Transparent: Love, Family, and Living the T with Transgender Teenagers - Hardcover

Beam, Cris

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0151011966 ISBN 13: 9780151011964

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin, 2007

Synopsis

When Cris Beam first moved to Los Angeles, she thought she might put in just a few hours volunteering at a school for transgender kids while she got settled. Instead she found herself drawn deeply into the pained and powerful group of transgirls she discovered. In Transparent she intro­duces four of them—Christina, Domineque, Foxxjazell, and Ariel—and shows us their world, a dizzying mix of familiar teenage cliques and crushes with far less familiar challenges like how to morph your body on a few dollars a day. Funny, heartbreaking, defiant, and sometimes defeated, the girls form a singular community. But they struggle valiantly to resolve the gap between the way they feel inside and the way the world sees them—a struggle we can all identify with.  Beam’s careful reporting, sensitive writing, and intimate relationship with her characters place Transparent in the ranks of the best narrative nonfiction.

About this title

Review:

PRAISE FOR "TRANSPARENT" "Beam knows how to tell a story. Her tone is evocative and warm. Her style grabs the reader at once . . . ["Transparent"] is also a love story about one young woman reaching out and helping another one claim her place in the world."--"San Francisco Chronicle"
 
"From the first breezy, confident paragraph of this nonfiction tale of transgender teens, you know you're in for a compelling journey--and you know it's with a guide you can trust. Beam . . . does justice to an oft-misrepresented topic, thanks to her reporter's chops and gift for storytelling . . . Deeply felt and well-informed, "Transparent" tells its story from a sharp and fresh perspective."--"Time Out New York"

PRAISE FOR "TRANSPARENT" "Beam knows how to tell a story. Her tone is evocative and warm. Her style grabs the reader at once . . . ["Transparent"] is also a love story about one young woman reaching out and helping another one claim her place in the world."--"San Francisco Chronicle"

"From the first breezy, confident paragraph of this nonfiction tale of transgender teens, you know you're in for a compelling journey--and you know it's with a guide you can trust. Beam . . . does justice to an oft-misrepresented topic, thanks to her reporter's chops and gift for storytelling . . . Deeply felt and well-informed, "Transparent" tells its story from a sharp and fresh perspective."--"Time Out New York"

PRAISE FOR"TRANSPARENT" "Beam knows how to tell a story. Her tone is evocative and warm. Her style grabs the reader at once . . . ["Transparent"] is also a love story about one young woman reaching out and helping another one claim her place in the world."--"San Francisco Chronicle"

"From the first breezy, confident paragraph of this nonfiction tale of transgender teens, you know you're in for a compelling journey--and you know it's with a guide you can trust. Beam . . . does justice to an oft-misrepresented topic, thanks to her reporter's chops and gift for storytelling . . . Deeply felt and well-informed, "Transparent"tells its story from a sharp and fresh perspective."--"Time Out New York"

PRAISE FOR "TRANSPARENT""Beam knows how to tell a story. Her tone is evocative and warm. Her style grabs the reader at once . . .["Transparent"] is also a love story about one young woman reaching out and helping another one claim her place in the world."--"San Francisco Chronicle"
"From the first breezy, confident paragraph of this nonfiction tale of transgender teens, you know you're in for a compelling journey--and you know it's with a guide you can trust. Beam . . . does justice to an oft-misrepresented topic, thanks to her reporter's chops and gift for storytelling . . . Deeply felt and well-informed, "Transparent" tells its story from a sharp and fresh perspective."--"Time Out New York""

PRAISE FOR "TRANSPARENT"
"Beam knows how to tell a story. Her tone is evocative and warm. Her style grabs the reader at once . . .["Transparent"] is also a love story about one young woman reaching out and helping another one claim her place in the world."--"San Francisco Chronicle"
"From the first breezy, confident paragraph of this nonfiction tale of transgender teens, you know you're in for a compelling journey--and you know it's with a guide you can trust. Beam . . . does justice to an oft-misrepresented topic, thanks to her reporter's chops and gift for storytelling . . . Deeply felt and well-informed, "Transparent" tells its story from a sharp and fresh perspective."--"Time Out New York""

PRAISE FOR TRANSPARENT
"Beam knows how to tell a story. Her tone is evocative and warm. Her style grabs the reader at once . . .[Transparent] is also a love story about one young woman reaching out and helping another one claim her place in the world."--San Francisco Chronicle
"From the first breezy, confident paragraph of this nonfiction tale of transgender teens, you know you're in for a compelling journey--and you know it's with a guide you can trust. Beam . . . does justice to an oft-misrepresented topic, thanks to her reporter's chops and gift for storytelling . . . Deeply felt and well-informed, Transparent tells its story from a sharp and fresh perspective."--Time Out New York"

PRAISE FOR TRANSPARENT

"Beam knows how to tell a story. Her tone is evocative and warm. Her style grabs the reader at once . . . [Transparent] is also a love story about one young woman reaching out and helping another one claim her place in the world."--San Francisco Chronicle

"From the first breezy, confident paragraph of this nonfiction tale of transgender teens, you know you're in for a compelling journey--and you know it's with a guide you can trust. Beam . . . does justice to an oft-misrepresented topic, thanks to her reporter's chops and gift for storytelling . . . Deeply felt and well-informed, Transparent tells its story from a sharp and fresh perspective."--Time Out New York

From the Back Cover:

"Beam does an admirable job grappling with the complexities of gender, race, and class that shape the lives of transgender teens... Beam also manages to draw out warmth, love, and good humor in her empathetic narrative."--Out

Christina, Dominique, Foxxjazell, and Ariel s world is a dizzying mix of teenage cliques, crushes, and far less familiar challenges-- like how to morph your body on a few dollars a day. These transgender girls bravely struggle to reconcile the way they feel inside with the way the world sees them. Funny, defiant, and sometimes heartbreaking, Cris Beam s exceptional story of how these girls survive and maybe even thrive despite a world that wants to ignore them, is a wonder of storytelling and passionate engagement.

"This is a serious piece of investigative reporting... [and] will prove indispensable to the small but growing literature on transgender teens."--Curve

"Beam built a deep understanding of the psyche of disadvantaged transgendered youth, and her richly detailed, sympathetic book attempts to paint a picture of their complex lives."--Bitch

CRIS BEAM, a journalist who has written for several national magazines as well as for the public radio program "This American Life," has an MFA in nonfiction from Columbia University and teaches creative writing at Columbia and the New School. She lives in New York."

About this edition

• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0151011966
• ISBN 13: 9780151011964
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 323