Shelly's review
She's Not There: A Life in Two Genders
by Jennifer Finney Boylan (Goodreads author!)
Shelly's review
She's Not There: A Life in Two Genders by Jennifer Finney Boylan (Goodreads author!)
Shelly's review
rating:
bookshelves:
bookclub
recommended for: students and feminists
I did not expect to like this book, I think it had to do with a fear that it would be a shallow treatment of a really complex bunch of issues and the goofy cover image (who IS that supposed to be? Every time I closed the book I questioned the mystery of how these things get decided).
Though regarding mystery, this book ultimately touches on what Russo sums up in his loving afterword - mysteries "which reside at our human center, constitute the deeper truths of our being" whcih "we often keep secret, because to reveal them makes us vulnerable." And the Mystery of "the way our heart inclines toward this person and not that one, how one soul selects another for its company, how we recognize companion souls as we make our way through the world in awkward bodies that betray us at every turn... not the special dilemma of the transgendered person: it's in all of us."
I enjoyed the humor and tears - recognized the defense against grief and the pain that co...more
Though regarding mystery, this book ultimately touches on what Russo sums up in his loving afterword - mysteries "which reside at our human center, constitute the deeper truths of our being" whcih "we often keep secret, because to reveal them makes us vulnerable." And the Mystery of "the way our heart inclines toward this person and not that one, how one soul selects another for its company, how we recognize companion souls as we make our way through the world in awkward bodies that betray us at every turn... not the special dilemma of the transgendered person: it's in all of us."
I enjoyed the humor and tears - recognized the defense against grief and the pain that co...more
