I have just read this marvelous book and I can't stop thinking about the people and places I saw, through the eyes of the author, that I had never seen in just that way before.
It so happens that I know the author (but I never knew ANY of THIS!). When I met her I immediately admired her -- but I never knew why. I mean, other than the obvious, which she did not stress in her book but which I can personally attest to -- how SMART she is -- which is quite obvious in the book.
Aleshia tells us how, at her dear mother Mozelle's urging, she went to college (which is where we met!). She dashes off her college degree while battling husband and health problems, and it's the latter two that she finds taxing. She breezes through her practice teaching, making it all look easy (and it WAS NOT EASY). Apparently she often made things look easy that cost her a lot.
Later she gets mad because some snotty actor "one-ups" her with his Master's degree. Just to "show him," she goes and gets herself a Master's too! So there! You see, my dear Aleshia, not everybody is capable of doing that, only people who are smart, literate and know how to learn. That's a quality so prevalent in the book. Young people should read this to see how a smart person survives in a hostile world, indeed a lesson for us all.
People on campus who knew I knew Aleshia would sometimes crassly ask me if I had heard that "she" was on sports teams as a boy back in high school. My answer was heartfelt. "I don't know, but I do know that she's more of a woman than I'll ever be." It was true. She admits in her book, she was a slave to the times of Jackie, Marilyn and a woman cleaving to a man not only for food and shelter but also her identity. This "pre-feminist" era is difficult to explain to anyone who wasn't there, but Aleshia does a very fine job.
So yes, I have always admired Aleshia, and I really admire this book. As someone who has known her (off and on) since college, I will tell you that this book is just like sitting down with her on a cozy evening and saying, "So, you castrated yourself, huh?," and she takes it from there, an honest, earnest, touching and amusing story of sexual (genetic?) confusion.
Finally, I look at the picture of "Buddy." I look in "his" eyes and I see the Aleshia I know. It's ALESHIA. I don't have the words, but it is the soul, the essence of "buddy/aleshia," one person... Anyway, whether man, woman, boy or girl... SHE IS. Thank God for that!
P.Murphy
(Fellow Speech & Theater Major at MTSU, now a writer in Hollywood)
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an American Girl
Well Ms. Brevard is a true blue 100% female, an actress in major Hollywood movies and a regular on the Dean Martin Show, and Red Skelton, she goes on to marry, continue acting when many women stop, she went on to Star in many dinner theaters when they were really great, a co ed and graduate, an inspiration to many, God Bless Ms. Brevard & God Bless America.
