Book Description
The first full biography ever published—a vivid portrait of this complex, curious, brilliant man.
The twentieth century was the century of the image—and Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908-2004) was the eye of the century. Through the decades, this eye focused on Africa in the 1920s, the tragic fate of the Spanish Republicans, and the victory of the Chinese Communists. It was Cartier-Bresson who fixed in our minds the features of his contemporaries: Giacometti and Sartre as characters from their own works; Mauriac mysteriously levitating; Faulkner, Matisse, Camus, and countless others captured at the decisive moment in portraits for eternity.
An intensely private individual, Cartier-Bresson confided in his close friend Pierre Assouline over a number of years, even opening up his archives to him. Here, for the first time, we read about his youthful devotion to surrealism; his unending passion for drawing; the war and the prison camps; the friends and the women in his life. Assouline provides an acute and perceptive account of the life and philosophy of this icon of our times, and gives us an opportunity to reassess his contribution to twentieth-century photography and reportage. 23 illustrations.
Customer Reviews:
A misunderstood book........2007-03-19
This book has been somewhat unfairly reviewed.
I have just read this fine book from cover to cover. Whilst I found it worthy of 4 stars, I have to agree that it has some weaknesses.
- The book really should have some of the photos to which the text often refers.
- The author has assumed that readers have a good knowledge of Henri and his work.
It is not a perfect book, BUT it is a very good book, IF you already have a good idea of Cartier-Bresson's life-story and life's work.
If you are an awe-inspired follower of Henri's photography, as I am, and have a good knowledge of his photos from reading and looking at his many books, you will find this an informative, enjoyable and satisfying read.
If you were to read this in conjunction with a book that includes his most important photo's, such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Photographer, you would be able to gain a great deal from reading this book.
However this is a book for the well-prepared.
I found the many anecdotes and quotations entertaining. They gave me a clearer insight into the man's life and his genius.
Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Biography.......2007-01-12
For the most part, this book is excellently written--even poetically written, at times. For the person who already appreciates and even worships Henri Cartier-Bresson (as I do) this book is satisfactory. For everyone else, however, this book lacks several important things:
1. Actual reproductions of the photographs specifically mentioned.
2. Aesthetic evaluations of the photographs mentioned.
3. Critical analyses by people not the author.
----Irving Orenstein
Not Worth Your Time.......2005-12-28
Pierre Assouline's book is an uninspired chronicle of the life of Henri Cartier-Bresson, the well-traveled artist and, according to Assouline, liberal intellectual who produced some of the twentieth century's most important journalistic photography.
One of the most annoying aspects of the book is its inartful explanation of Cartier-Bresson's privileged background and its effects on his life. Assouline stumbles when telling this part of the story, and the book cannot recover. On the one hand, the text constantly presents us with tantalizing aspects of idle wealth: the personalities, the international travel, the social, artistic and political allegiances. On the other hand, it half-heartedly makes the case that Cartier-Bresson all along eschewed his family's wealth. A boring and predictable explanation that, among other things, is not supported by direct evidence. Far from it. All indications are that Cartier-Bresson relied upon his social rank and resources while rising to artistic fame. He may have done it passively, but, at a minimum, his standing and money put him in the right place at the right time; and gave him the right friends. This is the story to be told.
In the first few chapters, Assouline takes us on a bland tour of the art schools, cafes and salons of Paris where the young Cartier-Bresson (along with other sons and daughters of the world's industrialist class) embedded himself during the 1930's lull between wars. The writer next focuses on Cartier-Bresson's dalliances with painting and world travel, along with his abbreviated career as a filmaker. Descriptions of pre-war France have been well and fascinatingly told elsewhere. In Assouline's book Cartier-Bresson's artistic and literary milieu comes off as impossibly ordinary.
The book's highest point is achieved in its chapters about the photographer's life during and immediately after World War II. But even these chapters do not describe for us any important episodes in his relations with other Magnum photographers. The writer obliquely references the photographer's sharp temper, but nowhere does it make an appearance directly. Cartier-Bresson's work within the Magnum agency is where the real meat of his biography should lie, but none of it is exposed to the reader.
This book is not worth your time. Rather, spend it looking at Cartier-Bresson's work, his photographs.
The Decisive Biography?.......2005-12-01
I'm surprised to be the first reviewer of a biography of one of the worlds most revered photographers.
There are two reasons why I have given this book only three stars.
The first is the lack of photographs. Oh, there are plenty of photos OF Cartier-Bresson, but none BY Cartier-Bresson.
Although Assouline describes some of HCB's work, there are no examples.
Do Assouline and the publisher actually believe that everyone who reads this book is so familiar with HCB that they've memorized his work? More likely they have chosen not to pay the royalties.
The second reason is my disappointment with the almost complete lack of insight into the photographer's thoughts. There's plenty of information about his political beliefs (more than needed in my opinion) but nowhere does one find an explanation of what motivated him to press the shutter release.
These shortcomings aside, this is an immensely readable book. Not only does it go into the details of HCB's life, but it puts them into historical perspective. Cartier-Bresson was present at, and often involved in, some of the most important events of the 20th century.
I would have prefered a bit more detail regarding his time spent as a German prisoner of war during WWII. His meeting with Gandhi shortly before the Mahatma's death was also glossed over.
I got the feeling that Assouline was being extraordinarly kind. There is very little mention of HCB's famous temper or acerbic tongue. That would be fine if this were simply a photography book, but it's supposed to be a biography.
Being a long-time fan of Cartier-Bresson's work I did get a lot of enjoyment out of the book. I'm also familiar enough with his work that the lack of photographs wasn't a hardship. However, unless you intimately know HCB's work, you may want to familiarize yourself with it BEFORE reading the bio.
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Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Henri Cartier-Bresson And Walker Evans: Documentary And Anti-Graphic Photographs
Daniel Girardin ,
Ian Jeffrey ,
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Peter Galassi , and
Michel Tournier
Manufacturer: Steidl
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Binding: Hardcover
 Evans, Walker
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Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Biography
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An Inner Silence: The Portraits of Henri Cartier-Bresson
ASIN: 3865210724
Release Date: 2004-06-15 |
Book Description
In 1935, when the influential New York collector Julien Levy conceived the exhibition Documentary and Anti-Graphic Photographs by Cartier-Bresson, Walker Evans & Alvarez Bravo, no one could imagine the eminent place this trio would come to occupy in the avant-garde of their time, nor the immense influence they would have on future generations of photographers. Collected here for the first time since the famous 1935 exhibition, this treasure of images by three great masters of 20th century photography places us face to face with the history of the medium in the making. The Show in New York in 1935 was one of the first exhibitions Henri Cartier-Bresson ever had. This book is the last project he considered before his death this past year.
Customer Reviews:
2 sides to every story.......2007-06-11
The author urges us not to buy cuban rum bcause it 'props up a dictatorship'...mmmn people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. Most countries have some darkness in there past and or present...also the pompous reviewer who wants to toast the imminent death of Fidel Castro??? Disappointed Amazon would print that.
Read Ian Williams book "Rum a social and socialable history of the real spirit of 1776" and get another perspective see page 292. And any way Cuban Rum Cuban cigars...they just taste better.
A good celebration of the drink.......2006-03-07
Rum is all too often overlooked as a great drink but this book certainly does its bit to help put that right. It succeeds in making rum interesting, with great accounts of the history of the drink that are nicely interspersed with plenty of top recipes for fans.
However, I would agree with some of the other reviewers who found themselves having to plow through some parts, particularly where the author seems to digress. In this vein, I felt Coulombe's (current) political views were superfluous and only detracted from the book's respectability. And one other point - I was surprised to see almost no mention of Venezuela, a tropical country which has a long tradition of fine rums, including some of today's best, such as my own favorite, Ron Santa Teresa!
Very informative and easy read.......2006-01-05
Mr. Coulombe has written a very good book that is perfect for those who want a general overview of the history of rum and its direct effects on world history. I especially enjoyed learning about early American history that is hard to find elsewhere. This book was not only informative but a fun read as well. My only criticism would be when, on occasion, Mr. Coulombe makes reference to contemporary politcs - it not only deviates from the story but is unnecessary. For example, when he cautions about purchasing Cuban rum because "..profits prop up the oppressive Castro regime" but then fails to realize that the average Haitian (which has effectively been under US control for the last 100 years) would trade their lives with the average Cuban in a heartbeat.
Thirsty work.......2005-11-04
Charles A Coulombe's "Rum: The Epic Story Of The Drink That Conquered The World" is an excellent exposition on practical economics and is deceptively understated in giving superb lessons in history, religion, trade policy, politics, military history and methods, and holidays. To pack so much into a work that is also a delight to read, and in addition provides a welcome addition to the bartender's bookshelf is as generous as a round on the house.
This book is about rum. But we must keep in mind that this centerpiece is well chosen, and very much after the "Wall Street Journal" style of journalism, and selecting a commodity and nation to explain economic history. The discovery of the new world, and of sugar cane and the production of high volume spirits from the bountiful plant, truly shaped the entire fabric of history and western civilization for centuries. The importance of rum cannot be overstated when applied to looking at American and European history.
This is a non-fiction work, and is comparable to Mark Kurlansky's "Salt" and his equally good "Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World" in scope and structure in following the life of the commodity subject. However, we must be realistic: reading a book about rum is a lot more fun than reading a book about fish and a Margarita garnish, and so Coulombe wins the crown for topical economic history.
This is an excellent, readable, exciting book, and Coulombe is to be thanked for writing it. But "Rum: The Epic Story of The Drink That Conquered The World" does promote a thirst. I'm normally a vodka and white lightening man, myself. Nevertheless, no one could resist making a nice Cuba Libra with a fresh wedge of lime when reading this delightful book. Do not forget to toast the hastening arrival of Castro's death.
Moving on to a discussion of Mojitos....
some very interesting material plus a lot of filler.......2005-09-28
I bought the book for the listings in the back of the rum producing countries, their distilleries and the specific rums they produce.
In addition to that, there is a lot of great information in the book on the specifics of how rum was made historically and how it is made in each country, I was quite happy to find the recipes and some of the historical background - I had no idea so much rum was produced in colonial America - for example.
However I think it would have been a better book if it was ~20 pages shorter, some of the background material is not really related to rum.
Amazon.com
Once you begin reading As Nature Made Him, a mesmerizing story of a medical tragedy and its traumatic results, you absolutely won't want to put it down. Following a botched circumcision, a family is convinced to raise their infant son, Bruce, as a girl. They rename the child Brenda and spend the next 14 years trying to transform him into a her. Brenda's childhood reads as one filled with anxiety and loneliness, and her fear and confusion are present on nearly every page concerning her early childhood. Much of her pain is caused by Dr. Money, who is presented as a villainous medical man attempting to coerce an unwilling child to submit to numerous unpleasant treatments.
Reading over interviews and reports of decisions made by this doctor, it's difficult to contain anger at the widespread results of his insistence that natural-born gender can be altered with little more than willpower and hormone treatments. The attempts of his parents, twin brother, and extended family to assist Brenda to be happily female are touching--the sense is overwhelmingly of a family wanting to do "right" while being terribly mislead as to what "right" is for her. As Brenda makes the decision to live life as a male (at age 14), she takes the name David and begins the process of reversing the effects of estrogen treatments. David's ultimately successful life--a solid marriage, honest and close family relationships, and his bravery in making his childhood public--bring an uplifting end to his story. Equally fascinating is the latest segment of the longtime nature/nurture controversy, and the interviews of various psychological researchers and practitioners form a larger framework around David's struggle to live as the gender he was meant to be. --Jill Lightner
Book Description
In 1967, after a twin baby boy suffered a botched circumcision, his family agreed to a radical treatment that would alter his gender. The case would become one of the most famous in modern medicine -- and a total failure. As Nature Made Him tells the extraordinary story of David Reimer, who, when finally informed of his medical history, made the decision to live as a male. A macabre tale of medical arrogance, it is first and foremost a human drama of one man's -- and one family's -- amazing survival in the face of terrible odds.
Customer Reviews:
The lies of John Money.......2007-10-16
This was an interesting book in that it told the story of the tragic childhood of David Reimer in addition to summarizing the background of John Money's theoretical underpinnings of his belief in early childhood reconstructive surgery. The fact that Reimer's childhood was being described as a total success by John Money when in fact the reality of the situation was the exact opposite is pretty shocking. Amazing how unethical this guy was. Your archetypal mad scientist.
Medical Fraud vs Journalistic Fraud - take your pick.......2007-09-24
Anyone who looked through a serious book on sex and gender in the 1970s was bound to come across the landmark John/Joan case. It seemed to indicate that children's sense of their sex (i.e., whether they were boys or girls) was soft and malleable. Counterintuitive and Marxian as that sounds now, it was presented as enlightened, forward-looking thinking.
By the time John Colapinto published his expose of the John/Joan case in Rolling Stone in 1997, the jig was already up. Intersex advocates were loudly complaining that they had been mutiliated and tinkered with. The weight of evidence now suggested that for most people, one's mental sex was as fixed at birth as one's physical form.
This book expanded on the original article by naming the actual principals in the tale and describing John/Joan's long and grueling experience of being a Johns Hopkins guinea pig: the transcontinental trips to the doctor once or twice a year, the psychological bullying, the constant reminder that you are some sort of freak.
The article and the book are both heavily biased against John Money, the eminent New Zealander who supervised the experiment, and suspiciously eager to believe any scurrilous tales that his colleagues might offer (e.g., that Money had sexual relations with some of his students; the implication is that this sort of behavior is transgressive to an extreme, seldom encountered among academics and sex researchers!). To which I say--well, whether John Money was good or evil, he accomplished his main objective, which was to push back the frontiers of ignorance about sexual identity. We can now feel fairly confident in saying that you cannot just change someone's sex, willy-nilly, and force the mind to go along. More pertinently, if a child who appears to be female insists that she/he is really a boy, that child should not be regarded as delusional.
Overall, the basic narrative of the Reimer family is not credible, and this is the basic weakness of the book. After all those trips to Baltimore, and the crushing awareness that "she" was some sort of sexual freak, Brenda/David Reimer certainly had some inkling of the truth long before she was 13. At the very least, Brenda and her twin brother must have had many intimate chats while they were growing up; surely there were some wild but accurate guesses in there. And it is inconceivable that the Reimer parents would never have alluded to Brenda's "accident." They probably discussed openly it all the time when the twins were two or three, the same way grown-ups often undress in front of their toddlers, regarding them as no more impressionable or sentient than the kitty-cat.
The death of both twins a few years ago (one by overdose, the other by suicide) suggests that the family dynamics were far more messed up than we knew. I got the idea (from the book) that the twins were seriously lacking in ambition, social skills, and other incentives to get on in life. This is disturbing for me to contemplate, since it makes me wonder if the John/Joan experiment might have had a different outcome in a happier, less dysfunctional family. Would Brenda have adapted better, perhaps as a tomboy? Would she have decided to remain a girl if she'd been happier socially, with more friends and an intellectually stimulating envrionment? Perhaps not. But the sad dynamics of the Reimer family are an annoying variable, making me sometimes wonder whether the John/Joan case teaches us anything useful.
A horrible but important story.......2007-09-22
Horrifying story of a little baby boy, who suffered, firstly, during a circumcision accident and then every day of his life as he is forced to live as a girl.
The description of his treatment and the treatment of his brother at the hands of the supervising doctor is beyond horrific. To show small children pornography and to make them simular sex with each other just curdled my mind. And the total lack of listening to the patient is truely unbelievable that it was permitted for so long.
The book is well written and a realy page turner. Your heart goes out to the boy and his family and you can't help but looking at the photos in the middle. Don't be afraid that the book may be too dry, it is written with the lay person in mind. Sympathetic to David and the choices his parents made in 1967.
A must read and extremely thought provoking.
Boooring.......2007-09-12
I have to read this book for school and jesus christ is it boring... It's all about weird pedo doctors and morbid surgery. It's like im stuck watching one of those godwaful surgery shows on discovery channel, except it's a long boring book.
Essentialist trash.......2007-08-07
Leave it to Rolling Stone magazine to drop one of the great Right Wing bombs of the 90's. With one unfortunate case history, the entire environment / behavorological project of the 70's gets wiped. "See, biology IS destiny" crowed the Silent Majority. Not for nothing did Abbie Hoffman call Jan Wenner the "Benedict Arnold of the Sixties."
Anyway, nature seemingly triumphed over nurture in the profound year of 2001 when this reductionist piece of garbage topped the best seller charts. Johns Hopkins stopped treating TSs and many other clinics, such as Stanford University, followed suit. Reaction has set in; next stop, Thailand, girls.
As Colapinto points out throughout his book, Brenda would have rather committed suicide than go on against the "natural" fiber of his existence. Yet - after the happy ending, reverse SRS, and the royalty checks, the newly emerged David Reimer killed himself anyway. BLAM. Just a few years after his twin brother did the same (with dope).
Seems like the story here is actually depression, not gender. And what does Colapinto have to say about that embarrassing piece of business? "It was what David was inclined to brood about that killed him. David's blighted childhood was never far from his mind." How frickin' convenient. Ideologically speaking, Colapinto's got the subtlety of Ayn Rand.
Book Description
In 1967, after a twin baby boy suffered a botched circumcision, his family agreed to a radical treatment that would alter his gender. The case would become one of the most famous in modern medicine—and a total failure. As Nature Made Him tells the extraordinary story of David Reimer, who, when finally informed of his medical history, made the decision to live as a male. A macabre tale of medical arrogance, it is first and foremost a human drama of one man's—and one family's—amazing survival in the face of terrible odds.
Customer Reviews:
IT'S NATURE...NOT NURTURE..........2006-10-10
This is a wonderfully written book and a fascinating look into the debate of nature versus nurture in the area of gender assignment. Intelligent and insightful, the author draws a compassionate portrait of a family who, faced with a decision in the wake of a tragedy, relies upon the advice of a well-respected doctor, which reliance turned out to be misplaced. The book details the aftermath of the family's fateful decision and the impact it was to have on them all.
In August 1965, Canadians Janet and Ron Reimer gave birth to identical twin boys, whom they named Brian and Bruce. When they were about eight months old, they arranged to have them circumcised due to a medical condition that caused them pain during urination. Circumcision was to remedy the problem. Little did they know that the circumcision for Bruce would be botched, resulting in the loss of his penis.
A plastic surgeon with whom the Reimers had consulted in connection with the catastrophe that had struck Bruce had spoken to a sex researcher who had recommended that they raise Bruce as a girl. Doctors at the Mayo Clinic had suggested that they ought to get a second opinion with regards to that suggestion. The parents then consulted with a doctor affiliated with John Hopkins Hospital, Dr. John Money, a renowned doctor in the area of gender transformation, who had been the driving force behind the then controversial surgical gender re-assignment procedure for which the hospital was becoming known.
In 1967, the distraught parents met with Dr. Money and shortly after, Bruce became Brenda and clinical castration followed. Thus, their child, who genetically and anatomically had been born a boy, was for all extent and purposes now deemed to be a girl. Brian was now on the other side of the gender divide of his identical twin brother, the twin formerly known as Bruce.
Moreover, Dr. Money now had a dream scientific experiment, because he had a set of twins for which the unafflicted twin could act as a control by which to measure the afflicted one. In 1972, Dr. Money disclosed his "twins case" to the medical world, giving a slanted version of the experiment that made it appear to be an unqualified success. Unfortunately, his analysis of the situation did not disclose the difficulties that Brenda was having and her seeming inability to adjust to being a girl.
Apparently, though Brenda had no idea as she was growing up that she had originally been born a boy, she never felt that she was a girl. Years of follow-up visits with Dr. Money for both twins proved to be unsettling for them, as Dr. Money employed somewhat bizarre methods and procedures. Moreover, as Brenda grew older, she would resist additional surgeries and initially resisted the hormone therapy that was introduced on the eve of puberty. Even when confronted with a totally rebellious Brenda, Dr. Money, however, remained in denial about the failure of his experiment. He would continue to tout his treatment of Brenda as an unqualified success.
It was not until March of 1980 that Brenda was finally informed by her father about what had happened to her years ago and what had been decided in light of the circumstances. It was a revelation that was to dramatically change Brenda's life. What followed was a repudiation of Dr. Money's assertions with respect to his treatment. The book details the changes that Brenda was to make in her life, changes that would find her living the life she was originally meant to lead. Brenda would now become David and live the life of a male. Unfortunately, happiness would continue to elude him.
This is a simply wonderful, intimate look at a family that survived a hideous tragedy. It also sympathetically and sensitively details the personal journey of one family through the labyrinthine differences in opinion surrounding the age old debate over nature versus nature. I would certainly assert that nature, and not nurture, controls. This is a very well thought out book on the issue, grounded in the tragic experience of one family. Bravo!
Customer Reviews:
ITS NATURE...NOT NURTURE..........2006-11-27
This is a wonderfully written book and a fascinating look into the debate of nature versus nurture in the area of gender assignment. Intelligent and insightful, the author draws a compassionate portrait of a family who, faced with a decision in the wake of a tragedy, relies upon the advice of a well-respected doctor, which reliance turned out to be misplaced. The book details the aftermath of the family's fateful decision and the impact it was to have on them all.
In August 1965, Canadians Janet and Ron Reimer gave birth to identical twin boys, whom they named Brian and Bruce. When they were about eight months old, they arranged to have them circumcised due to a medical condition that caused them pain during urination. Circumcision was to remedy the problem. Little did they know that the circumcision for Bruce would be botched, resulting in the loss of his penis.
A plastic surgeon with whom the Reimers had consulted in connection with the catastrophe that had struck Bruce had spoken to a sex researcher who had recommended that they raise Bruce as a girl. Doctors at the Mayo Clinic had suggested that they ought to get a second opinion with regards to that suggestion. The parents then consulted with a doctor affiliated with John Hopkins Hospital, Dr. John Money, a renowned doctor in the area of gender transformation, who had been the driving force behind the then controversial surgical gender re-assignment procedure for which the hospital was becoming known.
In 1967, the distraught parents met with Dr. Money and shortly after, Bruce became Brenda and clinical castration followed. Thus, their child, who genetically and anatomically had been born a boy, was for all extent and purposes now deemed to be a girl. Brian was now on the other side of the gender divide of his identical twin brother, the twin formerly known as Bruce.
Moreover, Dr. Money now had a dream scientific experiment, because he had a set of twins for which the unafflicted twin could act as a control by which to measure the afflicted one. In 1972, Dr. Money disclosed his "twins case" to the medical world, giving a slanted version of the experiment that made it appear to be an unqualified success. Unfortunately, his analysis of the situation did not disclose the difficulties that Brenda was having and her seeming inability to adjust to being a girl.
Apparently, though Brenda had no idea as she was growing up that she had originally been born a boy, she never felt that she was a girl. Years of follow-up visits with Dr. Money for both twins proved to be unsettling for them, as Dr. Money employed somewhat bizarre methods and procedures. Moreover, as Brenda grew older, she would resist additional surgeries and initially resisted the hormone therapy that was introduced on the eve of puberty. Even when confronted with a totally rebellious Brenda, Dr. Money, however, remained in denial about the failure of his experiment. He would continue to tout his treatment of Brenda as an unqualified success.
It was not until March of 1980 that Brenda was finally informed by her father about what had happened to her years ago and what had been decided in light of the circumstances. It was a revelation that was to dramatically change Brenda's life. What followed was a repudiation of Dr. Money's assertions with respect to his treatment. The book details the changes that Brenda was to make in her life, changes that would find her living the life she was originally meant to lead. Brenda would now become David and live the life of a male. Unfortunately, happiness would continue to elude him.
This is a simply wonderful, intimate look at a family that survived a hideous tragedy. It also sympathetically and sensitively details the personal journey of one family through the labyrinthine differences in opinion surrounding the age old debate over nature versus nature. I would certainly assert that nature, and not nurture, controls. This is a very well thought out book on the issue, grounded in the tragic experience of one family. Bravo!
Customer Reviews:
IT'S NATURE...NOT NURTURE..........2006-07-07
This is a wonderfully written book and a fascinating look into the debate of nature versus nurture in the area of gender assignment. Intelligent and insightful, the author draws a compassionate portrait of a family who, faced with a decision in the wake of a tragedy, relies upon the advice of a well-respected doctor, which reliance turned out to be misplaced. The book details the aftermath of the family's fateful decision and the impact it was to have on them all.
In August 1965, Canadians Janet and Ron Reimer gave birth to identical twin boys, whom they named Brian and Bruce. When they were about eight months old, they arranged to have them circumcised due to a medical condition that caused them pain during urination. Circumcision was to remedy the problem. Little did they know that the circumcision for Bruce would be botched, resulting in the loss of his penis.
A plastic surgeon with whom the Reimers had consulted in connection with the catastrophe that had struck Bruce had spoken to a sex researcher who had recommended that they raise Bruce as a girl. Doctors at the Mayo Clinic had suggested that they ought to get a second opinion with regards to that suggestion. The parents then consulted with a doctor affiliated with John Hopkins Hospital, Dr. John Money, a renowned doctor in the area of gender transformation, who had been the driving force behind the then controversial surgical gender re-assignment procedure for which the hospital was becoming known.
In 1967, the distraught parents met with Dr. Money and shortly after, Bruce became Brenda and clinical castration followed. Thus, their child, who genetically and anatomically had been born a boy, was for all extent and purposes now deemed to be a girl. Brian was now on the other side of the gender divide of his identical twin brother, the twin formerly known as Bruce.
Moreover, Dr. Money now had a dream scientific experiment, because he had a set of twins for which the unafflicted twin could act as a control by which to measure the afflicted one. In 1972, Dr. Money disclosed his "twins case" to the medical world, giving a slanted version of the experiment that made it appear to be an unqualified success. Unfortunately, his analysis of the situation did not disclose the difficulties that Brenda was having and her seeming inability to adjust to being a girl.
Apparently, though Brenda had no idea as she was growing up that she had originally been born a boy, she never felt that she was a girl. Years of follow-up visits with Dr. Money for both twins proved to be unsettling for them, as Dr. Money employed somewhat bizarre methods and procedures. Moreover, as Brenda grew older, she would resist additional surgeries and initially resisted the hormone therapy that was introduced on the eve of puberty. Even when confronted with a totally rebellious Brenda, Dr. Money, however, remained in denial about the failure of his experiment. He would continue to tout his treatment of Brenda as an unqualified success.
It was not until March of 1980 that Brenda was finally informed by her father about what had happened to her years ago and what had been decided in light of the circumstances. It was a revelation that was to dramatically change Brenda's life. What followed was a repudiation of Dr. Money's assertions with respect to his treatment. The book details the changes that Brenda was to make in her life, changes that would find her living the life she was originally meant to lead. Brenda would now become David and live the life of a male. Unfortunately, happiness would continue to elude him.
This is a simply wonderful, intimate look at a family that survived a hideous tragedy. It also sympathetically and sensitively details the personal journey of one family through the labyrinthine differences in opinion surrounding the age old debate over nature versus nature. I would certainly assert that nature, and not nurture, controls. This is a very well thought out book on the issue, grounded in the tragic experience of one family. Bravo!
Average customer rating:
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As Nature Made Him: The Boy Who Was Raised As a Girl (Chivers Sound Library)
John Colapinto
Manufacturer: Sound Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio CD
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ASIN: 0792798708 |
Customer Reviews:
NO HAPPY ENDINGS..........2004-08-16
This is a wonderfully written book and a fascinating look into the debate of nature versus nurture in the area of gender assignment. Intelligent and insightful, the author draws a compassionate portrait of a family who, faced with a decision in the wake of a tragedy, relies upon the advice of a well-respected doctor, which reliance turned out to be misplaced. The book details the aftermath of the family's fateful decision and the impact it was to have on them all.
In August 1965, Canadians Janet and Ron Reimer gave birth to identical twin boys, whom they named Brian and Bruce. When they were about eight months old, they arranged to have them circumcised due to a medical condition that caused them pain during urination. Circumcision was to remedy the problem. Little did they know that the circumcision for Bruce would be botched, resulting in the loss of his penis.
A plastic surgeon with whom the Reimers had consulted in connection with the catastrophe that had struck Bruce had spoken to a sex researcher who had recommended that they raise Bruce as a girl. Doctors at the Mayo Clinic had suggested that they ought to get a second opinion with regards to that suggestion. The parents then consulted with a doctor affiliated with John Hopkins Hospital, Dr. John Money, a renowned doctor in the area of gender transformation, who had been the driving force behind the then controversial surgical gender re-assignment procedure for which the hospital was becoming known.
In 1967, the distraught parents met with Dr. Money and shortly after, Bruce became Brenda and clinical castration followed. Thus, their child, who genetically and anatomically had been born a boy, was for all extent and purposes now deemed to be a girl. Brian was now on the other side of the gender divide of his identical twin brother, the twin formerly known as Bruce.
Moreover, Dr. Money now had a dream scientific experiment, because he had a set of twins for which the unafflicted twin could act as a control by which to measure the afflicted one. In 1972, Dr. Money disclosed his "twins case" to the medical world, giving a slanted version of the experiment that made it appear to be an unqualified success. Unfortunately, his analysis of the situation did not disclose the difficulties that Brenda was having and her seeming inability to adjust to being a girl.
Apparently, though Brenda had no idea as she was growing up that she had originally been born a boy, she never felt that she was a girl. Years of follow-up visits with Dr. Money for both twins proved to be unsettling for them, as Dr. Money employed somewhat bizarre methods and procedures. Moreover, as Brenda grew older, she would resist additional surgeries and initially resisted the hormone therapy that was introduced on the eve of puberty. Even when confronted with a totally rebellious Brenda, Dr. Money, however, remained in denial about the failure of his experiment. He would continue to tout his treatment of Brenda as an unqualified success.
It was not until March of 1980 that Brenda was finally informed by her father about what had happened to her years ago and what had been decided in light of the circumstances. It was a revelation that was to dramatically change Brenda's life. What followed was a repudiation of Dr. Money's assertions with respect to his treatment. The book details the changes that Brenda was to make in her life, changes that would find her living the life she was originally meant to lead. Brenda would now become David and live the life of a male. Unfortunately, happiness would continue to elude him.
This is a simply wonderful, intimate look at a family that survived a hideous tragedy. It also sympathetically and sensitively details the personal journey of one family through the labyrinthine differences in opinion surrounding the age old debate over nature versus nature. I would certainly assert that nature, and not nurture, controls. This is a very well thought out book on the issue, grounded in the experience of one family. Bravo!
Average customer rating:
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As Nature Made Him: The Boy Who Was Raised as a Girl
John Colapinto , and
Howard McGillin
Manufacturer: Amazon Remainders Account
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Cassette
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ASIN: B000H2MNNI |
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The Greening of the South: The Recovery of Land and Forest (New Perspectives on the South)
Thomas Dionysius Clark
Manufacturer: University Press of Kentucky
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0813190827 |
Books:
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- Home Before Morning: The Story of an Army Nurse in Vietnam
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- If I Knew Then What I Know Now ... So What
- Ike, 1890-1990: A Pictorial History (Commemorative Edition)
- In the Belly of the Beast: Letters From Prison
- In the Vineyard of the Text: A Commentary to Hugh's Didascalicon
- Into the Tiger's Jaw : America's First Black Marine Aviator - The Autobiography of Lt. Gen. Frank E. Petersen
- J. Edgar Hoover: The Man and the Secrets
- James Madison and the Creation of the American Republic (Library of American Biography Series) (3rd Edition)
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