The Body Spoken

This 2000 novel by Janice Deaner is another from my library clear out. A man and a woman meet on a train bound for Los Angeles. As the countryside passes by they engage and the woman shares details of her life.  She begins by telling him she has been living as a man for five years. The man is intrigued by this statement. Is she telling the truth or is this some fiction she has contrived? It's a bit of a wild ride - violent and tragic. Like Scheherazade the woman doles out her horrific story in small bits as the train makes its way across America. It's an over the top tale about gender and identity and the way they are formed and the reader feels compelled to ride it through to its conclusion, though in the end I felt let down after all the drama.