A historian's lively and persuasive attempt to strip away the mystery surrounding the notorious 18th-century French cross- dresser, diplomat, writer, and spy, Chevalier (or Chevaliäre) d'Eon. D'Eon was thought to be a man for most of his life. He was a distinguished soldier, diplomat, and confidant of King Louis XV's. He consorted with some of the most famous figures of his time—from Voltaire and Rousseau to David Hume and Benjamin Franklin. Then, when he was nearly 50 years old, he was ``revealed'' to be a woman. He lived the remaining 35 years of his life as a ``she,'' only to be proved, upon his death, a biologically ordinary man after all. The fascinating story of how and why he did it is examined by Kates (Trinity Univ.; The Cercle Social, the Girondins, and the French Revolution, not reviewed), who argues that d'Eon was neither a transvestite nor a transsexual, but rather a man who made an intellectual decision to cross the gender barrier based on his professional and religious aims. His diplomatic career had reached an impasse and he hoped greater opportunities might be made available to him as a woman; also he became increasingly religious, believing that women made better Christians and were morally superior to men. However, while the chevalier was successful in his masquerade and helpful in furthering women's equality, he was largely unsuccessful in his goals. D'Eon's career ended with his feminization, and the Revolution of 1789 stripped him of his government stipend; he died poor and relatively obscure. Overall a coherent story, though there are some missing pieces: the silence of d'Eon's mother and sister, who were alive during his gender transformation, is not sufficiently explained, and though he appears to have been a virgin his whole life, the question of d'Eon's sexual orientation is left unaddressed. Nonetheless, a wonderful window into 18th-century France and a valuable biographical study of a compelling historical figure.
Pub Date: June 21, 1995
ISBN: 0-465-04761-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Basic Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1995
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
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