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A review by psheehy
Nina Here Nor There: My Journey Beyond Gender by Nick Krieger
5.0
By the time they reach the reader's hands, memoirs from the edge of society—and really, what memoir isn't from the edge of society when it comes down to it—have already been so marginalized so many times over, have lived entire lives in the shadows, that they can run the risk of preachiness, of self-righteousness, of over-defensive (and don't mind the pun here) cockiness. But Nina Here Nor There is not so much a memoir as it is therapy in words, words beautifully crafted and honed with so much love, and Nick Krieger is not so much a preacher as he is a comrade-in-arms. With equal parts wit and tenderness, Krieger writes to make sense of this world he finds himself in, a world of packers and binders and drains (oh my), a world that exists underneath a white Hanes t-shirt. He holds nothing back, and he is a narrator so completely genuine and lovable that you will laugh when he laughs when neither of you should be laughing at all. Page after page-turning page, you're in this with Krieger: you learn with him, you cry with him, you get your heart broken by lovers and family alike.
Yes, this book gives voice to a trans community, but that's nearly besides the point. This book gives voice to Nick Krieger, an outsider even in his outsider world, and his story is singular yet unassuming. This is what makes Nina Here Nor There so special. Krieger is as curious as he is insightful, and he understands that there is no one story, not for the transgender community, not for any community. Yet it is a rare story that is told this well. At the heart of it, there is love, identity, and family (both chosen and given), and it does not matter where one falls on the gender spectrum: this is a journey beyond gender. As a straight cis male, this reader was as captivated as any reader because, as Krieger writes, "man, woman, or other—none of us [are] the same people we once were." This is a human story, plain and simple, and a great human story at that.
Yes, this book gives voice to a trans community, but that's nearly besides the point. This book gives voice to Nick Krieger, an outsider even in his outsider world, and his story is singular yet unassuming. This is what makes Nina Here Nor There so special. Krieger is as curious as he is insightful, and he understands that there is no one story, not for the transgender community, not for any community. Yet it is a rare story that is told this well. At the heart of it, there is love, identity, and family (both chosen and given), and it does not matter where one falls on the gender spectrum: this is a journey beyond gender. As a straight cis male, this reader was as captivated as any reader because, as Krieger writes, "man, woman, or other—none of us [are] the same people we once were." This is a human story, plain and simple, and a great human story at that.