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Man Alive : : a True Story of Violence, Forgiveness and Becoming a man

McBee, Thomas Page. Book - 2014 921 McBee, Thomas 1 On Shelf No requests on this item Community Rating: 5 out of 5

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Call Number: 921 McBee, Thomas
On Shelf At: Downtown Library

Location & Checkout Length Call Number Checkout Length Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor
4-week checkout
921 McBee, Thomas 4-week checkout On Shelf
Downtown 2nd Floor
4-week checkout
921 McBee, Thomas 4-week checkout Due 05-17-2024

"What does it really mean to be a man?In Man Alive, Thomas Page McBee attempts to answer that question by focusing on two of the men who most impacted his life--one, his otherwise ordinary father who abused him as a child, and the other, a mugger who threatened his life and then released him in an odd moment of mercy. Standing at the brink of the life-changing decision to transition from female to male, McBee seeks to understand these examples of flawed manhood as he cobbles together his own identity.ManAlive engages an extraordinary personal story to tell a universal one--how we all struggle to create ourselves, and how this struggle often requires risks. Far from a transgender transition tell-all, Man Alive grapples with the larger questions of legacyand forgiveness, love and violence, agency and invisibility."Thomas Page McBee's memoir grips you like a thriller yet reads with the lyricism of poetry as he details how a brush with violence sent him on quest to untangle a sinister past, and freed him to become the man he was meant to be."--Michelle Tea"Man Alive is a sweet, tender hurt of a memoir. Thomas Page McBee deftly recounts what has shaped him into the man he has become and how--from childhood trauma to a mugging in Oakland where he learned of his body's ability to save itself. This is a memoir about forgiveness and self-discovery, but mostly it's about love, so much love. McBee takes us in his capable hands and shows us what it takes to become a man who is gloriously, gloriously alive."--Roxane Gay"Thomas Page McBee's story of how he came to claim both his past and his future is by turns despairing and hopeful, exceptional and relatable. To read it is to witness the birth of a fuller, truer self. I loved this book."--Ann Friedman"Reading Man Alive is like sitting with someone uncurling his hands, then holding them out to you, open, so that you can behold all the hard-won strength, insight, agility, and love to be found there. 'Whoever's child I am, my body belongs to me,' McBee writes, and hisbook is an elegant, generous transcription of the journey toward this incandescent, non-aggrandized, life-sustaining form of self-possession--the kind that emanates from dispossession, rather than running from it."--Maggie Nelson"Following a twisty course marked by multiple switchbacks, Man Alive picks its path through a life pocked by abuse, yearning, violence, danger and desire. The book refuses to cleave to the conventions of other narratives of transition and makes uncertainty the hallmark not only of the past but of the present and the future as well. Exquisitely written and bristling with emotion, this important book reminds us of how much vulnerability and violence inheres to any identity. A real achievement of form and narrative." -- Jack Halberstam, author of The Queer Art of FailureThomas Page McBee writes the column "Self-Made Man" for the Rumpus, and his writings on gender have appeared in The New York Times and via TheAtlantic.com, VICE, BuzzFeed, and Salon. Thomas gives lectures on masculinity and media narratives across the country and he lives New York, where he is the managing editor of the news and analysis site, PolicyMic. "

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COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Thomas Page McBee!!! submitted by svenetianer on August 28, 2022, 11:39pm Thomas is one of my favorite writers. Would recommend both Man Alive and Amateur. Great storyteller and amazing story to tell.

Cover image for Man alive : : a true story of violence, forgiveness and becoming a man

SERIES
City lights/sister spit.



PUBLISHED
San Francisco : City Lights Books, [2014]
Year Published: 2014
Description: 172 pages ; 21 cm.
Language: English
Format: Book

ISBN/STANDARD NUMBER
9780872866249
0872866246

SUBJECTS
McBee, Thomas Page.
Transgender people -- Biography.
Transgender men -- Biography.
Gender identity.