【 THE TRAUMA CLEANER 】

DNF @ 30%

Genre: Non-Fiction (biography)
Audience: Adult
Author: Sarah Krasnostein
Published: October 2017
Publisher: Text Publishing
Pages: 272 (paperback)

The long short of it, is that this was not what I expected it to be. I had my eye on this book for a while, expecting a thrilling account of what a trauma cleaner is and how the business works. It’s something that I think many of us were curious about, in an almost grotesque way.

However, what this actually is, is a biography of a transwoman. Less about the trauma cleaning. ButI have to say, credit where credit is due, the book is compelling and well-written. It just wasn’t what I thought I was getting into. I do enjoy memoir/biography here and there, but usually only of people I know (celebrities etc.).

I persevered for around 30% of the audiobook, but I hit a wall when I realised that this wasn’t suddenly going to change gears and focus on Sandra’s job. That it really was just a biography, a lovingly done biography, that swapped chapter to chapter between a current job Sandra was on and then back to a part of her childhood/history. It follows her life chronologically in these flashbacks to build up the bigger picture. This book is fascinating in its own way because of this – Sandra’s story is certainly fascinating, and very tragic.

So if you like the idea of the biography, then I can highly recommend this as an interesting, heartbreaking look into her life and the reality she faced as a transwoman. But if you were hoping that this would be a memoir that focused on one sliver of her life as a trauma cleaner, and got into the nitty-gritty of that, then I think you might be somewhat disappointed like I was.

Title: The Trauma Cleaner
Author: Sarah Krasnostein
Add it on Goodreads

Husband, father, drag queen, sex worker, wife. Sarah Krasnostein’s The Trauma Cleaner is a love letter to an extraordinary ordinary life. In Sandra Pankhurst she discovered a woman capable of taking a lifetime of hostility and transphobic abuse and using it to care for some of society’s most in-need people.

Sandra Pankhurst founded her trauma cleaning business to help people whose emotional scars are written on their houses. From the forgotten flat of a drug addict to the infested home of a hoarder, Sandra enters properties and lives at the same time. But few of the people she looks after know anything of the complexity of Sandra’s own life. Raised in an uncaring home, Sandra’s miraculous gift for warmth and humour in the face of unspeakable personal tragedy mark her out as a one-off.

This is a truly unique book, taking the humanity of S-Town, the beauty of H Is for Hawk and the sensitivity of When Breath Becomes Air to create something of startling originality.