Research Catalog

Details

Description

1. x, 284 pages : illustrations; 25 cm

Summary

1. This is the author's memoir about gender and parenting, including incredible interviews discussing gender, how families are shaped, and the difficulties and wonders of being human. A father for ten years, a mother for eight, and for a time in between, neither, or both ("the parental version of the schnoodle, or the cockapoo"), she has seen parenthood from both sides of the gender divide. When her two children were young, she came out as transgender, and as she transitioned from a man to a woman and from a father to a mother, her family faced unique challenges and questions. In this memoir, she asks what it means to be a father, or a mother, and to what extent gender shades our experiences as parents. "It is my hope," she writes, "that having a father who became a woman in turn helped my sons become better men." Through both her own story and incredibly insightful interviews with others, including Richard Russo, Edward Albee, Ann Beattie, Augusten Burroughs, Susan Minot, Trey Ellis, Timothy Kreider, and more, she examines relationships with fathers and mothers, people's memories of the children they were and the parents they became, and the many different ways a family can be. Followed by an Afterword by Anna Quindlen that includes the author and her wife discussing the challenges they have faced and the love they share. This is a brilliant meditation on raising and on being a child.

Subject

1. Boylan, Jennifer Finney, 1958- > Family
2. Boylan, Jennifer Finney, 1958-
3. 1900-1999
4. Novelists, American > 20th century > Biography
5. English teachers > United States > Biography
6. Male-to-female transsexuals > Family relationships > United States
7. Parents > United States > Interviews
8. Children > United States > Interviews
9. Gender identity > United States
10. Families > United States
11. Romanciers américains > 20e siècle > Biographies
12. Professeurs d'anglais > États-Unis > Biographies
13. Transsexuelles > Relations familiales > États-Unis
14. Parents > États-Unis > Entretiens
15. Enfants > États-Unis > Entretiens
16. Identité de genre > États-Unis
17. Familles > États-Unis
18. Children
19. English teachers
20. Families
21. Gender identity
22. Novelists, American
23. Parents
24. Trans women
25. United States

Genre/Form

1. Autobiography.
2. interviews.
3. Biographies
4. Interviews
5. Interviews.

Contents

1. Daddy. Red card; The plover's egg; I'm awake, I'm awake; Time out I: conversations with fathers & sons Richard Russo, Ralph Savarese, Trey Ellis, Augusten Burroughs -- Maddy. That'll teach 'em a lesson; The orphan girl; The gryphon; Time out II: conversations with waifs & angels Edward Albee, Barbara Spiegel, Christine McGinn, Timothy Kreider -- Mommy. The jumble; Jupiter, the bringer of jollity; I'll give you something to cry about; In the hall of the mountain king -- Time out III: conversations with mothers & daughters Ann Beattie, Veronica Gerhardf, Susan Minot -- Postlude: Anti-venom -- Afterword: "Same monkeys, different barrel", a conversation with Jennifer and Deirdre Boylan by Anna Quindlen.

Owning institution

1. Harvard Library

Note

1. "Featuring conversations with Richard Russo, Trey Ellis, Augusten Burroughs, Edward Albee, Timothy Kreider, Ann Beattie, Susan Minot, and other parents and former children."

Bibliography (note)

1. Includes bibliographical references (pages 281-284).

Processing action (note)

1. committed to retain