Zusatztext "Amateur provocatively describes the ways in which an increasingly fragile patriarchal culture needs to keep men in their place. A quest for self-liberation! this loving and deeply intelligent exploration of contemporary masculinities is essential reading." Deborah Levy! author of Swimming Home and Hot Milk Informationen zum Autor Thomas Page McBee's Lambda Awardwinning debut memoir, Man Alive , was named a best book of the year by NPR Books, BuzzFeed , Kirkus Reviews , and Publishers Weekly . His refreshing [and] radical ( The Guardian ) follow-up, Amateur , was shortlisted for the UK's Baillie-Gifford nonfiction book prize and the Wellcome Book Prize, named a best book of the year by many publications, and translated into multiple languages. In the course of reporting the book, Thomas became the first transgender man to ever fight in Madison Square Garden. His essays and reportage appear in The New York Times , The Atlantic , GQ , Esquire , Vanity Fair , and many other outlets, and his work has been supported by residencies at MacDowell and Yaddo. He is also a television writer/producer, and his recent work architecting the transition story for Elliot Page's character on The Umbrella Academy was nominated for a GLAAD award. He lives outside Los Angeles with his wife and dogs. Klappentext "From an award-winning writer whose work bristles with "hard-won strength, insight, agility, and love" (Maggie Nelson), an exquisite and troubling narrative of masculinity, violence, and society"--Amateur Am I a Real Man? Mendez Boxing gym was wedged between anonymous buildings in the Flatiron, under one of those ubiquitous green Manhattan awnings that signal perpetual construction. Though it was just a few blocks north of the office in Union Square where I worked as an editor, I'd never been within a two-block radiusthe miracle of living in New York is the way you fashion and refashion each bit of it, until you've somehow made it your own. I circled the block, fashioning it, three times before finally heading in, looking foolish in my brand-new Adidas boxing shoes, pulled-high athletic socks, and neon yellow shorts. Yeah? the counter guy with the scraggly billy-goat beard said, eyeballing me. I told him I was looking for an acquaintance, Chris Lewarne, a rep from the boxing charity that arranged my fight. He didn't know who Chris was, he mumbled, but waved me down the stairs. I nodded back, descending into the bowels of the gym and thinking about how I'd gotten the idea from movies that men spent a lot of time in amenable, intimate silences, laced through with well-placed words that telegraphed deep truths, like the pivotal scene in every drama about fathers and sons. I suppose I had indeed spent a lot more time not knowing what to say since my transition. Silence was a kind of defense mechanism, especially in the halting stop-and-start dialogues I found myself muscling through with uncomfortable male relatives, or other people's fathers. I felt the front-desk guy's eyes on my back as I hustled away. This was the sort of place I would need to be watchful, to be careful to whom I spoke and what I said. I had already decided that I would not tell anyone that I was trans. I'd decided it deep in my lizard brain as I'd circled the block before walking in, or maybe after I first reached out to Chris, or actually when I pitched the story to my bosses at Quartz, or, come to think of it, back when I'd first conceived of writing it. It was not lost on me that I was a historical anomaly, and that it was a function of a wave of newfound goodwill toward trans people that I'd...

"Amateur provocatively describes the ways in which an increasingly fragile patriarchal culture needs to keep men in their place. A quest for self-liberation, this loving and deeply intelligent exploration of contemporary masculinities is essential reading."
**—Deborah Levy, author of Swimming Home and Hot Milk

Autorentext

Thomas Page McBee’s Lambda Award–winning debut memoir, Man Alive, was named a best book of the year by NPR Books, BuzzFeed, Kirkus Reviews, and Publishers Weekly. His “refreshing [and] radical” (The Guardian) follow-up, Amateur, was shortlisted for the UK’s Baillie-Gifford nonfiction book prize and the Wellcome Book Prize, named a best book of the year by many publications, and translated into multiple languages. In the course of reporting the book, Thomas became the first transgender man to ever fight in Madison Square Garden. His essays and reportage appear in The New York Times, The Atlantic, GQ, Esquire, Vanity Fair, and many other outlets, and his work has been supported by residencies at MacDowell and Yaddo. He is also a television writer/producer, and his recent work architecting the transition story for Elliot Page’s character on The Umbrella Academy was nominated for a GLAAD award. He lives outside Los Angeles with his wife and dogs.

Klappentext

"From an award-winning writer whose work bristles with "hard-won strength, insight, agility, and love" (Maggie Nelson), an exquisite and troubling narrative of masculinity, violence, and society"--

Zusammenfassung
*Shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Nonfiction
*Shortlisted for the Lambda Literary Award
*Shortlisted for the Wellcome Book Prize

One of The Times UK’s Best Memoirs of 2018, BuzzFeed’s Best Nonfiction of 2018, Autostraddle’s Best LGBT Books of 2018, and 52 Insight’s Favorite Nonfiction Books of 2018

A “no-holds-barred examination of masculinity” (BuzzFeed) and violence from award-winning author Thomas Page McBee.

In this “refreshing and radical” (The Guardian) narrative, Thomas McBee, a trans man, sets out to uncover what makes a man—and what being a “good” man even means—through his experience training for and fighting in a charity boxing match at Madison Square Garden. A self-described “amateur” at masculinity, McBee embarks on a wide-ranging exploration of gender in society, examining sexism, toxic masculinity, and privilege. As he questions the limitations of gender roles and the roots of masculine aggression, he finds intimacy, hope, and even love in the experience of boxing and in his role as a man in the world. Despite personal history and cultural expectations, “Amateur is a reminder that the individual can still come forward and fight” (The A.V. Club).

“Sharp and precise, open and honest,” (Women’s Review of Books), McBee’s writing asks questions “relevant to all people, trans or not” (New York Newsday). Through interviews with experts in neuroscience, sociology, and critical race theory, he constructs a deft and thoughtful examination of the role of men in contemporary society**.** Amateur is a graceful and uncompromising look at gender by a fearless, fiercely honest writer.

Leseprobe
Amateur

Am I a Real Man?

Mendez Boxing gym was wedged between anonymous buildings in the Flatiron, under one of those ubiquitous green Manhattan awnings that signal perpetual construction. Though it was just a few blocks north of the office in Union Square where I worked as an editor, I’d never been within a two-block radius—the miracle of living in New York is the way you fashion and refashion each bit of it, until you’ve somehow made it your own. I circled the block, fashioning it, three times before finally heading in, looking foolish in my brand-new Adidas boxing shoes, pulled-high athletic socks, and neon yellow shorts. “Yeah?” the counter guy with the scraggly billy-goat beard said, eyeballing me. I told him I was looking for an acquaintance, Chris Lewarne, a rep from the boxing charity that arranged my fight…