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A review by octavia_cade
I Have Always Been Me: A Memoir by Precious Brady-Davis
hopeful
slow-paced
3.0
Coming out as trans is difficult enough, I expect, without a childhood heavily influenced by a fundamentalist religion. There's a heavy focus on that childhood here, and I think it's fair to say that in many ways it remains, for Brady-Davis, a strong influence. One of the most striking aspects of this book for me - it's not a major focus, more a minor element - is that she is occasionally coming up against her own unexamined prejudice against members of her own community... hangovers from that religious upbringing, basically. It says a lot for her character that she realises this and works to combat it; not everyone is so self-aware and willing to question their own beliefs.
It's an interesting journey from that childhood through college, performing as a drag queen, and then building a career out of activism. Brady-Davis comes across as kind, intelligent, and sympathetic, and the book's worth reading. I will say, though, that the pacing didn't quite work for me. This is a relatively short book (the edition I got from the library is under 250 pages) but it felt quite slow and waffled a bit, and as a result came across as being a bit longer than it actually was.
It's an interesting journey from that childhood through college, performing as a drag queen, and then building a career out of activism. Brady-Davis comes across as kind, intelligent, and sympathetic, and the book's worth reading. I will say, though, that the pacing didn't quite work for me. This is a relatively short book (the edition I got from the library is under 250 pages) but it felt quite slow and waffled a bit, and as a result came across as being a bit longer than it actually was.