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NPR's Book of the Day

Jennifer Finney Boylan's latest memoir 'Cleavage' is a reflection on transgender life

NPR's Book of the Day

NPR

Arts, Books

4.2671 Ratings

🗓️ 13 March 2025

⏱️ 12 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Jennifer Finney Boylan's 2003 memoir She's Not There: A Life in Two Genders was about her new life as a woman. Since then, Boylan has become a prominent transgender voice. Her latest memoir, Cleavage: Men, Women and the Space Between Us, picks up where her last one left off. In today's episode, Boylan speaks with NPR's Robin Young about transgender rights in today's political climate. She also talks about how there is much more to a trans person's life than their transition, and the challenge of connecting "befores" and "afters" in order to live one life.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

Hey, it's Empire's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. The writer Jennifer Finney Boylan

0:06.4

has been one of the most prominent transgender voices since she wrote her memoir. She is not there

0:11.8

back in 2003. Since then, she's been on the news and has written more books about the trans

0:16.7

experience, and yet even she was taken aback when her own kid came out as trans.

0:22.3

She writes about this in her new book, Cleavage, Men, Women, and the Space Between Us,

0:26.9

and she talks to hear now as Robin Young about what it's like to grow old as a trans person,

0:32.2

which, yes, includes your kid not talking to you about their feelings.

0:36.8

That's coming up.

0:38.4

In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life.

0:43.2

Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors.

0:47.7

On our new show, Sources and Methods.

0:49.7

NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people,

0:53.5

helping you understand why distant events matter here at home.

0:57.1

Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.

1:02.9

Jennifer Finney Boylan's new memoir is as lyrical as her previous bestsellers about her journey, transitioning from male to female in her early 40s with loving wife,

1:13.8

Dee Dee, and their two little kids by his than her, Jenny's side.

1:18.8

Jenny says her earliest memory at four or five as of knowing she was a girl, even as she loved

1:24.3

that tall cardboard rocket her dad built for all the neighborhood boys,

1:28.1

dad lit it and, pith, metaphor alert, it just plopped over,

1:32.1

but then roared back to life, scudding along the baseball field,

1:35.4

aimed right at the meanest kid in town,

1:38.0

which reminded the adult Jenny of Senator Josh Hawley running from the mob on Jan 6.

...

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