventures, more adventures than either of them quite meant her to have...

‘Tiny Pieces is fucking brilliant. ‘A certain classic, a definitive portrait of trans outside the niceties of middle class daydreams. Brava, sister mine.’ (Kate Bornstein, writer and activist)

‘Even now I find it hard to put into words quite how moving and marvellous I found it. It's an astonishing, troubling book; scalpel-sharp; brittle; bleak and brave. I feel sure it will upset a great number of people in all the right ways. In fact, I hope it does: literature should be a call to arms, not a sleeping-pill. Congratulations on bringing this story out of the dark.’ (Joanne Harris, author of Chocolat and The Gospel of Loki)
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  1. Print length
    190 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publication date
    20 April 2015
  4. File size
    1986 KB
  5. Page Flip
    Enabled
  6. Word Wise
    Enabled
  7. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
  8. See all details
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Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00W49VEL4
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Team Angelica Publishing (20 April 2015)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 1986 KB
  • Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 190 pages
  • Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 0956971970
  • Customer reviews:
    4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 23 ratings

Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
23 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find the book humorous, entertaining, and clever. They appreciate the empathy and erudite writing style.

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HumorEmpathy
4 customers mention ‘Humor’4 positive0 negative

Customers enjoy the humor in the book. They find the stories entertaining and the bitchiness amusing. The novel is described as clever, erudite, and enjoyable. Readers appreciate that it's a Bildungsroman about identity formation.

"...Annabelle is portrayed with humour and sympathy, and as an educated ingénue she is the perfect character through which to view her new world..." Read more

"I so enjoyed Tiny Pieces of Skull, and heartily recommend it. It is a Bildungsroman – a novel about the formation of an identity...." Read more

"...snarkily elegant and manages to be both self-deprecating and enjoyably smug (a word the heroine uses frequently) while documenting a period and a..." Read more

"I really enjoyed this story - even more so when I found out that most of it was based on the author's own experiences in New York during the 1980s...." Read more

3 customers mention ‘Empathy’3 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the empathy in the book. They say it's portrayed with humor and sympathy, and strikes them intimately.

"...Annabelle is portrayed with humour and sympathy, and as an educated ingénue she is the perfect character through which to view her new world..." Read more

"...Will definitely frighten the horses and upset sensitive souls." Read more

"...foreign places, being trans in one of the only ways we could, struck me intimately...." Read more

Top reviews from United Kingdom

  • Eleanor
    5.0 out of 5 stars Trans life in seventies Chicago
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 2 August 2015
    Verified Purchase
    In the afterword to "Tiny Pieces of Skull", Roz Kaveny writes: "This is a novel I write in 1988 about my time in Chicago in 1978 and 1980. Most of it happened, more or less, though I don't guarantee the truth of all the stories people told me back then."

    Annabelle, the novel's heroine, is a trans woman who has been persuaded to move from London to Chicago by the impossibly glamorous Natasha. Robbed of money and possessions and unable to rely on her so-called friend, Annabelle has to make her own way in the country and soon finds herself in a world of shady bars and prostitution. What first seems to be an exciting departure from her good-girl life in England begins to turn dark and dangerous.

    Annabelle is portrayed with humour and sympathy, and as an educated ingénue she is the perfect character through which to view her new world (I loved her attempt to surreptitiously read Proust in front of blindfolded S&M clients). The other characters are also brilliantly realized and although their tall stories and bitchiness are highly entertaining, the novel as a whole is also moving and humane.
    3 people found this helpful
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  • Kathy Farquharson
    4.0 out of 5 stars I so enjoyed Tiny Pieces of Skull
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 14 May 2015
    Verified Purchase
    I so enjoyed Tiny Pieces of Skull, and heartily recommend it. It is a Bildungsroman – a novel about the formation of an identity. And, as in the best stories, the protagonist gets NICER, as she gets stronger. Thank goodness, though, Annabelle never loses her waspish wit. I was so glad to see her persist with her hilarious, defiant cream cake eating, in the face of the remorseless disapproval of her friend Natasha. It’s a very clever novel, as well as a funny one, which toys with its readers’ binaristic certainties. We like being toyed with. We THINK we know who’s what, and at what stage they’re at, but we’re by no means certain. And that, of course, is the point.
    3 people found this helpful
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  • Lisa Power
    5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliantly funny and frighteningly accurate
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 15 September 2018
    Verified Purchase
    Do you want to read the novelisation of Walk On The Wild Side? Are you prepared to remember quite how insane the late 70s could be? Roz Kaveney's semi-autobiographical novel on the trials and triumphs of an English innocent finding out how to swim rather than sink in trans America is both instructive and, more importantly, a hoot. It's slyly erudite, snarkily elegant and manages to be both self-deprecating and enjoyably smug (a word the heroine uses frequently) while documenting a period and a community that have been turned into romance by ignoring the accompanying grubbiness and danger that she unflinchingly includes. Will definitely frighten the horses and upset sensitive souls.
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  • Taralouise
    5.0 out of 5 stars An early gem from Roz Kaveney
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 17 May 2015
    Verified Purchase
    I really enjoyed this story - even more so when I found out that most of it was based on the author's own experiences in New York during the 1980s. Recommended.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Christine Burns
    5.0 out of 5 stars Darkly humorous biographical novel
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 25 April 2018
    According to the author, Tiny Pieces of Skull is a largely biographical novel based on life among the trans hookers who became her family as a younger woman in Chicago. To those who know trans lives well, the truth of who is trans and who is not is there in the clues scattered around them. For those less familiar, consider it a test of how much you really understand about the liminal differences between trans and cis. It’s a slowish plot — that’s the blessed trouble with real life — but what could easily be tecome tedious is relieved and made pleasantly enjoyable by the dark humour liberally applied, whether in the passive aggressive exchanges between the Central figure, Annabelle, or the descriptions of those about her. A well observed story, with lessons for those who pay attention. Not easy, but then neither is this kind of life.
    2 people found this helpful
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  • Amazon Customer
    4.0 out of 5 stars A valuable history of a trans time and place
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 17 August 2015
    Verified Purchase
    This story of self-discovery in foreign places, being trans in one of the only ways we could, struck me intimately. It's my story and not my story, with resonances of my own times in the floating world of Tokyo in the 70's. From these times we are made, I guess. This book is a kind of history of a a kind of person and a time, with value for me, bringing up nostalgic resonances I'm glad to have left behind. Skilled writing, of course, glad to have it out and about, when being trans is so different, lest we forget.
    One person found this helpful
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  • S. Field
    5.0 out of 5 stars So I shall just say it was a terrific read, and probably really rather important
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 12 June 2016
    Smarter people than me will say cleverer things about this than I can. So I shall just say it was a terrific read, and probably really rather important.
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Top reviews from other countries

  • H. Lyons
    5.0 out of 5 stars Good novel about a place some will want to remember and others to discover
    Reviewed in Canada on 9 March 2016
    Verified Purchase
    A compelling evocation of a place, time, and language. As a cis woman, I was never part of that scene, or even aware of its existence, but it has the ring of truth (and makes you care about the characters).
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