Customer Reviews

Alice in Genderland: A Crossdresser Comes of Age

5 star:		(65)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

By its very nature, the transgender world is not black and white. There is a constant search for definition by those in the community and those outside it, and all too often, that search falls flat. To many outsiders, we are gay men in denial or perverts with some kind of mother complex. They see TG women as football players in dresses, much in the same way they see all gay men as swishy Nellies. The rainbow flag of GLBT pride is closer to the truth; trans experience is a spectrum, just as gay, lesbian and bi experience is. One way or another, all of us t-people have struggled to put our blended lives into words that let others know who we really are. Alice in Genderland does just that. It is no whitewash; it's the richly textured, multi-hued story of a crossdresser and represents a refreshing change in trans literature.
Before I review the book, I have to make a few of things clear from a journalistic standpoint. Alice (Dr. Novic's femme persona) is my friend, and she kindly recognizes me in her acknowledgements section. Second, I was going through much the same experiences, in much the same high heels, at much the same time Alice was. I was there on some of those nights she describes at our late, beloved Queen Mary Show Lounge in Studio City, California-a mere fifty feet from where I work today.
I first met Alice back in the nineties, as we giddily tested the limits of our newfound womanhood and flirted up a storm in the nightclubs of Los Angeles. I was the redhead in fishnets and platforms towering above the crowd looking regal and being bitchy. She was this impeccably groomed, well schooled, not necessarily well behaved girly-girl. Perhaps I'm lucky not to have become a character in her book, but recognizing many of the people she simply but splendidly describes made Alice in Genderland especially fun for me.
Not every trans person is a woman trapped in a male body, and Alice knows she's more than that. Alice/Richard describes how the secret desires of his youth evolved into the full-blown female identity, which he now adopts for a night every week. He is proudly both Richard, husband, dad and successful psychiatrist, and Alice, a sweet, elegant woman frequenting restaurants and clubs-and dating a man for five years. Crossdressers like Alice, who only occasionally venture into their femininity, are often ignored or unfairly portrayed in books about the TG lifestyle. Alice's example stands out in stark contrast to the popular misconception of CDs as selfish and strange and lacking the commitment of true transsexuals.
She is honest and evocative in the way she presents her sex life and emotions, serving up scenes that show her initial terror and shame over her female desires, her fascination and confusion, and ultimately her exhilaration and pride. I don't know if I'll ever forget the disaster that ensues as Richard confesses his urges to his unsuspecting, young fiancée. Sex and conflict can be such vital forces in our womanly awakenings, and Alice owns up to it in a way that's refreshing and rarely found in TG autobiographies. Her depictions of tranny nightlife, especially the Queen Mary, are fabulous and spot on. I feel like I can hear La Bouche's "Be My lover" pounding out on the back patio of the QM in a glorious blur of summer nights in the late nineties.
Though Alice is a very knowledgeable psychiatrist, she tells her story without it degenerating into a clinical treatise or a how-to book for the novice CD. She meets an impressive array of people on her journey and renders them warmly without glossing over the grittier aspects of their lives. This is not a book for prudes or those with a judgmental streak. In fact, one of the most remarkable things about Alice's life is the open relationship she develops with her wife and the way it allows her to explore her sexuality far beyond the boundaries of most married (or even single) crossdressers.
In well researched appendices at the end of the book, Alice opines on the many puzzles of tranny life, based on her own personal and professional experience. She strives to describe and explain things as clearly as possible, even if that occasionally puts her at odds with current political correctness. Some of her ideas may generate heat for the way they dovetail with the notions of Michael Bailey, author of the controversial Man Who Would Be Queen.I'm personally not a fan of Bailey, at all, but since Alice is actually one of us, I respect her perspective. Alice expresses herself sensitively and encourages us all to keep an open mind.
I think Alice in Genderland is an extremely good read for crossdressers, transsexuals, those who admire us, and anyone fascinated by the mystery and intersection of human identity and sexuality. Although her profession is to analyze others, she gives us a raw and riveting look at herself without resorting to facile explanations or cheap dramatics. Alice challenges us to think anew on what a loving relationship looks like and what gender roles really mean. But more than anything else, she tells a wonderful tale.

Darya Kristina Teasewell
(...)

I was hooked from the opening of the book and drawn into the special world and subculture of the cross-dresser. The book resonated as it helped me, a cross-dresser myself, understand that I am far from alone in what I feel and experience in my own life. It gave me some insight into the common feelings of others with this exotic taste and helped me feel that I may be able to find a lifestyle that considers this behavior OK. Most importantly, I could see a life evolution in another person that was similar in many ways to mine. Besides all the relevance, it was just a well-written and readable book, with vivid and interesting vignettes. I strongly recommend to both those in the community and those who are curious about it.

I have been researching my own TG issues and stumbled on this book. From page one its a compelling well written document of an outgoing crossdressor who has explored and effectively negotiatied a life lived to the fullest. Like most transgendered individuals, the early childhood history of events reads like a parallel bio of my own youthful confusion. The book also serves as very accurate documentation of the details of the TG social scene in LA in the late 90's. But this book's real value is realized because "Alice" speaks so candidly of the connundrum of being born transgendered,and presents a clear vision of the mindset, motivations, and yielding to her basic nature of being born different. Nothing is left out to protect the innocent, and many walls are broken down and laid bare by the author's ability to communicate effectively and be so honest and frank. I admire Alice's ability to understand her basic needs, and effectively get those needs met. Many of us TG's just have too much emotional baggage from years spent trying to live up to being "the good son" - to sort out our own best path, with a positive sense of self worth. Its a balancing act which for some has caused great guilt, shame and often suicide over ones basic nature. The bottom line is that Richard Novic M.D., by writting "Alice in Genderland" has manifested into the world a special tome of TG knowledge which will certainly endure and take on a life of its own as a valueable resource for transgendered individuals and those who love them. Its very existence is such a wonderful gift to me. I'm telling all I know of its merits. It should be on the bookshelf of every PFLAG and GLBT group in every city.

Best of luck to you all this holiday season.

Diane Kramer.

Alice/Richard Novic writes an accomplished account of her life as a crossdresser part time and a well educated psychiatrist, father and devoted husband the rest of the time. To the uninformed reader these seem to be conflicting paradigms. She (I'll refer to her in the feminine during this review to streamline the narrative) does a masterful job in explaining and reconciling her two realities. Speaking as a crossdressing MD of comparable vintage, I can confirm that her experiences ring true. Her confusion and searching in her 20's, the self analysis, the shame and internal bargaining, the initially unrealized hope that others in her life will understand and embrace both her feminine and masculine personalities echo the lives of so many cd's. At times the book had me nodding my head in recognition, at other times marvelling at some new insight. The description of her current marital and family relationship and expression of her crossdressing is remarkable and most unusual. I'm not certain that her lifestyle can serve as a workable template for most crossdressers, but it serves as an example of someone who has truly triumphed and reached a rarely achieved equilibrium in her life. Her candor and courage in sharing her experience is commendable. Absolutely amazing and highly recommended reading!

The life of Alice/Dr. Novic has been brought into my life at an almost impeccably perfect time. The "girl in me" is about ready to blossom outside of the little world of her own mind into this great wide wonderful reality. And, after reading about Alice's life, all of the intimate details laid out in such a fascinating bio, I really feel that the possibilities endless as I strive to be girl I was really always meant to be. Thank you so much, dear!! I hope to make my journey with as much class, style and fun as you have. Of course, I will "spread the word" amongst my girlfriends about "AIG"! I will try to keep in touch somehow, Alice, as time goes along. Whatever happens, I will always keep in mind what you said: "Anything can happen, and probably will!"

I read this book cover to cover, it spoke to me as a Transgendered person, but more importantly spoke to me as a Human Being. Written with wit, candor and Passion, Alice/RIchard spill his/her guts and allows us to laugh and cry with her.

The world is a mosaic and Transgendered folk are in that patchwork, this book details one more variation. In the end it's about Love and Passion two pretty good things.

Michelle

I was fascinated with this book. Richard Novic gives us open access to a life so different than any I have known that I found myself frequently astonished. He writes so well that, as a reader, you feel yourself totally drawn in with him. I'm a retired psychotherapist myself, and thought I had a wide experience of life by empathizing so closely with the people I worked with. Yet I had never come in contact with the aspects of life he introduces us to. I felt like he had opened a door on a whole spectrum of lives I had never encountered and thereby broadened my experience. His genuiness comes through in every word, and I much admire his courage in so openly revealing himself. That's what makes this book such a 'must read'. He gives us the opportunity to understand such different lives.
Anyone would be fortunate indeed to have Richard as his therapist. Anyone who has had such a challenge thrown to him by nature, anyone who has had to struggle to find a way to live that expresses who he is, is bound to be compassionate and bound to have ways of helping others to live fully as themselves.
I hope everyone will read this book and develop an understanding of this community of fellow human beings.
Beverley Dorfman

Crossdressers and those akin to them-that is, those who present themselves across gender lines on a part-time or full-time basis-are a very diverse collection of people. Magnus Hirschfeld coined the term transvestite around 1915 in Berlin to refer to people who dress in clothing associated with the other sex. Hirschfeld believed that the root of transvestism-the preferred term today, of course, is "crossdressing"-is erotic urges. Virginia Prince, an equally important pioneer of cross-gender presentation, believed that some men (and women) in fact have the gift of being able to feel and appreciate qualities usually associated with the other sex, making crossdressing as much a spiritual expression as an erotic one. Most modern crossdressers, I think, find both understandings to have merit, but also find them both to be less than the whole story. Certainly, Richard J. Novic, M.D. (a.k.a. "Alice") does!

In part, this is an autobiography of a contemporary American male, who knows early in life that he does not fit perfectly into any of today's cultural categories, searching for a life that works. He considers the possibility that he might be gay, but he knows that he is strongly attracted to women, erotically, aesthetically, and emotionally. He also knows that he enjoys wearing women's clothing. He falls in love with a woman, marries her, has conflicts that partly may derive from his cross-gender feelings, divorces her, and eventually marries another woman. Then a growing process begins, with both Richard and Melissa (Richard's second wife) engaging in a process of negotiation involving crises and new understandings. In many ways, this is a love story, exceptionally well written and riveting for the reader. On some level, every marriage is a process of give-and-take not too different from this, evolving over time-although the details of this one push the limits of what most partners, no matter how much in love they are, would be willing to accept.

I strongly recommend this book, not only to crossdressers, but also to others who find that they are not cookie-cutter reproductions of what our culture mandates. It has much to teach us about genetic sex, sexuality, gender, and the innumerable ways in which these may be combined in real human beings. But it also is a larger story of relationships and how to make them work.

First off, let me say that the book is generally an easy, fast read. The writing is clear, and the story interesting and honest (at times, painfully so).

As I am not a CD myself and thus can't evaluate the book from that perspective, what I offer here is a critical analysis of some of the ideas about gender that it puts forth. In short, this book fails, despite the author's protestations, to offer a progressive understanding of gender. And it is primarily on this basis that I give it low marks.

This book is one of the most sexist, gender-stereotypical books I have ever read. The author categorises interests, personalities, hobbies, activities, etc. as being EITHER masculine/male OR feminine/female, and doesn't seem able to consider the possibility that a single individual can possess both 'sides' simultaneously (literally, at the same time). Instead, in order to engage in supposedly 'feminine' behaviour (an issue I will come to in a moment), one has to look/act like a woman, and vice versa for 'masculine' behaviour. The two 'sides' never comfortably co-exist for this author.

The blatant sexism really steps to the fore with the author's notions regarding those activities/interests/behaviours that are supposed to belong exclusively to women. Apparently, we women spend our time "fussing" over each other's clothes, lying back with our tousled, long hair, giggling, being coy about sex, and waiting - passively, of course - to be "taken." Apparently, we don't have hopes and dreams (let alone real lives) beyond those that pertain to men and our appearance.

To add fuel to the fire, the author seems boastful about that fact that s/he gets to pick and choose those aspects of (supposed) womanhood that s/he enjoys, leaving the dirty laundry (literally and figuratively) of being a woman to her/his wife. Who takes primary responsibility for the running of the household and the children?? Certainly not the author! When it comes time to deal with this kind of stuff, s/he is now a man and, therefore, not obliged to participate equally.

It seems to me that the author's understanding of what it is to be a woman is entirely derived from male (sexual) fantasy and a lack of understanding of real women's *complete* lives. Or if not a lack of understanding, than an explicit decision to ignore those other parts, because they just aren't so fun/sexy, are they?

And the icing on the cake is that the author uses psychological theory to justify his egocentrism. S/he claims everything s/he does falls under the auspices of "self-actualization" and is, therefore, beyond reproach. As a psychologist myself, I must point out that the author does not use this term very accurately. Self-actualization is NOT doing whatever you want, no matter its effects on everyone else. Self-actualization is: achieving an understanding of oneself and one's place in the world, knowing and accepting one's assets and faults (as well as the assets and faults of others), tolerating ambiguity (things don't have to be either/or), having compassion for others, being humble, being ethical (with respect to both means and ends), and finding meaning *outside oneself*.

If you want an easy read about the development of one particular cross-dresser and his/her journey to self-acceptance, then this book is for you. But be aware: it also contains a large measure of gender stereotyping topped with a dose of psychological self-justification for rather hurtful behavior. Clearly, Novic (or Alice, if you prefer) is no feminist.

This is a book long overdue. I devoured it as though it were filled with cream and covered with dark chocolate!
I am a 43 year old crossdresser and I saw much of myself in Alice's story. My struggle with self-acceptance continues and reading her book was like opening a window in a musty, stagnant room. To hear her speak with such honesty, clarity, openness, reason and even enthusiasm and joy is truly inspiring!
It is very good work.