Joey Soloway

I liked the book a lot, however there were two problems that I had with it: First, the skipping back and forth in time was sometimes confusing. I understand that that's often how life feels, that as you go through something you look back and say, "Oh, the seeds of this were actually planted years ago, how did I not notice them growing quietly into this thing?" All the same, it sometimes left me confused about when exactly these events took place, or how much time had elapsed between events (often, much more than I realized). More clarity on that front would have helped me.

Second, there was very little clarity about what was going on when the author moved from a hetero identity to a lesbian identity. We have the author living a cis female life in a hetero marriage, and then the author is at a lesbian bowling event and falling in love with a woman. I mean, why was the author there? Was there already self-recognition of their lesbianism, was this a hetero-married cis woman invading an LGBTQ space for shits and giggles, or was this somehow research for the series that the author was writing? It is not clear. After this section the author explains that since their parent came out as trans, their own problems with being femme and female had started to bubble up, but what does that mean? It's a toss-away, an interesting aside that I think is supposed to explain but fails. This issue of the author's move from identifying as straight to identifying as gay is simultaneously a small thing and a big thing. Small because the rest of the book still made sense and was good to read, but big because this is a beat change, a moment after which all becomes different, and it's not fully clear to the reader how we got here.

A final note: this book talks very little about the author's parent who is trans. To be fair this book is not her story, it's the author's story.… (mais)

Jill Soloway is a married mother of who is considering changing careers when their parent came out as transgender. This revelation inspired their award-winning show, Transparent. However, the revelations have not finished there. Jill finds their self examining their own sexuality and gender identity as they further educate their self and finds their self joining the queer community.
Soloway has taken the story of their own transformation, brought to forward by their parent's transformation, and presented it to readers. I found the story interesting, but I did not feel that they laid themselves bare, which is what I have come to expect from memoirs. I was not previously aware of Jill Soloway's career and felt they did a good job of explaining it for readers, but the draw for me was the personal transformation which I felt was presented more as a timeline with a few deeper dives.… (mais)

Written by one of the writers of “Six Feet Under,” (my favourite show) I wanted to like this book. I didn’t. Jill Solloway makes many attempts to be funny and according to the back cover, a lot of people thinks she is, but not me.

I don’t know, maybe it’s because I’m not Jewish, so I don’t fully appreciate the Jewish jokes that grace every second sentence. Or, maybe it’s because I’m not a mother, so I don’t understand all the motherhood references. I don’t think it’s either though. I think the author had many interesting experiences to write about but failed to deliver. She talks about growing up as a non-practicing “Jewess,” her and her sister being the only white kids at school, her parents splitting up, her sister coming out, the birth of her son and meeting her husband, among others. Yet, not once in the telling of these stories did I ever feel empathy. I didn’t care. I was just wondering when the chapter was going to be over.

Her writing style resembled more of a blog entry than a personal essay. Maybe that was the point? I just thought it sounded very self-indulgent. Like she wrote it to herself, about herself.

I didn’t hate everything about the book though. It was a light easy read, which I was going for. I did find her life to be interesting, even though she sounded like a friend who wouldn’t stop talking about herself. I did like the chapter she wrote about dogs and the appendix was helpful for those who want to get into the business.

http://nearlycivilized.ca/?p=239… (mais)