30 Apr / Something That May Shock and Discredit You by Daniel Mallory Ortberg [in Booklist]
“Just because you have a testosterone prescription and a new sense of exhilaration doesn’t mean you have to go around setting down your life story,” Daniel Mallory Ortberg writes (and thankfully narrates), disguised as “Paul and Second Timothy: The Transmasculine Epistles.” His response to his own nay-saying, “Nuts to them,” was exactly the right answer as, by this point (Chapter 20 of 22), his audience has giggled and guffawed, raised eyebrows and rolled eyeballs, sniffled and even ugly-cried through his hybrid memoir.
Ortberg (The Merry Spinster), who came out as trans in 2018, is beloved as Slate’s “Dear Prudence” in print and podcast; he’s also co-founder of The Toast. Ortberg combines literary erudition with evangelical heritage (his parentage, his education), and Something dexterously zigzags between the reverent and irreverent – from Jacob and Esau in mourning his relationship with his mother (cue: tissues); Mary, Martha, and Jesus and the challenge of dirty dishes and dead-end relationships; envisioning (mistakenly) a future as “a one-woman Golden Girls act”; adoring Captain James T. Kirk as “a beautiful lesbian.”
Defying easy labeling, Something may shock, but also earns Ortberg – now known as Daniel M. Lavery – timely, well-deserved credits.
Review: “Media,” Booklist, April 15, 2020
Readers: Adult
Published: 2020