Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.98 AVERAGE
3.98 AVERAGE
Reading this is very much a "this hole was made for me!" experience, as a trans man raised intensely Protestant who feels both defensive of and ambivalent towards my own manhood. This is what I wish trans memoirs could have been all along - not a recounting of spectacle for cis eyes, but a deeply personal and layered account of trans internality.
A deeply strange, smart, funny, poignant, subtle, and wonderful book; despite not being trans myself this book feels like it was written for me - where else could you find such a combination of queerness, biblical exegesis, bathos, and eldritch Mean Girls bits?
Reread: on the reread, two years later, and with the context of my knowledge of the whole John Ortberg disgrace, this book feels very much on the brink of something. I also read it only a couple of weeks before the pandemic, another brink. I admit to skimming a bit on this reread - there are some extended classical lit bits that I simply don’t have the context to enjoy, and I was rereading before submitting an abstract. Some of the interludes and such feel mostly like extra Toast bits that Danny wanted to publish, and their connection to the major themes is esoteric at best. But the reading and rereading of biblical text to describe trans masculinity is brilliant, and I can’t wait to write about it.
Reread: on the reread, two years later, and with the context of my knowledge of the whole John Ortberg disgrace, this book feels very much on the brink of something. I also read it only a couple of weeks before the pandemic, another brink. I admit to skimming a bit on this reread - there are some extended classical lit bits that I simply don’t have the context to enjoy, and I was rereading before submitting an abstract. Some of the interludes and such feel mostly like extra Toast bits that Danny wanted to publish, and their connection to the major themes is esoteric at best. But the reading and rereading of biblical text to describe trans masculinity is brilliant, and I can’t wait to write about it.
Parts of this, where Daniel gets into his experience as a trans man, really got me. He had elements of Sedaris— humor and truth. But a lot of this work wrestles with Christianity with long quotes from the Bible. That’s where I drifted. It was maybe too much bible for me? Those passages pulled me from the emotional heart of his essays. Maybe they didn’t weave in tightly enough for me? Maybe it’s just not my language? In any case, I would be right with him as he explained how he realized that he might not be the cis woman he’d always thought himself to be or that choosing to take testosterone was hard and then he’d weave in a bible story.
I will try another book from him.
I will try another book from him.
funny
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
emotional
funny
hopeful
fast-paced
I knew this was going to be 5 stars within 15 minutes of starting the audiobook. Danny Lavery has always been a fun writer to read, and it turns out he is also a delight to listen to; I always love when I can hear the narrator smiling as they read, and that happens a lot in this.
Quick Take: Something That May Shock and Discredit You (STMSDY) is a memoir told in a mashup of genres and pop cultural references. Ortberg's writing is effortlessly honest, while tender in its approach to its subject matter. However, the length of STMSDY was far too long resulting in certain ideas and motif being continually re-cycled via a different lens. Illuminating, but a bit too long.
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
emotional
funny
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced