While slim, Catherine Kirkwood's debut novel (published by Arktoi Books, a new imprint of Red Hen Press dedicated to publishing works by lesbian authors) reads like a much longer work in terms of its thematic scope and intricate character development. Set in Los Angeles and the Salton Sea, Kirkwood's parched and illusory outer landscapes reflect perfectly the emotional aridity and confusion that permeate the inner lives of the characters in her story.
The disappearance of a teenage girl, Olivia, is the key event upon which the plot centers, but it is far less important than the interactions among the people whose lives Olivia has touched in some way. Alexandra, a transvestite who lives an isolated existence in a double-wide trailer on the edge of the Salton Sea, spent a little time with Olivia after the girl ran away from her Los Angeles home and briefly set up camp in the desert. Eleanor, a successful, lonely plastic surgeon who saw Olivia in her Los Angeles office for a brief consultation right before the girl vanished, follows the trail to Alexandra's door. Dissatisfied to the point of distraction and on the verge of losing half her net worth to her ex-partner, Clarissa, Eleanor is fascinated with Alexandra--and Alexandra's refusal to have gender reassignment surgery. Ultimately, Eleanor invites Alexandra to come and stay at her large, empty home in Los Angeles and the two forge an intimate but not entirely comfortable friendship. Both Eleanor and Alexandra are visited--separately--by a mysterious woman, Asa, whose connection to Olivia is much more complicated than it seems and whose identities are layered and constantly shifting.
Kirkwood has stated that her intent with Cut Away was to investigate "whether identity resides in the body and whether changing the body changes our identities"; her novel poses these questions artfully and with great feeling. Although gender and sexual identity play large roles here, they are not the only ones the story looks at. Motherhood, friendship and beauty are all ways in which these characters forge and mold their identities and Kirkwood explores these with subtlety and sensitivity.
Kirkwood's writing is precise and poetic--at times languorous--as the novel builds piece by piece in alternating points of view. As more information is revealed, however, the tension rises and Kirkwood does a skillful job of building psychological suspense. This is an intriguing, provocative and intelligent novel that makes the most of its abbreviated length and will appeal to a broad audience. --Debra Ginsberg
Shelf Talker: An involving, compact and literary first novel that raises interesting questions about identity and the body.