Surpassing Certainty

May 1, 2017
Journalist and TV television host Mock's second memoir (Redefining Realness, 2014) addresses issues of identity, insecurity, and self-discovery.The book begins unconventionally at the door to a strip club in Hawaii where the author, a trans woman of color, recalls using a fake ID to get a stripper job to work her way through college. Much of how Mock conducts her life now was borne from mistakes made and lessons learned in her formative 20s, the time frame that the memoir primarily focuses on. The daughter of a native Hawaiian mother and a black father from Texas, she admits to being raised in an unorthodox family. After her parents divorced, her mother raised her with a "laissez-faire approach to parenting that enabled me to do whatever I wanted throughout my youth," which included hormone therapy and, eventually, sex-reassignment surgery at age 18. At the strip club, she writes of being wholly "stealth" (seamlessly blending in as a trans woman), as were other girls there and on the streets where Mock hustled. As trying as those days seemed to her, they were also educational and afforded her time to become comfortable with and intimately acknowledge and appreciate her physicality and sexuality. Troy, a man she'd met at the club, would become the first love interest to whom she would disclose her trans status. Brimming with liberated self-discovery, Mock's conversational memoir is smoothly written with plenty of insight and personal perspective, some of which is bittersweet, as when reflecting on her turbulent relationship with Troy: "Being alone is unbearable when you've enjoyed a reprieve with togetherness." Though a traumatic sexual assault derailed her physical sense of security, journalism courses and a career redirection in New York City paved the way toward the celebrated media personality she has become today. A defining chronicle of strength and spirit particularly remarkable for younger readers, both in transition or questioning.

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June 1, 2017

Mock (Redefining Realness) has become a vital and indispensable voice in the trans community. Here she expands on her story, exploring her posttransition years and her first marriage. Not long after undergoing gender-reassignment surgery, Mock began performing at a strip club in Waikiki, HI, to earn extra money. It was there that she met Troy, a yeoman stationed on the island of Oahu. They fell in love and developed the trust necessary for Mock to disclose her trans status. His acceptance gave her confidence and, after they married, he supported her as she pursued her education, first at the University of Hawaii and then at New York University, where she earned a master's degree in journalism. The couple grew apart as Mock's career took off, but she credits him with providing encouragement along with her first real experience of love. She also discusses her life as a young woman in New York, as well as her efforts to create a space for herself in a field where women of color are all too scarce. VERDICT Mock is a gifted writer and demonstrates the power of tenacity in this ode to her twenties; highly recommended for all readers.--Barrie Olmstead, Sacramento P.L.

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