Synopses & Reviews
Review
"On the face of it, Through the Door of Life is the story of how Jay Ladin, the author and an English professor at Yeshiva University in New York City, transitioned into living as Joy Ladin. But it's Ladin's relationship with Judaism that anchors this book and makes it stand out. . . . Orthodox Jewish leaders should thank Ladin for refusing to hide out, for reminding us how human beings should relate to one another."—The Huffington Post
Review
"Not only a memoir of transgender experience, this is also a story of family heartbreak and family love; of growth as a teacher and writer; and, not least, of a self deeply connected to God and Judaism throughout a life lived across genders."—Rabbi Jill Hammer, director of spiritual education at the Academy for Jewish Religion
Review
"In painstakingly and painfully constructing her new self, Ladin is fully aware of the societal conventions and privileges of which she makes use. . . . But there seems to be a poignancy, of which Ladin is exquisitely aware, that precisely because what Ladin wants is so normal, her efforts to obtain it are so fraught with pain."—Lambda Literary Review
Review
"Joy Ladin's book succeeds so well because it is anything but a trans tract; it is a fierce story of regular old human life: hideous choices, endless repercussions, occasional glory, frequent humiliation, abiding difficulty. It could have happened to us. She makes us believe it."—Kay Ryan, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry
Review
"Readers will be rewarded not only with an expanded understanding of a complicated choice but also a compelling and moving story of a person transitioning, not only from male to female but from a numb, suicidal 'nonexistence' to opening the 'door of life.'"—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Review
“This is an emotionally intense, deeply personal memoir of self-discovery.”—
PFLAG Synopsis
Long before Stonewall, young Air Force veteran Edward Field, fresh from combat in WWII, threw himself into New York's literary bohemia, searching for fulfillment as a gay man and poet. In this vivid account of his avant-garde years in Greenwich Village and the bohemian outposts of Paris's Left Bank and Tangier--where you could write poetry, be radical, and be openly gay--Field opens the closet door to reveal, as never been seen before, some of the most important writers of his time.
Here are young, beautiful Susan Sontag sitting at the feet of her idol Alfred Chester, who shrewdly plotted to marry her; May Swenson and her two loves; Paul and Jane Bowles in their ambiguous marriage; Frank O'Hara in and out of bed; Fritz Peters, the anointed son of Gurdjieff; and James Baldwin, Isabel Miller (Patience and Sarah), Tobias Schneebaum, Robert Friend, and many others. With its intimate portraits, Field's memoir brings back a forgotten era--postwar bohemia--bawdy, comical, romantic, sad, and heroic.
Synopsis
National Jewish Book Award Finalist for Memoir
About the Author
Edward Field’s poetry collections include the Lamont Award–winning Stand Up, Friend, With Me; Counting Myself Lucky: Selected Poems, 1963–1992, which won a Lambda Literary Award; and A Frieze for a Temple of Love. Field is the editor of Alfred Chester Newsletter, and with his partner, Neil Derrick, is coauthor of the novel The Villagers. Field received a Bill Whitehead Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005. He lives in New York City.
Table of Contents
AcknowledgmentsA Blessing (Spring 2007)Introduction: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Stern College (September 2008)Part OneWho Will Be1 Things Fall Apart (Summer 2005)2 Being a Man (Fall 2006)3 Girl in a Bag (Winter 2007)4 In the Image (Spring 2007)5 Suicide (Spring 2007)6 Truth (Spring 2007)7 Choosing Life (June 26, 2007)Part TwoAdolescence8 Adolescence (Summer 2007)9 Mothering (Summer 2007)10 Like a Natural Woman (July 2007)11 Anger (Summer 2007)viiPart ThreeThe Door of Life12 The Day My Father Died (October 2, 2007)13 The God Thing (Fall 2007)14 The Voice of the Future (Summer 2008)15 Two Trips to the Wailing Wall (March 2002 and October 2008)16 Teaching Naked (Spring 2010)17 The Door of Life (March 2010)18 Try (May 2010)