Something That May Shock and Discredit You

October 21, 2019
Slate advice columnist Ortberg (Texts from Jane Eyre) brings the full force of his wit and literary depth to this genre-bending essay collection. Describing it as “memoir-adjacent,” Ortberg intersperses searingly honest passages about his journey as a transgender man with laugh-out-loud funny literary pastiche. In “Lord Byron Has a Birthday and Takes His Leave,” the poet histrionically threatens to die gloriously in Greece to avoid reaching the mortifying age of 40. Sir Gawain tries to escape the sexual hijinks cooked up by Lady Bertilak and the Green Knight in “Sir Gawain Just Wants to Leave Castle Make-Out.” Amid the literary fun, Ortberg reflects upon gender identity. Finding the national conversation about transgender people too child-centric—he only realized he was one at age 30—Ortberg instead returned to the scriptures of his youth to find himself in “stories of transformation... already familiar” to him. In the most moving chapter, he drops the artifice of humor and lays bare his anguish at severing his relationship with his mother as her daughter, with the two finding solace in the story of Jacob and Esau—two brothers who make peace but not before Jacob changes his name, and thus identity, to Israel. Ortberg provides an often hilarious, sometimes discomfiting, but invariably honest account of one man’s becoming. Agent: Kate McKean, Howard Morhaim Literary.

November 15, 2019
The co-founder of The Toast and Slate advice columnist demonstrates his impressive range in this new collection. In a delightful hybrid of a book--part memoir, part collection of personal essays, part extended riff on pop culture--Ortberg (The Merry Spinster: Tales of Everyday Horror, 2018, etc.) blends genres with expert facility. The author's many fans will instantly recognize his signature style with the title of the first chapter: "When You Were Younger and You Got Home Early and You Were the First One Home and No One Else Was Out on the Street, Did You Ever Worry That the Rapture Had Happened Without You? I Did." Those long sentences and goofy yet sharp sense of humor thread together Ortberg's playful takes on pop culture as he explores everything from House Hunters to Golden Girls to Lord Byron, Lacan, and Rilke. But what makes these wide-ranging essays work as a coherent collection are the author's poignant reflections on faith and gender. Since publishing his last book, Ortberg has come out as trans, and he offers breathtaking accounts of his process of coming to terms with his faith and his evolving relationships with the women in his life. The chapter about coming out to his mother, framed as a version of the biblical story of Jacob and Esau, is just as touching as a brief miniplay entitled, "The Matriarchs of Avonlea Begrudgingly Accept Your Transition." Throughout, Ortberg's writing is vulnerable but confident, specific but never narrow, literal and lyrical. The author is refreshingly unafraid of his own uncertainty, but he's always definitive where it counts: "Everyone will be reconciled through peace and pleasure who can possibly stand it. If you don't squeeze through the door at first, just wait patiently for Heaven to grind you into a shape that fits." You'll laugh, you'll cry, often both at once. Everyone should read this extraordinary book.

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February 1, 2020

Written almost as a stream of consciousness, this genre-bending work by Slate columnist Ortberg (Texts from Jane Eyre) blends memoir, social commentary, and biblical exegesis in a series of essays that reflect an evolving sense of identity. Similar to his work as co-founder of The Toast, Ortberg's brief chapters here expand on topics serious and challenging, humorous and trivial. The author isn't afraid to be personal, especially when describing his struggle with external validation. He is at his best when relaying complicated feelings of self while exiting womanhood and navigating society's discomfort around trans men. These thoughts are interspersed with verses from the Bible and recollections on faith, on life as the son of a preacher, and on his participation in fandoms such as Star Trek. Interludes between chapters sometimes add nuance, other times lose momentum. As a result, the book periodically reads like a series of assorted thoughts. VERDICT Though it struggles to maintain cohesion at times, this account of a vulnerable life makes for contemplative reading. While fans of The Toast and pop culture will be drawn in, some may long for a more straightforward memoir.--Stephanie Sendaula, Library Journal

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