Rating: 
Summary: Jonathan Yardley, WASHINGTON POST BOOK WORLD, 5/31/98:
Review: "Billy's life raises inherently unanswerable questions about the expectations all of us bring to physical love and the ways in which we adapt to the realities that greet us. The meeting ground of eros is the most private place on earth. What happens there is always a mystery to all save those who meet upon it but also, as Middlebrook persuasively agrees, to them as well. Billy Tipton was a woman dressing and passing herself off as a man, and she fooled friends and acquaintances; she also fooled the women who loved her, and in so doing gave all of them pleasure. Part of this surely had to do with the skills in lovemaking she learned over the years, but partly it is explained by the simple fact that they loved her: not as Dorothy/Billy but as Billy pure and -- or so it seemed at the time -- simple. A reminder, as if one were needed, that there is nothing simple about love."
Rating: 
Summary: it teaches you that if you really want something go for it!
Review: +AH4-I just finished this book and I do admit it seems poorly written but I think the author wanted to write it in that fashion. I am sure that the author did a whole lot of work on this. Dorothy Tipton lived in an era at one time it was unacceptable for a lady to do any band work. Seeing a need to support her mother, she tried to get a job as a woman but was refused. Fed up, she tried as a man and it worked. From there, she started on her journey to what she wanted... maybe. While reading+AH4-+AH4- this book you start to wonder if she would have been a lesbian or is she acting so she can get away with being a man when she had "sex" with these women. Did she ever want to be a woman again? Did she wish she was born a man? I am sure she must have been scared to death about being found out. If she was a man, would she have been extremely popular when she went all the way instead of helping out an agency? Those were some examples of some questions I had while reading this book. It was an+AH4-+AH4- amazing story and I really feel bad for this poor Billy. I think he must have been one great guy who had a lot of load on his shoulders+AH4-
Rating: 
Summary: The title well "suits" a selfish individual
Review: Billy Tipton should draw as much curiosity as John Merrick, the "Elephant Man," but for vastly different reasons. The present generation of politically correct individuals who toot the selfserving horn of what they define as "tolerance" will herald Tipton as a courageous icon to be studied and wept over. The truth is, she spent her entire existence satisfying her own needs, desecrating the souls of five partners, not to mention the institution called marriage. In my book, this is nothing to throw a party over. Merrick, on the other hand, knew nothing but abuse and a total lack of love for many years of his life. Even after his rescue by an ambitious doctor, he was, in many ways, exploited for others' gain. In the face of all of this, Merrick remained humble and meak of heart toward others. He left an example of what can truly be called a "heroic spirit." I've studied both Tipton and Merrick. Both lives are equally fascinating; only one is worth celebrating.
Rating:
Summary: The title well "suits" a selfish individual
Review: Billy Tipton should draw as much curiosity as John Merrick, the "Elephant Man," but for vastly different reasons. The present generation of politically correct individuals who toot the selfserving horn of what they define as "tolerance" will herald Tipton as a courageous icon to be studied and wept over. The truth is, she spent her entire existence satisfying her own needs, desecrating the souls of five partners, not to mention the institution called marriage. In my book, this is nothing to throw a party over. Merrick, on the other hand, knew nothing but abuse and a total lack of love for many years of his life. Even after his rescue by an ambitious doctor, he was, in many ways, exploited for others' gain. In the face of all of this, Merrick remained humble and meak of heart toward others. He left an example of what can truly be called a "heroic spirit." I've studied both Tipton and Merrick. Both lives are equally fascinating; only one is worth celebrating.
Rating: 
Summary: Are you a boy or are you a girl?
Review: Billy Tipton, the product of flamboyant parents, was exposed to the Depression Era's rich jazz scene via radio. Knowing her options were limited as a female, she took the guise of a male for the rest of her days, living with various clueless women who were willing to settle for a celibate relationship. Alas, her success was both initiated and limited by her masquerade. There were simply too many people who remembered her as "Dorothy" back in Oklahoma, and she had to turn down many high profiloe musical gigs as a result. Ironically, her big break in the Fifties that she had to turn down was the opening spot for Liberace! "Suits Me" is a fine example of detective work and offbeat 20th Century history.
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Summary: Gender, not sex.
Review: Diane Middlebrook has assembled a complete picture of Billy Tipton's world -- the music, the gender roles, his family -- that succeeds in holding a reader's interest despite the paucity of personal writings and memorabilia left behind by Tipton himself. If you're looking for sex, you won't find much here. Billy Tipton had several "wives" (in quotation marks because he wasn't legally married to most -- if any -- of them) but managed to avoid sexual intercourse much of the time. The women he did have sex with swear they slept with a man, but if they revealed details to Middlebrook, they're not included in the book. Tipton lived in an age where one's personal affairs were not the topic of casual conversation. Those who suspected or knew his secret kept quiet; many of the interview subjects throughout the book are heard to say, "You just didn't talk about those things. You didn't go prying into people's personal business." The book's focus on gender roles -- especially within the context of the times and Billy's chosen profession -- is appropriate, engaging, and allows Billy Tipton to maintain the dignity he deserves.
Rating:
Summary: An impressive biography that overcomes scanty documentation
Review: Diane Middlebrook has been blessed with such a fascinating subject for this biography that it would be a poor writer indeed who sapped the story of its interest. Yet the author faces a daunting challenge because so little documentary evidence remains concerning the life of Dorothy/Billy Tipton, especially for the early years. Fortunately, Middlebrook is up to the task, and where she can't provide content she supplies invaluable context for the life of a locally famous jazz singer now known less for his musical talent than for a closeted, transgendered (and, I would argue, brave) life.
Between her birth in Oklahoma and his arrival in Spokane, Tipton somehow made the transformation from an eccentric saxophone- and piano-playing young woman to a married husband, father, bandleader, and talent agent. In the absence of any firsthand information from Tipton himself, Middlebrook has to rely on a scattered selection of photographs, a handful of letters, and on interviews with the few people still alive who knew Dorothy in Oklahoma and the many who knew Billy in Spokane. She concludes, correctly I think, that Tipton initially became a male impersonator primarily to get a job in the male-dominated jazz circuit and eventually grew so comfortable in the role that what may have begun as a career choice gradually became a social choice. Tipton's lesbianism surely contributed to the self-assured ease with which she made this transformation.
For the early years of Tipton's life, Middlebrook doesn't have a lot to go on, and I was wary when reading that she had "to substitute imagination for the absent documentation." Yet in the pages that follow this statement, the author doesn't depart far from reality: over half of the material describes Tipton's hometown through the eyes of others and a good chunk is directly quoted source material. Even when the record is vague about Dorothy Tipton herself, the reader gets a feel for the small-town culture that she undoubtedly experienced and for the Depression-era jazz clubs in which Tipton surely performed.
Middlebrook likewise speculates that Tipton's fear of exposure nixed his band's big break during the 1950s, which would have included recording contracts and the opportunity to open in Nevada casinos for such star performers as Liberace (an irony of a different sort). Tipton's double life was well-known in Oklahoma, and his success as a father and businessman certainly hinged on keeping his profile within the confines of the Northwest. The author also fills in the gaps in our knowledge of Tipton's life with tangents that are mesmerizing on their own, such as the story of Alberta Lucille Hart, another Spokane resident who became radiologist and novelist Alan L. Hart during the first half of the twentieth century.
It's impossible not to finish this book with a sense of appreciation for Tipton's daring. Tipton's first triumph, of course, is the amazing ability to pull it off. But, even more impressive, he managed to do so and leave behind him an astonishing number of people of all ages and backgrounds--wives, adopted sons, in-laws, and show business colleagues--who clearly loved and admired him and who, although stunned by the posthumous revelation that he was biologically a woman, continue to think of him fondly.
Rating:
Summary: IT GRABBED MY INNER SOUL AND WOULD NOT LET GO!
Review: FROM THE 1st PAGE I GOBBLED UP EVERY WORD. DURING MY WORK DAY MY MIND WOULD FOCUS ON WHAT I HAD READ THE EVENING BEFORE. I COULD RELATE TOTALLY TO THE BOOK AND MANY YEARS BACK WANTED TO BE JUST LIKE HER. I COULDN'T BELIEVE THAT SOMEONE HAD ACTUALLY PULLED IT OFF...AND SO WELL. TO FOOL YOUR KIDS IS THE ULTIMATE! ON THE OTHER HAND I FELT S/HE WAS CAUGHT UP IN A GENDER WARP AND COULDN'T OR WOULDN'T GET OUT BECAUSE TOO MUCH HAD EVOLVED. I ADMIRE HER TALENT AND THE KUTSPAH TO JUMP IN THERE AND RIVAL WITH THE BEST OF THEM. I DO HOWEVER FEEL THAT S/HE WAS GAY OR IN SOME SORT OF TOTAL DENIAL. I FOUND A KINSHIP WITH HER AS THE STORY UNFOLDED. I ALSO FELT A COMFORT IN THE "OTHER SIDE" OF LIFE THAT I HAVE STRUGGLED WITH TO BLEND INTO MY OWN. I HAVE PASSED THE BOOK ONTO MY GOOD FRIEND WHO LIVES IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA AND WHO, I HOPE FINDS EVERY WORD AS DELICIOUS AS I DID.
Rating:
Summary: For once, you CAN tell a book by its cover!
Review: Great cover art, a tour de force to match the quality of the narrative within. The "split" personality pictured on the cover is Billy, nee Dorothy, Tipton, a small-time musician who lived and worked as a man for over 50 years. I'm not a big fan of biographies, so it takes a lot for me to pick one up. I found Middlebrook's story of Billy so compelling that it was hard for me to put this biography down until I finished it. Middlebrook has been criticized for using too much conjecture, but she is always scrupulous about letting the reader know when she is doing just that. Her exhaustive research about the life of musicians -- and lesbians -- in the first half of this century allow this conjecture, I believe, because Billy left very little of herself behind when she died a decade ago. A few photos, a few letters, and a number of people who knew her as either or both Billy and Dorothy survive; Middelbrook builds an intriguing narrative from these remnants and scraps of Billy's life. Nonbiog reader that I am, I am now looking forward to reading Middlebrook's _Anna_Sexton_, too. A postscript: I thought Middlebrook was very adroit in using 3rd person pronouns -- he, she -- in such a way as to keep the reader clear throughout the book on just which side of Billy's psyche and persona was being described at any given moment in time.
Rating:
Summary: For once, you CAN tell a book by its cover!
Review: Great cover art, a tour de force to match the quality of the narrative within. The "split" personality pictured on the cover is Billy, nee Dorothy, Tipton, a small-time musician who lived and worked as a man for over 50 years. I'm not a big fan of biographies, so it takes a lot for me to pick one up. I found Middlebrook's story of Billy so compelling that it was hard for me to put this biography down until I finished it. Middlebrook has been criticized for using too much conjecture, but she is always scrupulous about letting the reader know when she is doing just that. Her exhaustive research about the life of musicians -- and lesbians -- in the first half of this century allow this conjecture, I believe, because Billy left very little of herself behind when she died a decade ago. A few photos, a few letters, and a number of people who knew her as either or both Billy and Dorothy survive; Middelbrook builds an intriguing narrative from these remnants and scraps of Billy's life. Nonbiog reader that I am, I am now looking forward to reading Middlebrook's _Anna_Sexton_, too. A postscript: I thought Middlebrook was very adroit in using 3rd person pronouns -- he, she -- in such a way as to keep the reader clear throughout the book on just which side of Billy's psyche and persona was being described at any given moment in time.
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