THE GENDER ISSUE

What I'm Reading and Recommending

THE ANTI-MEMOIR

The Independent writes ‘there’s no memoir like it’, and Yrsa Daley-Ward describes it as “lucid and glorious”. None of the Above: Reflections on Life Beyond the Binary is written by the award-winning writer, performer and theatre maker, Travis Albanza. They received an Edinburgh Fringe Total Theatre Award for their show, ‘Burgerz’ which toured internationally to sold out shows after they were the youngest recipient of the artist in residency program at Tate Galleries. With such early success in their work, let’s just say I came to this book with high expectations. I didn’t close it disappointed.

For me, None of the Above is an anti-memoir because the author works to ‘delf-self’, meaning removing oneself as the focal point and instead navigating lived experiences to turn the spotlight onto broader issues, in this case: what it means to live outside the gender boundaries imposed on us by society. An anti-memoir also doesn’t follow the traditional narrative trajectory, there is no chronological or thematic plotting from one part of life to another, marking out sudden epiphanies and life-changing events. Instead, the structural back bone for this book is a series of seven phrases said to Travis over the course of their life, including: “So When Did you Know?”; “Ladies, Gentleman and those lucky enough to transcend gender”; and “That ain’t a thing we do round here, son”.