Tuesday, September 3, 2013

2013 Books in Review #4: Transition


I actually listened to the audiobook version of this book in my car during the times when I was running errands or doing other time driving when the kids were not with me. I chose to read this because stories about people in the LGTBQ community are in general very interesting to me.
Transition is written by Chaz Bono, born Chastity Bono, only child of the famous couple Sonny and Cher. Chaz writes about his experiences as a transgender man who had always felt more comfortable being masculine but had a hard time expressing that within the family and community roles he was in as a child and young adult. At the age of 13 Chaz realized that he (not realizing yet that he was a transgender male, but still living as a female) was attracted to other females and believed himself to be a lesbian from that point on up until the point where he realized that he was actually a transgender male who was attracted to women.
The book is unbelievably repetitive, and while I really wanted to like it I found myself totally uninspired by the endless litany of  failed relationships with family members, friends, and lovers and his apparent need to reveal intimate secrets about these people who had been or are important in his life. Only the very end of the book does he actually talk about transitioning from female to male.
I'm glad for Chaz that he is comfortable in his own skin now and I wish him luck in the future. This book was not actually helpful IMO as a guide for other trans folk (which is what Chaz says his goal is), especially in his polarizing views such as gender being your biology and gender identity being your choice. I think many of the trans folk who have been seriously depressed or even committed suicide as a result of not being able to identify openly as the gender they really were would disagree that it was a "choice". I rated this book only 1 out of 5 stars.
Transition was book #40 for me this year, book #30 in my library book challenge, and fulfilled my LGBT requirement for the eclectic reader challenge.

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