No Way Renee: The Second Half of My Notorious Life [Hardcover]

Renee Richards (Author), John Ames (Contributor)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 6, 2007

In 1975, at the age of forty, Richard Raskind, a renowned eye surgeon and highly ranked amateur tennis player, "died," and Renée Richards was "born," in what was to become the most public and highly scrutinized sex reassignment to date. It was not until Renée Richards was discovered playing in an amateur tennis tournament that the world took notice. Extensive media coverage and criticism thrust Renée reluctantly into the spotlight, sparking an intense public debate over her private life. Now, at seventy-two, Richards looks back and speaks frankly about all aspects of her complicated and often notorious life in this eye-opening, thought-provoking memoir.

Richards' honest and compelling narrative explores the dichotomy between the successful life she lived as Dr. Richard Raskind, who seemed to have everything (devoted friends, a beautiful wife and son, a stellar record of academic and professional achievement, and outstanding athletic ability), and a secret life of struggle with a drive that could not be suppressed, even by years of psychotherapy and the force of a considerable will.

Richards takes readers through her difficult decision to undergo surgery and the complex mixture of relief and continued frustration that came with the realization of her new identity. Discussing life after her transformation, Richards candidly relates the details, trials, and pleasures of her romantic life as well as fascinating stories about her tennis career, including her experiences as Martina Navratilova's coach. She also provides an intimate account of her difficult but rewarding relationship with her rebellious son: runaway teenager, high-stakes Vegas gambler, karate champion, and entrepreneur. She describes the deterioration of a once-loving marriage and the challenges of reclaiming her place at the forefront of her demanding medical specialty. Having lived as a woman almost as long as she lived as a man, Richards draws on a personal history that illuminates thirty years of remarkable change in society's attitude toward gender issues. Her absorbing and inspiring story, at once heartbreaking and uplifting, is a testimony to how far we have progressed in our ability to discuss and accept sexuality in all its iterations, as well as a reminder of how far we still must travel.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Tennis star turned transsexual, Richards retreads much ground from her 1986 autobiography, Second Serve, while opening a window on the consequences of her choices. Born in 1934, Richard Raskind was a Yale tennis star, had a navy stint and became a well-known eye surgeon. Always feeling that he was a woman, Raskind was on and off hormone therapy from the early 1960s, but married in 1969 and fathered a son. Six years later, he underwent sex reassignment surgery and became Renée Richards. What's new are the personal elements of Richards's life since then: her friendship and coaching experience with Martina Navratilova and her evolving, often conflicted relationship with son Nick. Holding Rastafarian beliefs and resenting his father, Nick skipped off to Jamaica at the age of 13 and had to be kidnapped back to the U.S. While the family fights and complications of surgery take place in the context of the author's transsexualism, they are mostly ordinary, as is much of her current life as "an old-fashioned American." More interesting is Richards's discomfort with current radical transgender identities and politics and her searing list of regrets at the end of the book, where she finally opens up emotionally. B&w photos. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

In 1975, at the age of 40, the author, born Richard Baskin, underwent sex-reassignment surgery. She didn't mean to become an international celebrity, but, as a ranked amateur tennis player (not to mention a top surgeon), Renee Richards attracted the kind of attention that seemed like it would never go away. Now, three decades later, Richards has lived, in effect, two complete lives: one before 1975 and one after. This memoir focuses on her life since her sex change. Her lively storytelling and sense of humor elevate the text far above the usual, movie-of-the-week "triumph over adversity" tale. Her book offers new insights into gender dysphoria and a deeper understanding of what it is that makes us who we are, but none of this thematic heft overshadows the simpler story of a woman, her family, and her dreams. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (February 6, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743290135
• ISBN-13: 978-0743290135
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,461,903 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An accidental pioneer, March 22, 2007

By 

F. Malmstrom (Monument, Colorado United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: No Way Renee: The Second Half of My Notorious Life (Hardcover)

"It's people like this who make you realize how little you've accomplished," said satirist Tom Lehrer.

Dr. Renée Richards (aka Dr. Richard Raskind) is a person who knew everybody, hung out in the same social set with millionaires, sports and movie stars, appeared on national talk shows, ... . So if you're looking for some inside, titillating gossip, her readable book No Way Renée covers that too, but she doesn't overkill the issue. She speaks openly and honestly.

During her adventuresome life, Renée Richards pissed away a small fortune on rescuing her son Nick from his own youthful peccadilloes (a bright young man who certainly inherited his father's [ i.e. Renée] absence of humility), and she also traveled the low-paying professional tennis circuit. In a way, you could say she dug her own holes and then made a career of climbing back out of them. She certainly made the whole idea of transsexualism more acceptable to the public. Since the 70s, the medical community has recanted on sexual reassignment policies, so today transsexuals don't capture the headlines the way they once did. She was most fortunate to have her professional medical career to fall back on.

About 1/3 of her book (also co-written by John Ames) is devoted to recapitulating the first 40 or so years of her life. A new generation has since grown up who have never heard of Dr. Renée Richards. So, to understand Renée Richards more thoroughly, I encourage you also to read her first book, Second Serve.

Along the way, she also became a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons (no shabby achievement, and a fact not stated in her book). She also established a fine professional reputation and has published first-rate research articles on eye surgery. But for her transsexual distractions, I got the feeling she could have become a great surgeon, not just a damned good one.

Did Renée Richards really want to be the spokeswoman for transsexuals? I think not, but she still faced the challenge squarely. Given the choice, she would rather have been a successful surgeon who also happened to be a genetic female. Yet, as a most intelligent and rational man, in that one facet of gender she was driven purely by her emotions to -- above all -- become a woman.

Herein lies the greater question. Renée Richards clearly foresaw the public and private hazards of switching sexes, yet she was compelled to choose this path at the risk of torpedoing her own family and her career. So I don't think she came any closer to answering the question why? (I've had transsexual patients, and I'll be damned if I can come any closer to answering that big question.)

She never regretted having the surgery, yet, she sighs, she never found contentment either as a man with a "Miss Right" nor a "Mr. Right" as a woman. [ref. Interview "The Lady Regrets" in the February 1st , 2007 New York Times.] Even if you ignore her exterior, I still think you will find Renée Richards a fascinating person to know. Read the book.

Frederick Malmstrom, Ph.D.

Clinical Psychologist

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Honest and engrossing, April 12, 2007

By 

Avid Reader (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: No Way Renee: The Second Half of My Notorious Life (Hardcover)

I grew up with the Renee Richards saga in the background and saw an article on this book in People magazine and decided to purchase it. Dr. Richards writes with honesty, humor and intelligence, and I could not put the book down. She has a very compelling story, and it helped me to understand better what transgendered individuals might go through in our society. It was fascinating to read not only about how she reacted to her ordeal but her family members and colleagues. I think she must be a very courageous person and I thank her for writing this and sharing it.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Very Honest Woman, March 8, 2007

By 

Amber Johnson - See all my reviews

This review is from: No Way Renee: The Second Half of My Notorious Life (Hardcover)

I really appreciated Dr. Richard's honesty and her willingness to talk about very personal and private matters. I learned a lot from her. It amazed me that after such a difficult life, she is not angry or bitter. I admire that.