Holding Still for As Long As Possible
Book | Zoe Whittall
Lovers are swapped like baseball cards in this novel about a Canadian LGBT group.
Sexual partners change, neuroses stay the same, and text messages pass for communication in Holding Still for As Long As Possible, Canadian Zoe Whittall's novel about a predominantly LGBT social circle of young adults. Interweaving the stories of a transgendered paramedic, an anxious former child star, and a slew of lovers between them, Whittall boldly shimmies between the big questions of these twenty-somethings: How is identity formed, and who is sleeping with whom? Whittall addresses these issues head-on, but often with excessive showiness—Hey Mom, look at what taboo stuff I can write about!—which taints her confident narration. While Holding Still shifts easily between the voices of each narrator, melodramatic plotting and forced sarcasm mar the book, and Whittall's characters' responses to crises often more closely resemble teenage angst than real despair. While Whittall possesses an obvious knack for empathetic storytelling, with Holding Still she's fallen short, coming up with something perhaps better suited for a made-for-television movie channel.
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