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Rating: 
Summary: Keen Insight, Delightful Style, and Fascinating
Review: After a popular novel and two stunning collections of short stories, psychotherapist and fiction writer Amy Bloom turns an eye toward gender, and her new non-fiction book is a knockout. Made up of three individual essays and an Afterword called "On Nature," Bloom examines issues of gender that are outside what most of society calls "normal." In "The Body Lies: Female-to-Male Transsexuals," we are introduced to a number of people born genetically male who are living as women (with or without sex reassignment surgery); in the section on "Heterosexual Crossdressers," we learn about manly men who, at times, enjoy dressing in feminine garb; the last segment, "Hermaphrodites with Attitude," is about people born with ambiguous "genital anomalies." The author interviewed numerous transsexuals, crossdressers, and intersexed people as well as doctors, educators, sex researchers, and others to give readers an engrossing glimpse at the confusion, prejudice, and misunderstanding that occurs when people are not so easily boxed into categories of "male" or "female." With a deft touch and a wry sense of humor, Bloom makes a cogent argument for acceptance and understanding. In a segment that will no doubt be much quoted, she writes, "(O)ur mistake is in thinking that the wide range of humanity represents aberration when in fact it represents just what it is: range. Nature is not two little notes on a child's flute; Nature is more like Aretha Franklin: vast, magnificent, capricious-occasionally hilarious-and infinitely varied" (p. 149) Anyone interested in a combination of delightful writing style and keen insight about issues of gender will find this book fascinating. I highly recommend it.
Rating: 
Summary: Human variety
Review: In "Normal", Bloom chronicles her journey into understanding female-to-male transsexuals, heterosexual male crossdressers, and the intersexed. Intersexuality is the more preferred term than hermaphroditism. Intersexed babies are those born with genitals that are not as easily identifiable as either male or female, so doctors and surgeons perform often unnecessary and traumatizing surgery to force the baby to conform to what society and the medical community believe the standards to be. Bloom ultimately finds that our notions of what is normal are very constrained, and are much more variegated than the general population believes. By getting beyond the medical and technical jargon and interviewing the people in these categories, she discovers that even in minority groups like these, there are differences between the individuals, so she must dispel her own expectationss about commonalities within minorities. "Normal" is a wonderful introduction into understanding the human varieties on the margins, as well as understanding what is normal.
Rating:
Summary: a good intro
Review: this book is not for those who have any real experience/knowledge of gender issues, but this is a great introduction to three basic gender 'differences': transsexualism, crossdressing, and the intersexed. bloom doesn't come off as sensation or polemical or academic - which seem to be the general choices with writings about gender. she does not by any means manage an exhaustive report, of course: the world of the transgendered is far too complex to manage that, but she does a fair job. these read like the long magazine articles they are, & i would have appreciated a little more in the way of her 'afterword' - that is, more of her thoughts, definitions, a little more of the civil rights issues at stake, etc. but for what it is, a decent-enough read.
Rating:
Summary: Insight
Review: This lucid book surprised me twice: first, when it exposed me to valuable information I'd never seen before despite a lifetime of study of sexual deviance and, second, when it entertained me with a quality of writing rarely seen. Amy Bloom is, without doubt, an extraordinary writer capable of graceful prose. Her inquiry into the three subjects of transexualism, transvestism and intersexuality mirrors that of an investigative journalist or probing sociologist: Bloom went into the field, conducted extensive first- and secondhand research and brought home interesting and unexpected insights. No matter how familiar you are with any of these subjects, you will learn something new and useful from this book. And the pleasure of reading it makes the book doubly enjoyable.
Rating: 
Summary: Normal? Apparently the Author doesn't think so ...
Review: Wow, another book on the TG world (anticipation, anticipation)! Then -- letdown. Just imagine how your maiden aunt, or a conservative suburban club-woman, might see the transgendered world of (mostly) early Baby-Boomers as filtered through the observations of a TG-bashing mentor, i.e. the self-styled Canadian "sex scientist" Ray Blanchard. Sorry, it just doesn't live up to its promise as a fitting explication of the subject, and its WAY too short to do so, even had it gone seriously into understanding TG/TS/CD folk. A work of clever opinion, but little social merit. My significant other and I had a few good laughs over this one.
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