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3.9 AVERAGE
3.9 AVERAGE
I especially appreciated that this memoir is written by Juliet Jacques who is British. It's too easy to make a home inside the American bubble and so the perspective from across the pond was refreshing.
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
I feel like „Trans. A memoir” by Juliet Jaques is the sort of book the UK needed on trans issues: very politically localized, very much about every-day issues, both personal and theoretical, with pretty good descriptions about the complications that arise with the NHS and the workplace when transitioning. I like how Jaques re-frames the discussion around being “born in the wrong body” to being born in a broken society, how she pays attention to the structural violence she is facing - not only street harassment, but epistemic silencing and withdrawal/loss of material resources in this economic system that doesn’t allow the time, nor the support, for transitioning. It’s crucial that she devoted so much space to talk about the workplace, about which cities/places/jobs made it possible for her to explore her queer identity, and about changing/looking for jobs while transitioning. I also enjoyed the theoretical chapters, sometimes more than the personal ones. It’s a good book for people not familiar with trans issues, and it talks a lot about how culture builds us up, the books and the films that shaped her understanding of gender, transness and herself. She also delves into what it means to write in this age, online and especially as a marginalized person, how hard it is to hold the pressure of “representing” all of your community - an impossible task, of course. Both engaging and dis-engaging are difficult, but must be sometimes done, either to provide a point of view that didn’t exist in the public space before, or to take care of one’s mental health. The book ends with an interview, which was a nice touch - somewhere within it Jaques mentioned wanting to be more experimental in form, but not being able due to marketing within the memoir genre. That’s pretty lousy, and while unfortunately, it is part of being published under capitalism, I would have liked to read the book Jaques actually wanted to write.
I didn’t find the book always super-engaging since I couldn’t relate to many of the musical references and to the UK political climate, but I’m glad it exists.
I didn’t find the book always super-engaging since I couldn’t relate to many of the musical references and to the UK political climate, but I’m glad it exists.
I'm not usually into memoirs, despite how many I seem to end up reading these days, but I liked the way theory was integrated, and those were the more interesting bits of the book.
When told to take the politics out of her Guardian blog Juliet Jacques comments how the self is always political. And I agree. Who we are and how our bodies experience the space around us is always political. In this memoir the reader is invited to walk alongside Juliet as she transitions. She blends the personal, political and the historical in an accessible read– I say this because some academia can exclude younger or dyslexic readers.
It is a tragic– scenarios where she was attacked or called names– yet empowering– the strength she always had in herself and her friendships– story.
I liked the epilogue because is made me think about my relationship to society, capitalism especially. And it was a fun way to end her story. It also stamped her understanding of her own writing and it's process.
A book for any one who has ever felt like an outsider in this body we call life.
It is a tragic– scenarios where she was attacked or called names– yet empowering– the strength she always had in herself and her friendships– story.
I liked the epilogue because is made me think about my relationship to society, capitalism especially. And it was a fun way to end her story. It also stamped her understanding of her own writing and it's process.
A book for any one who has ever felt like an outsider in this body we call life.
Part of me feels it's unfair to review memoirs with star ratings: memoirs are someone's life experience, so who am I to say "meh, not enough social porn for me to salivate over - 2 stars"? Also, many memoirs are written by folk who may not be writers, and it shows, but the subject matter they need to get out of their system is worth 5 stars to learn about!
This all is to say that my 3 stars is a noncommittal urging: reading about the ups and downs of a person going through sex reassignment surgery should be required reading for young people so that nobody grows up hateful and not understanding why this is important. Jacques doesn't steer clear from unspoken burning questions that cis people may have.
At the same time, the 3 stars are there because I struggled to read through, mostly because Juliet Jacques's writing just wasn't a style I enjoy to read. There's also quite a lot of talk about soccer and although I grew up watching Premier League on Saturdays, my eyes still glazed over.
With that said, I know Juliet Jacques has a long career as a journalist, so I am looking forward to going through the archives of her shorter-form writing on the same subject.
Merged review:
Part of me feels it's unfair to review memoirs with star ratings: memoirs are someone's life experience, so who am I to say "meh, not enough social porn for me to salivate over - 2 stars"? Also, many memoirs are written by folk who may not be writers, and it shows, but the subject matter they need to get out of their system is worth 5 stars to learn about!
This all is to say that my 3 stars is a noncommittal urging: reading about the ups and downs of a person going through sex reassignment surgery should be required reading for young people so that nobody grows up hateful and not understanding why this is important. Jacques doesn't steer clear from unspoken burning questions that cis people may have.
At the same time, the 3 stars are there because I struggled to read through, mostly because Juliet Jacques's writing just wasn't a style I enjoy to read. There's also quite a lot of talk about soccer and although I grew up watching Premier League on Saturdays, my eyes still glazed over.
With that said, I know Juliet Jacques has a long career as a journalist, so I am looking forward to going through the archives of her shorter-form writing on the same subject.
This all is to say that my 3 stars is a noncommittal urging: reading about the ups and downs of a person going through sex reassignment surgery should be required reading for young people so that nobody grows up hateful and not understanding why this is important. Jacques doesn't steer clear from unspoken burning questions that cis people may have.
At the same time, the 3 stars are there because I struggled to read through, mostly because Juliet Jacques's writing just wasn't a style I enjoy to read. There's also quite a lot of talk about soccer and although I grew up watching Premier League on Saturdays, my eyes still glazed over.
With that said, I know Juliet Jacques has a long career as a journalist, so I am looking forward to going through the archives of her shorter-form writing on the same subject.
Merged review:
Part of me feels it's unfair to review memoirs with star ratings: memoirs are someone's life experience, so who am I to say "meh, not enough social porn for me to salivate over - 2 stars"? Also, many memoirs are written by folk who may not be writers, and it shows, but the subject matter they need to get out of their system is worth 5 stars to learn about!
This all is to say that my 3 stars is a noncommittal urging: reading about the ups and downs of a person going through sex reassignment surgery should be required reading for young people so that nobody grows up hateful and not understanding why this is important. Jacques doesn't steer clear from unspoken burning questions that cis people may have.
At the same time, the 3 stars are there because I struggled to read through, mostly because Juliet Jacques's writing just wasn't a style I enjoy to read. There's also quite a lot of talk about soccer and although I grew up watching Premier League on Saturdays, my eyes still glazed over.
With that said, I know Juliet Jacques has a long career as a journalist, so I am looking forward to going through the archives of her shorter-form writing on the same subject.
So many books about trans individuals are a) written by cis people, b) focus on transition as the only viable storyline in a trans person's life, or both a & b.
Juliet is a fantastic writer. This book felt like a conversation with an intimate friend - colloquial, friendly, and inclusive of life beyond the scope of transition. In the epilogue, she expresses that she didn't want the entire arc of her book to be surgery - she has succeeded magnificently at this.
This should be on everyone's to-read list. It made me laugh, it made me cry, and it gave me hope for the future of trans representation in popular media.
Juliet is a fantastic writer. This book felt like a conversation with an intimate friend - colloquial, friendly, and inclusive of life beyond the scope of transition. In the epilogue, she expresses that she didn't want the entire arc of her book to be surgery - she has succeeded magnificently at this.
This should be on everyone's to-read list. It made me laugh, it made me cry, and it gave me hope for the future of trans representation in popular media.
hopeful
informative
reflective
fast-paced
I initially found this book a bit of a trudge, but I kept going, and I'm glad I did. The narrative, particularly in the first half, lingers on the mundane details of everyday life a little too much for me. But I understand the intention behind this, to offer a representation of a life that is ordinary in so many ways, as lives of trans people are so often sensationalised, weaponised, and even their right to exist called into question.
It is no real surprise that it is at the point in the book when Juliet starts to live as a woman in all spheres of her life that the prose really starts to come alive, despite all of the difficulties associated with coming out. The veil is lifted.
The tension between private and public, and the personal and political is palpable throughout. The book is essentially a bildungsroman, charting Jacques' gradual personal revolution, but it is impossible for her to escape the social, political and historical context of her transition. Her decision to write about her personal experience and put it in the public sphere is political in itself, and is laudable.
Despite my misgivings about the prose style, this book is important. As a cis reader, who aspires to be a fully inclusive and intersectional feminist, it lead me to a better understanding of the trans experience (if there is such a thing), and gave me more ammunition for pushing back against that vile strand of feminism that excludes trans people.
Please read it.
It is no real surprise that it is at the point in the book when Juliet starts to live as a woman in all spheres of her life that the prose really starts to come alive, despite all of the difficulties associated with coming out. The veil is lifted.
The tension between private and public, and the personal and political is palpable throughout. The book is essentially a bildungsroman, charting Jacques' gradual personal revolution, but it is impossible for her to escape the social, political and historical context of her transition. Her decision to write about her personal experience and put it in the public sphere is political in itself, and is laudable.
Despite my misgivings about the prose style, this book is important. As a cis reader, who aspires to be a fully inclusive and intersectional feminist, it lead me to a better understanding of the trans experience (if there is such a thing), and gave me more ammunition for pushing back against that vile strand of feminism that excludes trans people.
Please read it.
emotional
informative
reflective