Crossing: A Memoir
by Deirdre N. McCloskey
List Price:
Our Price: $11.99
You Save: $13.01 (52%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $1.20 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Deirdre N. McCloskeyEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 1999-11-10
ISBN: 0226556689
Number of pages: 282
Publisher: University Of Chicago Press
Book Reviews of Crossing: A Memoir
Book Review: Crossing ... even further to the right
Summary: 1 Stars
One of the most idiosyncratic, and least insightful, of all TS memoirs.
McCloskey's primary claim to fame is as a libertarian economist from the notorious "Chicago School." As expected, after spending $100,000 on (excruciatingly painful and often ineffective) surgery, McCloskey's neoliberal sensibilities are enraged by the Benjamin SoC gatekeepers. Her criticisms are sound. So far, so good.
Writing in a hardboiled style, McCloskey runs into prose problems. Odd use of highlights and italics repeatedly detract. She refers to herself in the 2nd person and rambles immoderately on shopping details in a dreary diary style. That is unfortunate because her experiences are actually compelling, with (squandered) Kafkaesque flash.
The main weakness, however, is ideological. McCloskey's view of gender is artificial and condescending. As a man, Don McCloskey romanticises (egoless, nurturing) women, placing them on an all-too-familiar pedestal - then, as a woman, she congradulates herself, from the pedestal, for her (presumed) civility, humility and empathy.
Thus, a premise every bit as dubious as "ethical" capitalism.
Summary of Crossing: A Memoir
We have read the stories of those who have "crossed" lines of race and class and culture. But few have written of crossing-completely and entirely-the gender line. Crossing is the story of Deirdre McCloskey (formerly Donald), once a golden boy of conservative economics and a child of 1950s and 1960s privilege, and her dramatic and poignant journey to becoming a woman. McCloskey's account of her painstaking efforts to learn to "be a woman" unearth fundamental questions about gender and identity, and hatreds and anxieties, revealing surprising answers.
This fascinating memoir chronicles Deirdre McCloskey's transformation from Donald McCloskey, an economist at the University of Iowa and married father of two, into the woman he finally accepted he had always wanted to be. McCloskey had been dressing in women's clothes since he was 11, but after his daughter went to college in 1994, the 52-year-old man grew increasingly aware that he was more than "just a heterosexual crossdresser." As he moved toward the decision to become a transsexual, his wife reacted angrily, and his sister tried twice to have him declared insane. The passages detailing McCloskey's ordeal within the psychiatric and legal establishment are as gripping as a topnotch thriller. But the memoir's deeper interest lies in the author's reflections on the nature of gender and identity. Donald was a macho academic who dominated every discussion, viewing conversation as an exercise in one-upmanship. As he surgically altered his appearance and began to take estrogen on the road to "The Operation," he found himself relating to people in a more conventionally female way: listening to others, considering feelings. "The hormones are working, he thought at first. Or was it merely that the real person could now stand up?... Biology or core identity?" There are no final answers to such questions, but McCloskey poses them with sensitivity and insight. --Wendy Smith
General Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Audiobooks on Cassette
- Audiobooks on CD
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- e-Books
- Engineering
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Medicine
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Topnotch Gay & Lesbian Memoir
The Passionate Mistakes and Intricate Corruption of One Girl in America (Native Agents)by Michelle Tea
Semiotext(e); Published: 1998-11-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.29
Price in other shops:
All-American Boy: A Memoirby Scott Peck
Scribner; Published: 1999-04-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $14.17
Price in other shops:
The ACCIDENTAL ACTIVIST: A Personal and Political Memoirby Candace Gingrich
Scribner; Published: 1996-09-03; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $0.24
Price in other shops:
Hospital Timeby Amy Hoffman, Amy Hoffman
Duke University Press; Published: 1997-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.85
Price in other shops:
Heaven's Coast: A Memoirby Mark Doty
Harper Perennial; Published: 1997-03-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.49
Price in other shops:
Firebird: A Memoirby Mark Doty
Harper Perennial; Published: 2000-10-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.25
Price in other shops:
How I Learned to Snapby Kirk Read
Hill Street Press; Published: 2001-06-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $9.95
Price in other shops:
The Chelsea Whistle: A Memoir (Live Girls)by Michelle Tea
Seal Press; Published: 2002-08-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.53
Price in other shops:
Dress Codes: Of Three Girlhoods--My Mother's, My Father's, and Mineby Noelle Howey
Picador; Published: 2002-11-21; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $0.01
Price in other shops:
Borrowed Time: An AIDS Memoirby Paul Monette
Harvest Books; Published: 1998-06-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.01
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
Tearoom Trade: Impersonal Sex in Public Places (Observations)by Laud Humphreys
Aldine Transaction; Published: 1975-12-31; Paperback; Book
Best price: $24.90
Price in other shops:
Contested Lives: The Abortion Debate in an American Community, Updated editionby Faye D. Ginsburg
University of California Press; Published: 1998-09-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $14.15
Price in other shops:
In Harms Way: The Pornography Civil Rights HearingsHarvard University Press; Published: 1998-02-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.90
Price in other shops:
Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women and the Rest of Usby Kate Bornstein
Vintage; Published: 1995-04-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.30
Price in other shops:
She's Not the Man I Married: My Life with a Transgender Husbandby Helen Boyd
Seal Press; Published: 2007-01-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.00
Price in other shops:
Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininityby Julia Serano
Seal Press; Published: 2007-06-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.89
Price in other shops:
The Bourgeois Virtues: Ethics for an Age of Commerceby Deirdre N. McCloskey
University Of Chicago Press; Published: 2007-10-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $14.10
Price in other shops:
She's Not There : A Life in Two Gendersby JENNIFER FINNEY BOYLAN
Published: 2003-06-30; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $6.68
Price in other shops:
True Selves: Understanding Transsexualism--For Families, Friends, Coworkers, and Helping Professionalsby Mildred L. Brown, Chloe Ann Rounsley
Jossey-Bass; Published: 2003-03-24; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.75
Price in other shops:
Wrapped In Blue: A Journey of Discoveryby Donna Rose
Living Legacy Press; Published: 2003-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $18.95