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Jennifer Finney Boylan's book offers a look into the true story of the life of a transgendered person. In it she recounts her struggles to be male, all the while feeling inherently female in the wrong body. As a mismatched mind and body, the author gives the reader a sense of the confusion that results, that is, until the day James realizes that, he would be happier if he became a woman. From childhood through adulthood, including marriage as a man to a woman and fatherhood, Ms. Boylan takes the reader through the process of hormone therapy and surgery to become Jennifer, all the while gently and lovingly working through the bumps of taking longstanding relationships along for the ride.

Boylan presents her life story with sensitivity, warmth and humor making it a very good read. I recommend this book for its entertainment value and the opportunity it presents to educate the reader about this little known condition.

First, this book should be read with Richard Russo's Empire Falls, his brilliant novel of small town life. Russo plays an important role in Boylan's book as best friend and reluctant confidant, and he contributed a beautifully written afterword. For powerful context, try to imagine Jim/Jenny on the streets of Empire Falls, and you get a sense of the courage it took to complete this transition in rural Maine.

Second, only a comic writer of Boylan's skill could take such an incredibly sad story and find so much humor in it. This book isn't so much a story of a transgendered individual as it is a story of the triumph of humor over even the most difficult obstacles. As in Boylan's novels, this book confronts the essential absurdity of human existence, and finds hope in love and loyalty and friendship. The gender bending premise of this book may attract curious readers, but Boylan doesn't sensationalize this subject. She simply tells a good story that both enlightens and entertains.

I think that I would have liked James Boylan very much - a bright, articulate, witty and decent person (by his own account, admittedly). But Jennifer Boylan cannot for the life of her present herself or her cause in any way that elicits sympathy or understanding or even good will. "She's Not There" is a congratulatory and self absorbed memoir of a man becoming a woman, believing that s/he was born a female in a male body. She never makes the case convincingly, however, despite filling almost 300 pages.

I simply do not understand what Boylan is trying to accomplish with this book. She doesn't seem to try to capture the hearts of her readers - say, by portraying the reality or the anguish of being transgendered and the absolute necessity, to her at least, of her actions. One could take this as a failure of her writing skills if she did not in the end simply shrug it all off as "a mystery". One is left then with the unpleasant conclusion that the author is an extraordinarily selfish person who loves the limelight and who is equally indifferent to the needs and desires of those who love her faithfully, and to the legitimate expectations of her readers.