Cakewalk Audiobook By Douglas Bell cover art

Cakewalk

A Novel

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Cakewalk

By: Douglas Bell
Narrated by: Orlando Alvarez
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About this listen

Die-hard traditional Texas is the backdrop where success and nonconformity cannot coexist for Bryan Hicks, an African-American divorced father of two kids, Lindsey, the athletic golden child, and Lance, the unorthodox queer thespian.

Bryan's mother loves bragging to her high-society girlfriends about Bryan's accomplishments and promotion to VP at a large multinational oil/gas company. Bryan vigorously steers clear of conversations with his mother about who he is dating because Bryan has been secretly dating Nadia, a transgender woman.

Cakewalk is contemporary fiction based on Douglas Bell's past experiences. Bell speaks from an African-American heteronormative (privileged) cisgender voice to candidly expose the trauma of transphobia and homophobia. Bell wants to humanize the struggle of trans women to live on their terms. Bell asks us to believe in ourselves, trust in ourselves, and don’t let society define who you are. There is enough courage within you to be the person you want to be.

If you want to laugh, cry, feel anger, empathy, and reflection on how and who you are as well as get a little hot and heavy this is definitely the right book for you. Step into a world you may have never known existed and watch the similarities of what all humans long for no matter the pronoun.

©2022 Troy Porter (P)2023 Troy Porter
Biographical Fiction Genre Fiction Romance

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Hard to like the main character

Listened to audio narrated by Orlando Alvarez. Fairly easy listening but some voices were too similar.

Bryan Hicks is an African-American, divorced father of two. He's in the closet regarding dating a transgender white woman. Fearful of repercussions from his family, friends and at work, where he is a VP at multi-national oil and gas company.

This story is mostly centered around Bryan and his transgender girlfriend. Bryan is surrounded by those who are transphobic and homophobic and racist, including his mother. He's afraid to be exposed but risks losing Nadia if he keeps treating her like a dirty secret.

His mother adores her successful son, but it's conditional upon him falling into her vision of who he should be, and how he should behave.

I would have given this book a higher rating but I just didn't like Bryan. I tried to be understanding of his struggles and how that can affect behavior but the lies and treatment of his son just got under my skin so much I no longer wanted to read his story. When he did start to turn around, we got to see very little of that process, his complete 180 in attitude without seeing him go through it didn't feel realistic. Nadia saved this book from being rated lower. I liked her, she was a very interesting character, seeing her struggles handled with such grace opened my eyes to so many things I take for granted and some of the unknown struggles Transgender people face every day.

I have a lot of mixed feelings about this story, it's not for everyone.


Niggles-(spoiler)-





Bryan's mother's friend walking in on Nadia while she goes to the bathroom. She may have forgotten to lock the bathroom door but who walks into a bathroom when the door is shut? Hard to buy she didn't lock the door.

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    4 out of 5 stars
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I listened to this from a social work pov

I received a copy of this audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

As an incredibly quick summary, because depending on where you are reading this review, you may not be able to see what this story is about, I will give you a quick recap. This book follows Bryan, an African American who is divorced, has two children, VP of a large, multinational oil/gas company in Texas, and is also secretly dating a transgender woman. Bryan's mother is very proud of her son and boasts about his accomplishments.

First of all, let me say, as a social worker in Texas, this book being offered to me was incredibly exciting. Just the content information alone had me saying yes please. This book contains many themes throughout it that is highly relevant across cultures and various experiences and having books like this out in the universe is incredibly important to those going through Bryan's experiences.

This book carries many themes throughout it which people often face, sometimes with no real solution in it. I do want to point out a few things. I want to preface this by saying, I truly believe the interpretation of this story is going to be different for every reader. Bryan's mother is incredibly homophobic. When you hear things growing up like "I don't mind gay people as long as its not my children" (this is actually something I heard growing up), any kind of feelings that would be considered "gay" can make the person feel guilty and react more harshly to their actions/thoughts/feelings. All people go through phases where they are defining their sexual identity. Our experiences around sexual identity as children greatly impact our experiences and our reactions as adults. Bryan's relationship with his son, and the double standards there, really show the perpetuation of generational traumas.

As I said, I had the narrated copy of this book. The narrator has a nice sound to him and he delivers well, however, I found I had to really really really focus on the book to get through it. I like when I can listen to a narrator and do other things and still be able to focus on what is being said. Alvarez's narration style is very smooth, and he kind of faded into the background and I would find myself disassociating and focusing on the task I was doing. I like background noise like the television and music (especially lofi) when I am trying to focus on tasks, and his voice just did the same thing to me. Other people will like it, but for me and my ADHD, that really takes away the book experience overall and I may be missing some key things from the story because of it.

Overall, I did like the story and am happy I got the opportunity for this book. I may have to give the physical copy a read, maybe my thoughts would be different or my overall interpretation might be different. Who knows.

Also, for the record, I went about this with more of my social work brain and not a casual reader. So my review may be incredibly different than others, sorry :(

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