October 16, 2016 - 15:39
I thought that this book was very interesting. I especially enjoyed the complex relations all the characters had with each other. This was especially so with the relationships between Dill, Billy, and Willa Mae. These relations were even more intriguing because of the pseudo family relationship of father, daughter, and mother that these three had. The love-hate relationship between all of these three created a complicated story with very complicated characters.
I both loved and was confounded by the character of Dill. For a majority of the book, I was confused on the gender of Dill. The pronouns that others used when speaking of Dill were she/her, but Laz's and other characters' commentary about Dill's masculinity and place as Billy's father figure made the entire notion of Dill's gender blurry. Later on, when Dill's sexuality was established, this confusion started to subside, but even more questions emerged when the relationship between Dill and Willa Mae was shown. While Dill was established as a lesbian, was it possible that Dill was a transgender man? These complexities, however, may never be explained as the time period made such ideas almost obsolete, as notions such as homosexuality and gender were less known/explored.
Some questions that I would ask the author is what is Dill's sexuality and gender? Was Dill only in love with Willa Mae, not other women? If Dill was alive during present day, would she identify as a different gender?