Jan Morris, was formerly known as James Morris, who came to world prominence as the correspondent for the London Times assigned to cover England's historic summit of Everest. James accompanied the expedition and did on site dispatches of the historic event back to the UK by telegraph. It would be as James Morris that she would write the wonderful book, "Coronation Everest", which chronicles the events leading to the historic summit of Everest by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay on the eve of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. James was the first to break that news, although at the time didn't know if it had made it through. The author would eventually become a renowned writer of many travel books, journeying the world and sharing the sights and sounds that were witnessed.
'Conundrun' is a very personal autobiography of the author's own gender dysphoria, as she, born a biological male, had always felt that she had been born into the wrong body, something with which many people have related to over the years.
Jan's account of her early life is very much spent in the typical traditional male pursuits that many people who are transsexual tend to go through. Starting with a stint in the army as a member of the 9th Queen's Royal Lancers, followed by many years as a well-known foreign correspondent, as well as husband and a father, were all roles in which the author found much satisfaction but never really felt true fulfilment. As her gender dysphoria continually to invade on her happiness, it stayed with her all the way through her years of life from an early age, a constant reminder that she didn't feel content with who she was.
The book is a first rate autobiographical account of the author's journey through the struggles of gender dysphoria. She was born in 1927, and later with the support of Elizabeth, her wife and lifelong best friend, transitioned to her true the gender at the aged forty five, after having spending the first thirty five years as male and then ten additional years in androgynous transition . My only criticism, if there is one is that she describes things in very much gender specific, what was expected to be a woman, as opposed to how she really felt to be a woman, this is similar with other early Transsexuals such as Roberta Cowell, or April Ashley, who expressed the need and desire to forget things they did previously in their early days before transition.
It was with her surgery in a clinic in Casablanca in 1972 that Jan finally was able to live her life as she was meant to live it. Her account of her surgery, still very much in the early days and pioneers of Gender Re-assignment surgery goes a long way to show the sheer desperation to reconcile a transsexuals feeling of inside the body with what is the outside appearance. Things have come a long way in surgery and it's supportive treatment, Jan's experiences of the primitive approach of the clinic to what is complex surgery, along with her account of meeting many others going through the same experience post surgery and during her recovery hit's home that this isn't something rare, or just recent, but that it's an experience that many have gone through, and will continue to go through, and that Gender Dysphoria is something very real, and much more common then people are willing to accept.
Reviewed by Denise |
