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A review by davidsenpie
Becoming a Man: The Story of a Transition by P. Carl
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
4.5
Reading about Carl’s thoughts and experiences pre- and post-transition, I found myself relating in a lot of surprising ways. Not to say that I’m discovering a trans-ness to myself - I don’t think I am trans - but rather a convergence of things relating to outsider mentality, especially concerning being an outsider to your own body.
In my case, a lot of trauma lead to a lot of secrets that disconnected me from a physical and present sense of reality that I’m barely learning to recover from. I found the experience Carl describes of finally embracing who you are and seeing your place in the world anew and operating in it differently to be very relatable. As I’ve deconstructed my trauma and coping mechanisms, there too did I find a lot of empathy towards Carl’s experience deconstructing the parts of them formed from the time spent role playing a woman, to the times exploring what it is to be a man.
I think this book has helped nudge me towards not taking my masculinity for granted either in how I express it or how I let it control me.
Overall, very well written book and I had a blast, it was easy, and I’d find it to be important reading for its level of introspection that is so hard to access and achieve.
In my case, a lot of trauma lead to a lot of secrets that disconnected me from a physical and present sense of reality that I’m barely learning to recover from. I found the experience Carl describes of finally embracing who you are and seeing your place in the world anew and operating in it differently to be very relatable. As I’ve deconstructed my trauma and coping mechanisms, there too did I find a lot of empathy towards Carl’s experience deconstructing the parts of them formed from the time spent role playing a woman, to the times exploring what it is to be a man.
I think this book has helped nudge me towards not taking my masculinity for granted either in how I express it or how I let it control me.
Overall, very well written book and I had a blast, it was easy, and I’d find it to be important reading for its level of introspection that is so hard to access and achieve.