Book Review

Reviewed by Tracie O'Keefe

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Alice in Genderland

by Richard J. Novic M.D.
Published by iUniverse, Inc., U.S.A. 2004
I.S.B.N. 0595315623

When I received a review copy of this book I put it on the pile of books to be reviewed and did not hurry to read it but eventually its turn came around. Well - I can tell you it was not what I expected. I guess I thought it would be another biography of transperson and their own version of their finding themselves. Doctors and academics rarely write good autobiographies because they edit too much of the real truth out to make themselves look respectable.

What I got was whistle-stop tour of Richard's life as a trainee psychiatrist and his sometimes alter ego cocaine-sniffing and sexually available Alice. This book is a real good read and I could not put it down. Richard or Dr. Novic, M.D. or even sometimes Alice reveals absolutely everything about his own personal journey to accepting his transvestism. When I say reveals all, I mean just that. He tells us about his middle-class white, privileged, Jewish upbringing as a doctor's son who berated himself with shame about wanting to get sexual in his sister's undies. As his journey progresses, he tells us about his adventures in bars and car parks in high heels and full drag while his wife and children stayed at home.

At times it is difficult to tell if this book is an autobiography, confessional or adventure into self-exploration, and I suppose it really is all three. Richard has probably been able to get to this place because of his years in psychoanalysis, confronting his demons but it is still brave of him to tell us his tale with sometimes lurid veracity. Non-selective disclosure is that bravest of acts from any autobiographer.

This is the most clear, graphic and honest account of the wrestling match that many married transvestites deal with in their day-to-day life. Not only did Richard have to deal with growing up and evolving as a person, but he also had to contend that his often sexual obsession with cross-dressing meant he was trying to evolve two personalities at the same time on different days of the week.

I am unsure that in all his encounters with transgender, transsexual and transvestite people in bars and at G.L.B.T.I. centres that he ever really got a good angle on the average transsexual, but after all, why would he if he is a transvestite? I also had the feeling that he kept referring to himself as transgender because he felt it was less controversial than transvestite, but none of that distracted from the book.

Transvestites just coming out may find the depth of disclosure in this book a little too full-on but they ought to read it anyway. Richard's lifestyle may not be right for the average transvestite who is often very closeted and lives in fear of family and friends finding out about their obsession with cross-dressing. However, all transvestites and anyone else for that matter could benefit enormously from reading this book because it shows that learning to own every part of who and what we are helps us all along the road of self-acceptance.

Polare is published in Australia by The Gender Centre Inc. which is funded by the Department of Community Services under the S.A.A.P. Program and supported by the N.S.W. Health Department through the AIDS and Infectious Diseases Branch. Polare provides a forum for discussion and debate on gender issues. Advertisers are advised that all advertising is their responsibility under the Trade Practices Act. Unsolicited contributions are welcome, though no guarantee is made by the Editor that they will be published, nor any discussion entered into. The editor reserves the right to edit such contributions without notification. Any submission which appears in Polare may be published on our internet site. Opinions expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect those of the Editor, The Gender Centre Inc.I, the Department of Community Services or the N.S.W. Department of Health.