Small Beauty is exactly the right name for this book, but not in the usual connotations of either word. The smallness is not one of minimalism, or miniature, but rather, in the sense of something private and precious. And the beauty is not the kind you admire in awe, or consider at arm’s length, but is something more subtle and fluid, threaded through the mundane and the painful and the enraging and the melancholy. I know this description probably doesn’t make much sense — but read the book yourself and you’ll know what I mean.
It’s about a young Chinese-Canadian trans woman who is grieving the sudden death of her beloved cousin, and moves into his home to get away from her life for awhile. Inevitably, the past comes to haunt her, but again — not in the sense of a persistent terror or anxious demand, but more like a visit, a conversation. An act of care. Maybe that’s the best way to describe this book: as a story about different ways that people try (and sometimes fail) to care for each other.
Kasia Reads 