Gift Guide Week: Matthew Fox’s Picks

Picks by Matthew Fox

(Or, Four Queer Titles from Canadian Independent Presses)

Gift for anyone trying to square family and religion with queer identity:
Little Fish by Casey Plett (Arsenal Pulp Press)

Author Casey Plett triumphs in a novel that modulates between darkness and light, family and chosen family, organized religion and disorganized grief. The tensions created between these extremes are personified by Wendy, a trans woman trying to navigate a precarious life in the wake of her grandmother’s death. Over one bone-chilling winter in Winnipeg, Wendy deals with loss, the vagaries of sex work, alcohol abuse, and attempts to connect to her father. She discovers some startling family history along the way, which ups the suspense and makes Wendy’s progression more vital. Her story never shies away from how messy the maturation process can be—how human it is. Immediate, expertly paced, and engrossing, Little Fish gets to the relatable core of finding how to live as one’s true self without losing its own specificity in the process. 

Gift for the darkly camp queer person who’d prefer it to be Halloween instead of Christmas:
The Haunted Hillbilly by Derek McCormack (ECW Press)

What could be a better gift than access to the uncanny, goofy, creepy, ludicrous visions of Derek McCormack? The Toronto author has carved out a niche for himself within Canadian culture, dropping book after book of macabre tales that tear through artificial and alluring surfaces to expose tragic underwiring. That’s what makes the rhinestone’ed country music scene—the setting of Haunted Hillbilly—an obvious subject for him. Grand Ole Opry singer Hank finds success thanks to a wickedly perverted Svengali vampire-tailor named Nudie. Slow-witted, he soon finds himself experiencing both stardom and sexual exploitation at Nudie’s hands, leading up to a ridiculous slap of a finale. The proposition would seem cruel without McCormack’s outrageousness and sharp prose. The right person will cherish this volatile gem forever. 

Gift for the gay man who is ready to upgrade from Heartstopper to literary fiction:
The Geography of Pluto by Christopher DiRaddo (Véhicule Press)

It’s tremendous to see so many queer YA novels finding success lately. With this success comes the hope that a slew of new readers will graduate from the over-idealized world of MM romance to more literary creations. Know such a reader? Give them The Geography of Pluto. Christopher DiRaddo’s debut is a gentle but powerful novel that manages to capture the complexities of finding one’s identity without falling into cliché. Lead character Will moves through a vividly described Montreal as he deals with family quagmires, dating mishaps, and sexual adventures. It’s all imbued with a sense of real and relatable psychological evolution. Will is presented with all his contradictions and ruminations as he learns that his path to self-acceptance and love is a lot more complicated than he imagined. It’s heartfelt without being maudlin; it’s a coming-of-age story without predictability; it’s a character study without oversimplification. 

Gift for that queer friend who won’t shut up about going to Berlin:
Pervatory by RM Vaughan (Coach House Books)

I live in Berlin, a city that creaks under the strain of its reputation as a hedonistic queer paradise. It doesn’t quite feel like that on the ground, and no one’s captured that disconnect better than the late RM Vaughan. Pervatory presents Berlin as a place that can unlock forces that are liberating, beguiling, numbing, and corrupting—specifically for those that feel marginalized or suffocated by propriety. Narrator Martin typifies the outsider experience of a Berlin-based foreigner in his “resignation years.” It can feel entrancingly low-stakes, even when the facts prove otherwise. It’s entrancing to lean into a book where love can be brutal, sex can be savage, and the consequences can seem meaningless. Described in unwavering detail, this taboo-smashing story is an affront to buttoned-up Canadian sensibilities. That was something Vaughan had a talent for, honed over years of poking at affability to find its cracks. Sadly, Pervatory is his final work, published posthumously. It acts as a kind of mad love story and cautionary tale that any queer should read before booking their ticket to Berlin.

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Matthew Fox is the author of the story collections Cities of Weather and the novel-in-stories This is It. He grew up in Ontario, before moving to Montreal, London and New York, where he received his MFA in Creative Writing from The New School. His work has appeared in Grain, The New Quarterly, Big Fiction, Toronto Life and Maisonneuve. He currently lives in Berlin.

Photo of Matthew credit Ali Faisal Zaidi.

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Thanks to Matthew Fox for these four fantastic LGBTQ+ Gift Guide Picks. A reminder that you can order any of these books through All Lit Up, or press the “Shop Local” button to discover them at your local independent bookstore.

Keep up with this year’s gift guide here, and stay tuned for picks from our final recommender, Susan Sanford Blades.