Self-Made Man: One Woman's Year Disguised as a Man
by:
Norah Vincent (author)
A journalist’s provocative and spellbinding account of her eighteen months spent disguised as a man Norah Vincent became an instant media sensation with the publication of Self-Made Man, her take on just how hard it is to be a man, even in a man’s world. Following in the tradition of John Howard...
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A journalist’s provocative and spellbinding account of her eighteen months spent disguised as a man Norah Vincent became an instant media sensation with the publication of Self-Made Man, her take on just how hard it is to be a man, even in a man’s world. Following in the tradition of John Howard Griffin (Black Like Me), Norah spent a year and a half disguised as her male alter ego, Ned, exploring what men are like when women aren’t around. As Ned, she joins a bowling team, takes a high-octane sales job, goes on dates with women (and men), visits strip clubs, and even manages to infiltrate a monastery and a men’s therapy group. At once thought- provoking and pure fun to read, Self-Made Man is a sympathetic and thrilling tour de force of immersion journalism.
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Format: paperback
ISBN:
9780143038702 (0143038702)
ASIN: 143038702
Publish date: December 26th 2006
Publisher: Penguin
Pages no: 287
Edition language: English
Category:
Non Fiction,
Autobiography,
Memoir,
Biography,
Book Club,
Feminism,
Sociology,
Psychology,
Glbt,
Gender,
Gender Studies
This book took me much longer to read than I expected. The premise of the book intrigued me, but reading through it, I was very bored. The writing isn't bad, but it is written in such a rambling way that it is easy to zone out. Overall, the book was okay. It was written over ten years ago so I think...
In Nickle and Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich makes it very clear early in the book that she is not claiming that she is speaking for the working class. She states that she cannot entirely know what their lives are like, and what she is presenting is her own experience, and stories she was told by others....
After reading Leahjk's review, I think I'll give it a pass.
I asked my husband to buddy-read this with me, but the ethics of it made him so uncomfortable he didn't get very far. A legitimate point -- the author herself was very troubled by what she was doing. He also felt left out of the book, since it doesn't deal with geek men at all -- also a very valid ...
The experiment Vincent performed on herself is a fascinating one but it is completely lost here due to bad writing. She has no story-telling ability to speak of and turned what was an emotional experience into a synopsis, theme-category style, of her time researching for this book.