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3.98 AVERAGE
3.98 AVERAGE
This was beautiful and affirming in ways I am still exploring.
I love the trans takes on various books and pop culture stuff it was amusing and I loved how much biblical references were in this book, it was incredible. Still not as good as his wife’s book
It wasn’t a bad book but it was for sure the hardest 300 page book I’ve had to fight to get through in a while. The religious stuff was cool tho
my urge is to say that every trans person, or at least every transmasculine person, should read this book, because ortberg is a deft and hysterical writer. but i do need to tell the truth: i do need to admit that this is really a book geared toward my interests specifically. i mean, come on. things this book includes (a non-comprehensive list):
- musings on transition, specifically transmasculinity but also generally on transition
- musings on transition, specifically its interaction and parallels with christianity & how growing up christian affects transition
- greek mythology and the classics
- marcus aurelius specifically
- sappho specifically
- a mean girls interlude???
- musings on masculinity in classic literature and also in star trek, kind of
- a chapter called "no one understands henry viii like i do"
- chapters that randomly declare fictional men to be lesbians (something i have made a lifestyle out of doing)
- AN AENEID QUOTE IN THE LAST YARD?
so, like. the friend who told me i had to read this because it is exactly my brand was 100% right and i owe him so much. i had to keep taking pictures of the inside of this book because i couldn't mark up my library copy. that said--i do genuinely think people who are not me can enjoy this. i think people who are not me WILL enjoy this. because ortberg can fucking WRITE, with a combination of poignancy and honesty and self-awareness and comedy that i'm honestly kind of jealous of while also being grateful that i get to enjoy it. i need to read his other work right tf now. (current favorites of what i have read: dirtbag henry iv & the one i can't currently find but it's like "thank you, on behalf of trans women, as a trans man, i am sure the trans women will show up soon but i can't find them rn," [update: got it.]). this is a delightful and emotional book and you should read it, particularly if you like the things above, but also in general because i am by no means the only person who is going to adore this book!
i am, however, the only person who could and has managed to lose and then recover this book on disneyland's "goofy's sky school."
--
2024-5 edit: very very good book to reread while recovering from top surgery. probably objectively four stars for being a little repetitive and wandering, but i love the way his mind works so dearly that i can't bear to knock a star. i love how this starts as pretty much coherent and then becomes Danny Lavery's Wild Ride and i love that his publishers just let him do it
- musings on transition, specifically transmasculinity but also generally on transition
- musings on transition, specifically its interaction and parallels with christianity & how growing up christian affects transition
- greek mythology and the classics
- marcus aurelius specifically
- sappho specifically
- a mean girls interlude???
- musings on masculinity in classic literature and also in star trek, kind of
- a chapter called "no one understands henry viii like i do"
- chapters that randomly declare fictional men to be lesbians (something i have made a lifestyle out of doing)
- AN AENEID QUOTE IN THE LAST YARD?
so, like. the friend who told me i had to read this because it is exactly my brand was 100% right and i owe him so much. i had to keep taking pictures of the inside of this book because i couldn't mark up my library copy. that said--i do genuinely think people who are not me can enjoy this. i think people who are not me WILL enjoy this. because ortberg can fucking WRITE, with a combination of poignancy and honesty and self-awareness and comedy that i'm honestly kind of jealous of while also being grateful that i get to enjoy it. i need to read his other work right tf now. (current favorites of what i have read: dirtbag henry iv & the one i can't currently find but it's like "thank you, on behalf of trans women, as a trans man, i am sure the trans women will show up soon but i can't find them rn," [update: got it.]). this is a delightful and emotional book and you should read it, particularly if you like the things above, but also in general because i am by no means the only person who is going to adore this book!
i am, however, the only person who could and has managed to lose and then recover this book on disneyland's "goofy's sky school."
--
2024-5 edit: very very good book to reread while recovering from top surgery. probably objectively four stars for being a little repetitive and wandering, but i love the way his mind works so dearly that i can't bear to knock a star. i love how this starts as pretty much coherent and then becomes Danny Lavery's Wild Ride and i love that his publishers just let him do it
I was hooked from the first line: "One generally grows up thinking about the Rapture a great deal or not at all."
---Fantastic opening line of Daniel Mallory Ortberg's new book "Something That May Shock and Discredit You" that just made me laugh aloud.
---Fantastic opening line of Daniel Mallory Ortberg's new book "Something That May Shock and Discredit You" that just made me laugh aloud.
Thanks to the publisher, Atria, for an advance review copy of this book (via Edelweiss+) in exchange for an honest review. A version of this review is also posted on Edelweiss+ and my blog.
Daniel Lavery is truly a gifted writer. To write as fluently and cleverly as he does is something most people only dream of. In this collection of essays and asides, he combines frank and lovely accounts of his gender transitioning with entertainingly and anachronistically imagined vignettes from the Bible, Greek and Roman mythology, classic literature, and 20th century pop culture. It is insightful, poignant, and often very funny. Highly recommended, especially for anyone who misses The Toast, Lavery’s now-retired website collaboration with Nicole Cliffe.
Daniel Lavery is truly a gifted writer. To write as fluently and cleverly as he does is something most people only dream of. In this collection of essays and asides, he combines frank and lovely accounts of his gender transitioning with entertainingly and anachronistically imagined vignettes from the Bible, Greek and Roman mythology, classic literature, and 20th century pop culture. It is insightful, poignant, and often very funny. Highly recommended, especially for anyone who misses The Toast, Lavery’s now-retired website collaboration with Nicole Cliffe.
I wasn't expecting this book, but Daniel has a way of making everything clever and charming.
An outstanding book. I don't claim to understand anything about the process of gender transitioning and all of its emotional gauntlets. I don't even claim to have understood the Bible, Dante's Inferno or a fraction of the texts and media so richly interwoven into these stories of describing something as profound as transitioning to masculinity. Daniel's many different perspectives on what occupying the body of a woman meant, and what it feels like to make the executive decision to transition are emotionally moving, if it is not rich with raw vulnerability. I dream of being able to write like this.
Perhaps one final thing I want to carry forward from the book was the concept of prayer. Daniel's faith is foundational to his sense of being, and to characterize the many interpretations of the stories in the Bible and in mainstream American media, was an experience I'd never read before. Even through Lord Byron cursing and screaming, even through Sappho waiting for Aphrodite, I could hear an earnest prayer. Even in breaking up, parallel parking, comporting oneself with/without abs, I heard prayer. Perhaps I dream of being a writer who someday makes my prayers feel this raw, vulnerable and understood.
Perhaps one final thing I want to carry forward from the book was the concept of prayer. Daniel's faith is foundational to his sense of being, and to characterize the many interpretations of the stories in the Bible and in mainstream American media, was an experience I'd never read before. Even through Lord Byron cursing and screaming, even through Sappho waiting for Aphrodite, I could hear an earnest prayer. Even in breaking up, parallel parking, comporting oneself with/without abs, I heard prayer. Perhaps I dream of being a writer who someday makes my prayers feel this raw, vulnerable and understood.
some of the references in this books went completely over my head due to not having seen the tv show or film and not having read the book (mostly the bible), but the times i did know the reference were even more hilarious for it. while some chapters i did not know what to make of, this book contains some of the wittiest funniest and yet brutally straightforward commentary on transition i have not yet seen anyone else spell out so clearly, especially about how trying your hardest not to transition consumes you fully. nonetheless, the tone of the book never fails to advocate for joy, patience and hope for the future :')
Review to come, but this book was everything I wanted it to be and I love Daniel Lavery's writing So Much.