Something that May Shock and Discredit You

Daniel Mallory Ortberg (now known as Danny Lavery) has a discerning and oracular ability to illuminate personal experience through media touchstones--not least of which is the Bible. "One of the many advantages of a religious childhood is the variety of metaphors made available to describe untranslatable inner experiences," he writes in the opening essay of a book that largely considers his gender transition. Readers, regardless of spiritual discipline, however, will be glad such variety is at Ortberg's disposal--although he has plenty of originals to dispense as well, like when he writes of the Rapture as "being swept up by the Raisin Bran scoop of heaven."

Ortberg (The Merry Spinster) delves openly into his transmasculine experience with unrivaled panache. Passage after passage sees him refining a riveting portrait of his life and transness fit for the pages of an illuminated manuscript. Ortberg's Something that May Shock and Discredit You most certainly astonishes and amazes--it may even be transformative. --Dave Wheeler, associate editor, Shelf Awareness

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