Normal: Transsexual CEO's, Cross-Dressing Cops, Hermaphrodites with Attitude, and More (Vintage Contemporaries)

Amy Bloom has won a devoted readership and wide critical acclaim for fiction of rare humor, insight, grace, and eloquence, and the same qualities distinguish Normal , a provocative, intimate journey into the lives of people who reveal, or announce, that their gender is variegated rather than monochromaticfemale-to-male transsexuals, heterosexual crossdressers, and the intersexed. We meet Lyle Monelle and his mother, Jessie, who recognized early on that her little girl was in fact a boy and used her life savings to help Lyle make the transition. On a Carnival cruise with a group of crossdressers and their spouses, we meet Peggy Rudd and her husband, Melanie, who devote themselves to the cause of ordinary heterosexual men with an additional feminine dimension. And we meet Hale Hawbecker, a regular, middle-of-the-road, white-bread guy with a wife, kids, and a medical condition, the standard treatment for which would have changed his life and his gender. Casting light into the dusty corners of our assumptions about sex, gender and identity, Bloom reveals new facets to the ideas of happiness, personality and character, even as she brilliantly illuminates the very concept of "normal. ** All Identifiers : amazon:140003244X, isbn:9781400032440, mobi-asin:14587201-d0f4-41dd-9700-2bda4101f96a Number of Words in Auth: 2 Formats : EPUB Number of Formats : 1 Has Cover : Yes Single Author : Amy Bloom Original Source : Mirc New Files 02 25 U A Sorted Author by LN, FN: Bloom, Amy Title Length : 006 Title Parm D : Normal Title Parm F : Normal Title Parm A : Normal Title Parm B : ( Record ID : 9538 Uncomma Author : Amy Bloom Num of Aut : 1

Amy Bloom has won a devoted readership and wide critical acclaim for fiction of rare humor, insight, grace, and eloquence, and the same qualities distinguish Normal, a provocative, intimate journey into the lives of “people who reveal, or announce, that their gender is variegated rather than monochromatic”—female-to-male transsexuals, heterosexual crossdressers, and the intersexed.

We meet Lyle Monelle and his mother, Jessie, who recognized early on that her little girl was in fact a boy and used her life savings to help Lyle make the transition. On a Carnival cruise with a group of crossdressers and their spouses, we meet Peggy Rudd and her husband, “Melanie,” who devote themselves to the cause of “ordinary heterosexual men with an additional feminine dimension.” And we meet Hale Hawbecker, “a regular, middle-of-the-road, white-bread guy” with a wife, kids, and a medical condition, the standard treatment for which would have changed his life and his gender.

Casting light into the dusty corners of our assumptions about sex, gender and identity, Bloom reveals new facets to the ideas of happiness, personality and character, even as she brilliantly illuminates the very concept of "normal.”

Publishers Weekly

Taking in an amazing range and diversity of the human experience of gender and sexuality, novelist Bloom (Love Invents Us) devotes an essay each to three phenomena: female to male transsexualism, heterosexual cross-dressing and the intersexed, or those with ambiguous genitalia or confusing chromosomal balance. But she is most interested in examining why the rest of us struggle with gender and sexual experiences we do not share. Bloom interviews people from each of the above groups (as well as doctors, social scientists and gender activists) and brings together, in graceful, readable prose, a plethora of facts, ideas, arguments and personal responses to help us reconsider received ideas about gender. While some of her information is surprising (babies born with confusing gentials are more common than babies born with cystic fibrosis), she never uses the lives of her subjects to titillate. Bloom is happy to confess her own, and others', confusions and lack of information, pointing out that there is no reliable information on the number of heterosexual cross-dressers, for instance. And she allows her subjects like the female-to-male-transsexual who has not undergone phalloplasty and claims, I can live this way, as a man with a vagina their complicated lives. Fascinating without being prurient, detailed without being overly scientific, the book opens new ways of viewing not only gender but our own inability to accept difference. (Oct.) Forecast: Bloom's original piece in the New Yorker generated a lot of attention, and readers of her fiction will tune in to see what she's up to. If media bandwidth is available, this accessible book could be high-profile enough to initiate copycat articles and think-piece reviews and thus sales. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

"Bloom takes us on a provocative, intimate journey into the lives of "people who reveal, or announce, that their gender is variegated rather than monochromatic" - female-to-male transsexuals, heterosexual crossdressers, and the intersexed. We meet Lyle Monelle and his mother, Jessie, who recognized early on that her little girl was in fact a boy and used her life savings to help Lyle make the transgender transition. On a Carnival cruise with a group of crossdressers and their spouses, we meet Peggy Rudd and her husband. "Melanie, "who devote themselves to the cause of "ordinary heterosexual men with an additional feminine dimension." And we meet Hale Hawbecker, "a regular, middle-of-the-road, white-bread guy" with a wife, kids, and a medical condition, the standard treatment for which would have changed his life and his gender.". "Bloom shows the essential humanity in this infinite variety, allowing us to appreciate these people as they really are - both like and unlike everyone else - and inviting us "to see into these particular worlds and back out to the larger one we all share." Casting light into the dusty corners of our assumptions about sex, gender, and identity, about what it means to be male or female. Bloom reveals new facets to ideas about happiness, personality, and character, even as she brilliantly illumines the very concept of "normal.""--BOOK JACKET.