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Cleavage : Men, Women, and the Space Between Us
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Overview
What is the difference between men and women? Jennifer Finney Boylan, bestselling author of She's Not There and co-author of Mad Honey with Jodi Picoult, examines the divisions--as well as the common ground--between the genders, and reflects on her own experiences, both difficult and joyful, as a transgender American.
Jennifer Finney Boylan's She's Not There was the first bestselling work written by a transgender American. Since its publication twenty years ago, she has become the go-to person for insight into the impact of gender on our lives, from the food we eat to the dreams we dream, both for ourselves and for our children. But Cleavage is more than a deep dive into gender identity; it's also a look at the difference between coming out as trans in 2000--when many people reacted to Boylan's transition with love--and the present era of blowback and fear. How does gender affect our sense of self? Our body image? The passage of time? The friends we lose--and keep? Boylan considers her womanhood, reflects on the boys and men who shaped her, and reconceives of herself as a writer, activist, parent, and spouse. With heart-wrenching honesty, she illustrates the feeling of liminality that followed her to adulthood, but demonstrates the redemptive power of love through it all. With Boylan's trademark humor and poignancy, Cleavage is a sharp, witty, and captivating look at the triumphs and losses of a life lived in two genders. Cleavage provides hope for a future in which we all have the freedom to live joyfully as men, as women, and in the space between us.Customers Also Bought
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Details
- ISBN-13: 9781250261885
- ISBN-10: 1250261880
- Publisher: Celadon Books
- Publish Date: February 2025
- Dimensions: 9.52 x 6.42 x 0.93 inches
- Shipping Weight: 0.94 pounds
- Page Count: 256
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Twenty years after her memoir She’s Not There became the first bestselling book by a trans American, Jennifer Finney Boylan returns with the essay collection Cleavage: Men, Women, and the Space Between Us. Despite the think-piece-ish subtitle, Cleavage is a memoir in essays; Boylan reflects on gender through the lens of her experience, a perspective tempered by the passage of time, parenthood, a long marriage and old friendships. Boylan sets scenes well, as in the opening of the book’s first essay, “Fathers,” which sees Boylan and her father setting firecrackers with neighborhood kids. “I lit the fuse, and we watched the spark race down the long red string: Dad, me, and the Culbertson Rocketeers. Summer was ending. Ahead of us was middle school, and adolescence, and all the forces that would, inevitably, tear us apart. But for now we were gathered together, one last time.” These lines signal one of the book’s themes, that even though Boylan knew she was “meant to be female from my earliest memory, an insight that succeeded in twisting my heart around like an Amish soft pretzel,” there were also joyful days presenting as a boy, and later as boyfriend, husband and father. Boylan’s tone is conversational, staying grounded in her own experience when exploring complex topics like “passing,” as in “Voice,” which recounts her search for a new female voice. This funny, poignant essay features a strange encounter with a ventriloquist who tries to use his voice-throwing skills to hit on Boylan. Many of the book’s essays rove between disparate episodes. “Daughters” oscillates between a night that teenage Boylan had a tense moment with her parents, and a visit to Cape Cod 50 years later with her wife, Deedie, and one of their now-grown kids. The two experiences reflect the long journey of coming to terms with herself. While each essay stands alone, if you read Cleavage straight through, you’ll experience a moment of great surprise, much as Boylan and Deedie did, midway through the book. Boylan is an amiable, self-aware narrator—she recounts one of her kids calling her out for name-dropping Edward Albee during a heart-to-heart—poking gentle fun at herself and noting her good fortune in being privileged enough to live in comfort and safety, unlike many trans people. Cleavage is a sometimes funny, sometimes elegiac, meditative collection.
Twenty years after her memoir She’s Not There became the first bestselling book by a trans American, Jennifer Finney Boylan returns with the essay collection Cleavage: Men, Women, and the Space Between Us. Despite the think-piece-ish subtitle, Cleavage is a memoir in essays; Boylan reflects on gender through the lens of her experience, a perspective tempered by the passage of time, parenthood, a long marriage and old friendships. Boylan sets scenes well, as in the opening of the book’s first essay, “Fathers,” which sees Boylan and her father setting firecrackers with neighborhood kids. “I lit the fuse, and we watched the spark race down the long red string: Dad, me, and the Culbertson Rocketeers. Summer was ending. Ahead of us was middle school, and adolescence, and all the forces that would, inevitably, tear us apart. But for now we were gathered together, one last time.” These lines signal one of the book’s themes, that even though Boylan knew she was “meant to be female from my earliest memory, an insight that succeeded in twisting my heart around like an Amish soft pretzel,” there were also joyful days presenting as a boy, and later as boyfriend, husband and father. Boylan’s tone is conversational, staying grounded in her own experience when exploring complex topics like “passing,” as in “Voice,” which recounts her search for a new female voice. This funny, poignant essay features a strange encounter with a ventriloquist who tries to use his voice-throwing skills to hit on Boylan. Many of the book’s essays rove between disparate episodes. “Daughters” oscillates between a night that teenage Boylan had a tense moment with her parents, and a visit to Cape Cod 50 years later with her wife, Deedie, and one of their now-grown kids. The two experiences reflect the long journey of coming to terms with herself. While each essay stands alone, if you read Cleavage straight through, you’ll experience a moment of great surprise, much as Boylan and Deedie did, midway through the book. Boylan is an amiable, self-aware narrator—she recounts one of her kids calling her out for name-dropping Edward Albee during a heart-to-heart—poking gentle fun at herself and noting her good fortune in being privileged enough to live in comfort and safety, unlike many trans people. Cleavage is a sometimes funny, sometimes elegiac, meditative collection.