Jonny’s reflections and dreams build a lush world and reveal a character at once devoted to living a life in between genders while remaining conflicted about gender roles imported with settler colonialism.
Several years later, it’s the aftermath of another family death, Jonny’s stepfather’s, that spurs him to try and finally return to the reservation and his mother, who is heartbroken over the loss of a husband who could be both tender and violently cruel, especially when Jonny cross-dressed or flouted gender norms. One of the only people who understands him, his kokum, or grandmother-characterized lovingly by Whitehead through her devotion to Bee Hive Golden Corn Syrup, WWE, and her outsider grandson-dies shortly after, a crippling blow to Jonny who is unable to return and inherit her knowledge about his Two-Spirit identity. Whitehead is Two-Spirit himself and a self-identified indigiqueer, and with Jonny Appleseed he delivers a poignant and gritty coming-of-age story, exploring in dazzling prose how the Two-Spirit experience differs from the commonly accepted understanding of transgender identity.Īfter coming out to his reservation community that always considered him an outcast, Jonny, the titular narrator, moves to Winnipeg where he hustles and hooks up with men online to make ends meet. Not so in Jonny Appleseed, the debut novel by Joshua Whitehead, out earlier this year from Arsenal Pulp Press. While well-intentioned, the inclusion is often glossed over in mainstream conversations about gender and sexuality, which assume Two-Spirit is simply an indigenous flavor of transgender identity. In contemporary conversations, you’ll often find a “2” inserted into the LGBTQIA acronym, in reference to indigenous Two-Spirit identities.
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