Ponyboy

Ponyboy is the narrator and title character of Eliot Duncan's debut novel, a restless, electric trans-masculine figure whose life is coming apart. The first of the book's three acts finds him in his Paris apartment, dependent on pills and amphetamines and tangled in a romantic triangle. One corner is Baby, a lesbian painter who cannot imagine being with a trans partner. The other is Toni, a childhood friend who sees Ponyboy as he truly is.

In the second act, Ponyboy follows Baby to Berlin, where his drug use deepens and he falls for Hart, a fellow writer. Throughout, a domineering photographer who chases whatever is currently fashionable keeps pursuing him.

As his relationships fall apart, Ponyboy overdoses and ends up alone in the Nebraska house where he grew up. The final act takes him into rehab, examining how trans identity, addiction and recovery reshape the bond between him and his mother.

Duncan writes in precise, atmospheric prose that recalls Anne Carson and Allen Ginsberg. The novel is a portrait of the wonder and hurt that come with becoming oneself.