Both Sides Now

February 27, 2006
In filling a gap in transgender memoirs, Khosla avoids the usual arc of transsexual memoirs, which start with childhood gender discomfort and the build up to the decision to transition, and instead employs a clever, if distracting, structure: he begins with his decision to become a man and weaves childhood memories and surreal dream sequences (in italics) with his story of testosterone injections and surgeries (there are plenty of these: mastectomy, hysterectomy and two kinds of genital reassignment surgeries). Khosla shares his emotional tumult when he hears "sir" from some people and "ma'am" from others. After one person addresses him as the wrong gender, he becomes so angry he punches his image in the mirror. He discovers the joys of being a regular guy at a strip club and transitioning at his high-powered legal job. Unfortunately, Khosla's prose feels too much like a legal brief. Narrating a breakup with a girlfriend, he writes: "The incompatibilities that lay between us when we first began dating had resurfaced." A major falling out with his mother late in the book is likewise flat. Also, Khosla's abrasive personality makes it hard for the reader to sympathize with him. However, he does a good job of letting the reader inside his inner landscape as he grows comfortable in his own skin.