[ashel]

I've got depressingly little to go on. I used to have a collection of short stories that I got via recommendation of someone I wasn't aware read fiction - he was the kind of guy who read Tacitus and Sun Tzu as preparation for his career in business, except then one day, he was like, read this book, and I still feel weirdly close to him for it (even if he did turn out to be the kind of guy you possibly should be afraid of). I remember them as startlingly brilliant and dark, sort of an exploration of the cruelty of human nature kind of thing.

I do not remember the name, at all. I dont remember the title. All I remember is a story about a trans prostitute and her friends, and the man she was in love with, who was hopelessly cruel to her (I think he threw knives at her feet for entertainment?), and that they had an addiction to bennies - the author's word, I think it referenced benzodiazepines in this story, tho I've heard the term applied to classes of drugs with the exact opposite effect, an ambiguity I'm glad to see resolved since the time when this book was published. Oh yeah! I think that was in the 50s or 60s? Far back enough that trans prostitutes were not frequent protagonists in literary fiction.

This is all I got, and I can't figure it out, so I thought I'd take a shot in the dark. Does this admittedly vague description strike a bell with anyone?

 

[Geoffrey]

Wow.  I'm no help but I'm pretty intrigued now.

 

[VioletVal]

After doing a Google search, I found a movie based on a 1993 collection of short stories by Buddy Giovinazzo. Both the book and the movie are entitled Life is Hot in Cracktown. The movie is about "a pre-op transsexual working as a prostitute and living with her lover, Benny, a small time burglar." Could the story you're thinking be in this short story collection?

 

[ashel]

Hey Violet, thanks! I checked it out - I don't think that's the collection, though google really doesn't pull anything else up. I actually remember it as being less dark than the reviews of that 1993 collection, which is something. I don't think they were all, or even mostly, lgbtq type stories, and from what I remember, the story I described didn't feature the trans aspect as an identity thing, so much as a marginalization thing, if that makes sense? I think it was pre-movement of any sort, basically?

I almost want to find it now to see how bad my memory is. Also because I remember it being really, really good, and I'd love to see if I still think so.

Im gonna keep looking. If I find it I'll post!

 

[Straker]

Just a wild guess based on the time period and subject matter: William S. Burroughs.