Normal

July 1, 2002
Taking in an amazing range and diversity of the human experience of gender and sexuality, novelist Bloom (Love Invents Us) devotes an essay each to three phenomena: female to male transsexualism, heterosexual cross-dressing and the intersexed, or those with ambiguous genitalia or confusing chromosomal balance. But she is most interested in examining "why the rest of us struggle" with gender and sexual experiences we do not share. Bloom interviews people from each of the above groups (as well as doctors, social scientists and gender activists) and brings together, in graceful, readable prose, a plethora of facts, ideas, arguments and personal responses to help us reconsider received ideas about gender. While some of her information is surprising (babies born with "confusing" gentials are more common than babies born with cystic fibrosis), she never uses the lives of her subjects to titillate. Bloom is happy to confess her own, and others', confusions and lack of information, pointing out that there is no reliable information on the number of heterosexual cross-dressers, for instance. And she allows her subjects—like the female-to-male-transsexual who has not undergone phalloplasty and claims, "I can live this way, as a man with a vagina"—their complicated lives. Fascinating without being prurient, detailed without being overly scientific, the book opens new ways of viewing not only gender but our own inability to accept difference. (Oct.)Forecast:Bloom's original piece in the
New Yorker generated a lot of attention, and readers of her fiction will tune in to see what she's up to. If media bandwidth is available, this accessible book could be high-profile enough to initiate copycat articles and think-piece reviews—and thus sales.

May 1, 2002
Praised for her fiction, Bloom here offers her first nonfiction: a study of people who just don't stick to gender expectations.

Copyright 2002 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2002
Bloom's understanding of gender changed radically after her remarkable odyssey into the hidden worlds of female-to-male transsexuals, heterosexual cross-dressers, and hermaphrodites, and so will her readers'. She is uniquely qualified to tell the perplexing and poignant stories of gender-benders by virtue of her work as a clinical social worker and empathic fiction writer (the exceptional "A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You" [2000] reflects the invaluable revelations sparked by this inquiry), not to mention her curiosity and piquant sense of humor. Lucid, frank, and compassionate, Bloom succinctly recounts her illuminating conversations with straight men who feel compelled to dress as women and their amazingly supportive wives; individuals who were born with a woman's body and a man's soul who underwent excruciating and expensive surgery (which Bloom explains in detail) in order to live as their true selves; people born with "ambiguous genitals"; surgeons who perform the complicated, sometimes controversial operations that "correct" these confusing states; and the activists and entrepreneurs who support them. Beautifully done, Bloom's fascinating and enlightening disquisition greatly extends our perception of humanness. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2002, American Library Association.)