{"product_id":"conundrum-isbn-9781590171899","title":"Conundrum","description":"\u003cb\u003eOne of the first-ever books on gender transition, this poignant memoir by a trans woman is “the best first-hand account ever written by a traveler across the boundaries of sex” (\u003ci\u003eNewsweek\u003c\/i\u003e).\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e“A profoundly poetic story.” —\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e“An exquisite read.”\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e—Maria Popova, \u003ci\u003eThe Marginalian\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe great travel writer Jan Morris was born James Morris. James Morris distinguished himself in the British military, became a successful and physically daring reporter, climbed mountains, crossed deserts, and established a reputation as a historian of the British empire. He was happily married, with several children. To all appearances, he was not only a man, but a man’s man.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eExcept that appearances, as James Morris had known from early childhood, can be deeply misleading. James Morris had known all his conscious life that at heart he was a woman.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eConundrum\u003c\/i\u003e, one of the earliest books to discuss transsexuality with honesty and without prurience, tells the story of James Morris’ hidden life and how he decided to bring it into the open, as he resolved first on a hormone treatment and, second, on risky experimental surgery that would turn him into the woman that he truly was.\"Her woman is shockingly conventional, yet to read this great travel writer’s account of transition is to understand the word 'journey' truly.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Eileen Myles, \u003ci\u003eT: The New York Times Style Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“[\u003ci\u003eConundrum\u003c\/i\u003e is] a brilliant piece of writing—to my mind, it should be part of the established canon of great literature.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Tom Hooper, director of \u003ci\u003eThe Danish Girl, Vogue\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A very good writer telling a profoundly poetic story...In fact, it is the author's  extreme subjectivity that makes the book as good as it is...After reading this most  charming of all Cinderella stories, one feels that sex is just as much a conundrum  as ever, which is to say, according to the American Heritage Dictionary, 'a riddle  in which a fanciful question is answered by a pun,' or 'a problem admitting of no  satisfactory solution.'”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eConundrum \u003c\/i\u003eremains an exquisite read — a rare gift of empathic insight into an experience which most of us will never have but which is strewn with elements of the struggle for belonging, acceptance, and authenticity that most of us face daily in one form or another.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Maria Popova, \u003ci\u003eBrain Pickings\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Certainly the best first-hand account  ever written by a traveler across the boundaries of sex. That journey is perhaps  the ultimate adventure for a human being, but although it has been the subject of  myth and speculation since ancient times, it is an authentically modern experience...What  Jan Morris does offer, through her life and her work, is a window on the wondrous  possibilities of humankind.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eNewsweek\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “This book is a very well-written account  of some of the emotional factors which eventually led the author, by then in his  forties, to submit to expensive surgery in Casablanca.” \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe Washington Post Book  World\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“This is a beautiful book. I found it to be melancholic, courageous, and wise.  That it's subject matter is Jan Morris's transsexual journey almost seems secondary  to her incredible prose and the clarity of her honesty and introspection. Beyond  the issue of gender, she searches for an answer to that most elusive of questions:  who am I?”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Jonathan Ames\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “The finest descriptive writer in our time, of the watercolor  kind.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Rebecca West\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “If there is anything typical about Miss Morris's experience,  however, she has successfully disguised it.” \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe Times Literary Supplement\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eJAN MORRIS\u003c\/b\u003e (1926–2020) has written over forty books, most recently, \u003ci\u003eThinking Again: A Diary.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"NYRB Classics","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46305311457509,"sku":"NP9781590171899","price":16.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781590171899.jpg?v=1767724081","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/conundrum-isbn-9781590171899","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}