Sheds welcome light on the changes in society’s attitudes and in scientific thinking about gender.
The revealing story of an Oxford graduate named Laura Dillon, who secretively transformed herself into a man several years before Christine Jorgensen made “transsexual” a household word.
While primarily a biography, the book also traces the history of scientists’ evolving ideas about what it means to be male or female. Kennedy (Confessions of a Memory Eater, July 2006, etc.) makes use of Dillon’s own writings and those of other transsexuals; she consulted plastic surgeons, members of the transgendered community and a Buddhist monk who was Dillon’s mentor in India. The author writes vividly of Dillon’s struggle with her sexuality at Oxford in the 1930s and of the social and legal constraints she faced while making the transition from female to male. She began taking testosterone pills in 1938 and was attending medical school as Michael Dillon when she learned of the revolutionary work being done by plastic surgeons to repair wartime injuries. From 1946 to 1949, she underwent 13 operations to get a penis. In 1951, Michael Dillon (now legally male) proposed marriage to Roberta Cowell, a man-turned-woman who did not return his affection and turned him down. Dillon became a ship’s doctor and in 1954, when Cowell’s sensational autobiography threatened to out him, signed up for a four-year stint ferrying pilgrims to Mecca. He eventually fled to India to find anonymity and study meditation. Adopting a new name, Lobsang Jivaka, he planned to take vows as a monk. At the time of his death in 1962, he was working on his memoirs, which would have been the first by a female-to-male transsexual.
Sheds welcome light on the changes in society’s attitudes and in scientific thinking about gender.Pub Date: March 6, 2007
ISBN: 1-59691-015-1
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2006
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An enjoyable slice of 20th-century music journalism almost certain to provide something for most readers, no matter one’s...
Music journalist and musician Wald (Talking 'Bout Your Mama: The Dozens, Snaps, and the Deep Roots of Rap, 2014, etc.) focuses on one evening in music history to explain the evolution of contemporary music, especially folk, blues, and rock.
The date of that evening is July 25, 1965, at the Newport Folk Festival, where there was an unbelievably unexpected occurrence: singer/songwriter Bob Dylan, already a living legend in his early 20s, overriding the acoustic music that made him famous in favor of electronically based music, causing reactions ranging from adoration to intense resentment among other musicians, DJs, and record buyers. Dylan has told his own stories (those stories vary because that’s Dylan’s character), and plenty of other music journalists have explored the Dylan phenomenon. What sets Wald's book apart is his laser focus on that one date. The detailed recounting of what did and did not occur on stage and in the audience that night contains contradictory evidence sorted skillfully by the author. He offers a wealth of context; in fact, his account of Dylan's stage appearance does not arrive until 250 pages in. The author cites dozens of sources, well-known and otherwise, but the key storylines, other than Dylan, involve acoustic folk music guru Pete Seeger and the rich history of the Newport festival, a history that had created expectations smashed by Dylan. Furthermore, the appearances on the pages by other musicians—e.g., Joan Baez, the Weaver, Peter, Paul, and Mary, Dave Van Ronk, and Gordon Lightfoot—give the book enough of an expansive feel. Wald's personal knowledge seems encyclopedic, and his endnotes show how he ranged far beyond personal knowledge to produce the book.
An enjoyable slice of 20th-century music journalism almost certain to provide something for most readers, no matter one’s personal feelings about Dylan's music or persona.Pub Date: July 25, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-06-236668-9
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Dey Street/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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