Confessions of the Fox

by Jordy Rosenberg

[clementine]

There are a lot of Big Ideas in this novel, and that's not generally at the expense of narrative and character. This layered mediation of the past through the present is interesting. Rosenberg writes successfully about the euphoria of recognition. I'm a fan of any historical narrative that makes visible the existence of LGBTQ+ people, and this work is clearly a self-conscious intervention in the erasing tendencies of history. The use of anachronism was interesting and helped normalize the existence of trans/gender-nonconforming people in this historical context. There is something a bit self-congratulatory about it, and a lot of that has to do with the footnotes. The fucking footnotes, people. I have yet to encounter a book that makes extensive use of footnotes as a quirky narrative feature that doesn't feel at least a little bit smug. I mean, the footnotes at least made sense in terms of the narrative framing, and the fact that they took me out of the historical manuscript helped create that sense of the past and present connecting. That is to say, I get why they were used. It's just not a device that appeals to me. I think there's also a lot to say about applying modern ideas of gender and sexuality to the past - it's a dangerous game! I think this is a cool novel that successfully grapples with many interesting concepts - but I don't know if I actually enjoyed reading it.