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Conundrum (New York Review Books Classics) [Paperback]

Jan Morris (Author)
4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
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Conundrum (New York Review Books Classics) + True Selves: Understanding Transsexualism--For Families, Friends, Coworkers, and Helping Professionals + She's Not There: A Life in Two Genders
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  • True Selves: Understanding Transsexualism--For Families, Friends, Coworkers, and Helping Professionals by Mildred L. Brown Paperback$13.57

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Editorial Reviews

Review

"If there is anything typical about Miss Morris's experience, however, she has successfully disguised it." -- The Times Literary Supplement,

"The finest descriptive writer in our time, of the watercolor kind." -- Rebecca West

Product Description

The great travel writer Jan Morris was born James Morris. James Morris distinguished himself in the British military, became a successful and physically daring reporter, climbed mountains, crossed deserts, and established a reputation as a historian of the British empire. He was happily married, with several children. To all appearances, he was not only a man, but a man’s man.

Except that appearances, as James Morris had known from early childhood, can be deeply misleading. James Morris had known all his conscious life that at heart he was a woman.

Conundrum, one of the earliest books to discuss transsexuality with honesty and without prurience, tells the story of James Morris’s hidden life and how he decided to bring it into the open, as he resolved first on a hormone treatment and, second, on risky experimental surgery that would turn him into the woman that he truly was.
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 176 pages
  • Publisher: NYRB Classics (May 16, 2006)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1590171896
  • ISBN-13: 978-1590171899
  • Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5 x 0.5 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #297,742 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
    #21 in  Books > Gay & Lesbian > Biographies & Memoirs > Transgender
    #56 in  Books > Gay & Lesbian > Nonfiction > Transgender

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Jan Morris
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Customer Reviews

10 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.2 out of 5 stars (10 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars MAN ENOUGH TO BE A WOMAN..., April 9, 2004
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Conundrum: From James to Jan - An Extraordinary Personal Narrative of Transsexualism (Hardcover)
This is an intriguing memoir, beautifully written by an author who has written numerous other non-fiction books. Jan Morris, formerly known as James Morris, was the correspondent for the London Times assigned to cover England's historic summit of Everest. The author actually accompanied the expedition to the Himalayas and did on site dispatches of the historic event. It would be as James Morris that she would write the wonderful book, "Coronation Everest", which chronicles the events leading to the historic summit of Everest by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay on the eve of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. The author would eventually become a celebrated writer of many travel books, journeying the world over.

This very personal book is an autobiographical narrative of the author's own gender dysphoria, as she, a biological male at birth, had always felt that she had been born into the wrong body. Elegantly written, it is not a book for those who are seeking tabloid sensationalism. Rather, it is, at times, somewhat anachronistic in feel, as it was written by someone who lived through a time when actual gender changes were still in the nascent stages. Passing historical references are made to those transsexuals who paved the way for others.

The author's account of her early life is fascinating, as much of it was spent in traditional male pursuits of the time. A stint in the army as a member of the 9th Queen's Royal Lancers, years as a well-known foreign correspondent, as well as husband and father, were all roles in which the author found some satisfaction but never total fulfillment, as her gender dysphoria continually intruded upon her happiness, a dark cloud hovering over all that she did and all that she was.

The author's recollection of her lifelong, personal conundrum over gender is graced with self-deprecating wit and humor. It is a first rate autobiographical account of the author's journey across the shivering sands of gender dysphoria. Born in 1927, the author, with the support of Elizabeth, her wife and best friend, crossed the gender frontier at the age of forty five, after having spent thirty-five years as a male and ten additional years in androgynous transition as a hormonal chimera.

It was with her surgery in a clinic in Casablanca in 1972 that the author felt that she finally was able to live her life as she was meant to live it. Her account of her surgery, however, is enough to make one take pause at the sheer desperation to reconcile one's inner self with one's outer self. Still, notwithstanding the seemingly primitive approach of the clinic to such a complex surgery, James Morris crossed the gender frontier and surgically metamorphosed into the woman that she had always felt herself to be, surmounting the last hurdle to self-realization. Thus, Jan Morris was born.

This is an extremely literate account of a very personal journey by a gender dysphoric individual. It is a beautifully realized book that is sure to become a classic in its genre. Bravo!

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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars A candid commentary of a man's quest for his female self, August 16, 1998
By A Customer
This review is from: Conundrum: An Extraordinary Narrative of Transsexualism (Paperback)
Born into the English upper-class with a boarding school education , a succesful 2nd WW army officer's experience, a journalist with private means,The Times Correspondent with Hillary's 1952 team first climbing of Mt. Everest,a husband and father with a (still)understanding wife. Jan Morris made a succesful transfer of Gender retaining her family and career. Not a book for people intersted in tabloid sensationalism.. but a nicely presented book that might make the 'rites of passage' for others easier. Few Autobiographies can ever have been as honest as this
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Sensitive and full of feeling, April 10, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: Conundrum: An Extraordinary Narrative of Transsexualism (Paperback)
It was after the Guardian review when the book was first published that I bought the book and as a transitioning transsexual I can identify quite closely with what Ms. Morris writes. Her style is very lucid as one would expect from the author of Venice and gives a realistic description of the transsexual condition, though each human experience is unique.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars transgender
An insightful book regarding the life and emotions of one of the earlier transgender icons. This book brings the reader inside and creates a personal view of Jan Morris life... Read more
Published on August 16, 2008 by Anita Argo

5.0 out of 5 stars MAN ENOUGH TO BE A WOMAN...
This is an intriguing memoir, beautifully written by an author who has written numerous other non-fiction books. Read more
Published on May 22, 2008 by Lawyeraau

2.0 out of 5 stars Condundrum by Jan Morris
This is an early work by a transsexual person but I did not enjoy it. Ms. Morris of course knows how to use the English language in an elegant manner but the book still failed for... Read more
Published on November 29, 2004 by Transfeminist

5.0 out of 5 stars A very special book on many levels
Conundrum is a classic of the small but powerful field of transgender writing. What places this book at the top of the list are the fame of the author, the stellar prose, the... Read more
Published on April 22, 2003 by Peggy Vincent

5.0 out of 5 stars Revealing
On many levels, this is one of the most revealing books I have ever read. Regarding transsexualism, it reveals that as different we may be as people, much of the journey that we... Read more
Published on July 24, 2001 by Deirdre Hebert

5.0 out of 5 stars CONUNDRUM by Jan Morris
I just read this book and had no idea who Jan Morris was until today! This book is not only about transexuality, it is about becoming one with oneself, becoming what one truly... Read more
Published on July 9, 2000

1.0 out of 5 stars bad
I felt like this was the worst gender-bender book I have read. Not only did Morris offend my sexuality, but he offended man-kind. Read more
Published on December 13, 1998

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