Title: Questions to Ask Straight Relatives
Author: Benjamin Law
In: Kindred (Michael Earp)
Rating Out of 5: 4.5 (Amazing, but not quite perfect)
My Bookshelves: Australian authors, Contemporary, LGBTQI
Dates read: 17th July 2020
Pace: Medium
Format: Short story
Publisher: Walker Books
Year: 2019
5th sentence, 74th page: “Why?”

Those questions that we all like to ask people who are a little bit “different”. Well, what if they start questioning things you think are normal? Maybe it isn’t as simple and normal as you thought it was…

I picked this up at a fantastic time. It was a short story that I read as I was reading my psych textbook – a chapter about gender and the assumptions that we make. So reading a short story which was more like an essay and focused on the assumptions we make about “normalcy”… it was just fantastic, karmic, worldly timing. That I thoroughly enjoyed.

Not only does Law’s writing force you to think about assumptions around gender and sexuality. But there are also many issues of race and culture that are bought up too. In a way that makes it completely obvious that Law himself is constantly battling these multitudes of identity throughout his life. It left me questioning all of the assumptions that I make. Well, about everything…

Not only am I completely in love with this short story. But it also rounded out the Kindred collection perfectly. The whole journey in this collection was about making you think more deeply about others, or at least, it was to me. But after reading this, it also made me question many of the assumptions in my own life…

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Image source: Bookdepository