A very nice batch of short stories, good for nitetime reading!

I appreciate these working class memories. I'm reading it alongside Coyote's newer memoir, Tomboy Survival Guide, and it's interesting to see similar moments appearing in each, like melting a new hole in the back of a baseball cap, as well as different gender contexts. In some ways, the Survival Guide has more polished writing, but these stories stand well alone and each of them is a gem.

queer! good shit! fav story: there goes the bride

Really enjoyed this semi-autobiographical collection. Couldn’t put it down. Love how Ivan captures coming into queerness overtime & the awkwardness of growing up

Average star rating: 4.4/5Final rating: 4.5/5Updated full review 8/6/2020:I absolutely loved this collection. It's a brilliant bit of work that hits all the right notes and retains its relevance as a work of queer fiction 2 decades down the line. If you want to know more about the individual stories and which ones stood out as favorites, here are the notes I took about each of the stories in the collection. I can't wait to read more of Ivan's work, I'm already sensing a new fave.**STORIES**She C...

An excellent collection of short stories, rendered with feeling and a lovely writing style.

Stories about queer family and name changes and watching your ex get married, and cold empty country

Ivan E. Coyote is a Canadian author and activist born and raised in the town of Whitehorse, in the northern Canadian territory of Yukon. Close to Spider Man is Coyote's first collection of stories, but those who experience stories of remote hardship, logging and fishing are in for a big surprise, as all of them feature characters who are experimenting with sexuality and trying to find their own, which is not always easy when you're living at the ends of the earth.The stories themselves are very,...

"Everyone I'd ever known was still alive"

3.5she comes home a mothno bikinithe cat camebackthis that and the other thingyou're not in kansas anymorered sock circle dance(in order of their order in the book)I definitely enjoyed all the stories, and took something from most of them. the ones I listed above were just my favourite favourites for many reasonson a reread ill take notes, and maybe write a reviewreally like how the title of the book tied in in its story this was genuinely so well written and wasn't a drudgeit's so hard for me t...

“We were always together. Your dad called us cheese and crackers. We never kissed.” Yes yes yes!!! So glad I picked this up again. On the one hand it may be nothing special, on the other, it’s exactly what I needed after trying to chase the high of Fun Home for the last year. I really just want someone to offer me a steady supply of queer lit directly into my gullet until I’m dead. And down the gullet this goes. Mmmmmm. “Three Left Turns” was probably my favourite of the bunch, though it’s hard

Brilliant! Teeny-tiny stories with a loose coming-of-age theme, set in the Yukon Territory. These short short stories (most are only a few pages) are clearly and bluntly written. The bleak setting of the Yukon is a wonderful backdrop to these stories of girls and gender and love and childhood and adolescence. Standouts for me were "No Bikini" in which the small girl narrator joins the boys in swimming class, leaving her bikini top behind, and "Red Sock Circle Dance" in which the narrator pledges...

While the back of the book describes the stories as coming from several different narrators, Coyote's strong voice and the semi-autobiographical nature of this work (in several stories the name Ivan is used) serve as a cohesive look at a variety of experiences that could all converge on a single person and exemplify an era of queerness in the Yukon. I was really touched by the simple, affective, and powerful prose; some of it hit really close to home. A wonderful little book

Beautifully queer

A beautiful book, affirming and heart warming. Especially good for the young,or those of us who are not strangled by the binary. I read it every year and have for the past 4 I think. I am getting a new set from the author's publishers. My first copy was a discard from the Oakland Library, and I have to say it was a terrible decision that they made. If I had read this book as a teen enduring alienation from the world, so much of my life would have been understandable,bearable. Grace that I surviv...

Close to Spiderman by Ivan E. Coyote is a book of short stories by a talented Yukon (Canadian) author. Loving the poignant, honest, down-to-earth memories of childhood and gender identity from our national treasure. There were stories that stand out as fantastic, and others that were good. I really don't care for the cover art; it could use an update for a new edition (if they print a new edition). This was my first time delving into Coyote's work and I can't wait to taste their other works.

Life in Whitehorse, Yukon as a girl who's questioning her sexuality makes for some very intimate and moving stories. Starting in childhood through early adulthood, each story is progressively more emotive, more wacky and joyous. The final story squeezed a cup full of tears of joy and exuberance. I'll be hunting down every single book this great Canuck author (musician and performer) has penned.

Well-written short stories set in the Yukon.

This is one of Ivan's earlier books, but I just got around to reading it now. This slim little volume of short pieces isn't my favourite book of Ivan's, but it's still very good. I loved finding out how Frances came into Ivan's life. I've always wondered what the original connection was, and what kind of serendipitous fortune brought them together. By my calculations, Frances would be about 20 now. (This book reflects all the way back to Frances at three.)

Now this, I really enjoyed. It had two of my most favouritest things: a strong sense of place, and queers. The only reason I didn't give it five stars was that I found myself *irritated* by the fact that it's short story collection, memoir, and novel all at once. The use of first person means that few of the stories have a named protag, although in all of them she's a gender-nonconforming AFAB person. In one she's named Ivan. It seems logical to read them all as the same person, but in that case...