Self-Made Man: One Woman's Journey into Manhood and Back Again

249 Pages·2006·0.92 MB·English

by  Norah Vincent

Praise for Self-Made Man
“A thoughtful, entertaining piece of first-person investigative journalism.
Though there’s plenty of humor in Self-Made Man, Vincent—like her spiritual
forbear John Howard Griffin…—treats her self-imposed assignment seriously,
not as a stunt…. Self-Made Man transcends its premise altogether, offering not
an undercover woman’s take on male experience, but simply a fascinating, fly-
on-the wall look at various unglamorous male milieus that are well off the radar
of most journalists and book authors…. So rich and so audacious…[I was]
hooked from page 1.”
—David Kamp, The New York Times Book Review
“[Norah Vincent is] the new Steinem.”
— William Safire, The New York Times
“Vincent’s account of how she ‘became’ a man is undeniably fascinating.”
—Los Angeles Times Book World
“Moving and often illuminating…Self-Made Man is an exhilarating book.”
—Joyce Carol Oates, The Times Literary Supplement
“Eye-opening…While the side effects of Vincent’s experiment are fascinating, it
is her field reporting from Planet Guy that holds the most novelty. Self-Made
Man will make many women think twice about coveting male ‘privilege’ and
make any man feel grateful that his gender burden is better understood.”
—The Washington Post
“Empathetic, explosive insights.”
—New York Post
“This isn’t a we-are-the-world book in which Vincent rejoices in our common
humanity. It’s too subtle for that, too smart and too honest.”
—Time
“If there’s a more interesting book on the market today, we don’t know what it
is.”
—Austin American-Statesman
“Vincent can be a candid and brave writer, always eager to avoid political cant
and hackneyed thinking, and this male reader kept turning the pages eagerly.
Vincent has glimpsed some things about manhood that hardly any women get to
see…. Vincent’s moments of sharpest perception—into the intricacies of male
camaraderie, or the dreary, mutually hostile gamesman-ship of heterosexual
dating—feel unfakable, and if she were making it all up the material would
probably be both more explosive and less ambiguous…Her bowling chapter
(“Friendship”) is a mini-masterpiece of sympathetic reporting, and there’s no
question that it took enormous courage for this New York lesbian intellectual to
walk into a highly competitive bowling league somewhere in the American
heartland, one of the most male of all male sanctums.”
—Salon
“The details of her transformation are fascinating…Compulsively readable.”
—The Dallas Morning News
“This thoroughly accessible and well-wrought tale of her year and a half as Ned
Vincent is fascinating in its conception, stylish in its execution, and a rollicking
good read…. It is impossible not to like Vincent, to empathize with her
struggles, and root for her success…. She pulls it off with passion, gusto,
honesty, and a healthy sprinkling of colorful words to flesh out her characters….
Vincent’s fascinating experiment makes for a positively delicious read…. Brava,
Miss Vincent. Atta boy, Ned.”
—The American Enterprise
“Captivating…Will forever change the way you see men—and perhaps
yourself.”
—Marie Claire
“Sane and compassionate…It is this confidence and compassion, even more than
her derring-do, that make Ms. Vincent such a good secret agent in the gender
wars.”
—The New York Sun
“It says a lot that it took a woman to provide such a sharp and entertaining
analysis of what it’s like to be a man in the post-feminist world.”
—Mother Jones
“Self-Made Man was a book begging to be written.”
—The Portland Mercury
“Remarkable…Vincent’s experiment could help us fight fewer battles in the war
between the sexes.”
—SF Weekly
“Lucid, engaging, and remarkably insightful…It’s a must-read for anyone
curious about the masks thrust upon us by gender roles, sexual identity and the
surprisingly false conceptions we all have about what makes a man—well, a
man.”
—Willamette Week
“Entertaining.”
—Charleston Post and Courier
“A fascinating, truly weird account of a female journalist who dresses in drag for
eighteen months in order to feel men’s pain…One of the curiouser books of late
—sure to attract attention.”
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “A spellbinding, eye-opening personal
narrative…With intelligence and sensitivity, Vincent relates her experiences and
surprising discoveries about the secrets and rites of male society and the daily
fears and desires of individual men.”
—Library Journal
“Awfully fun to read…For fans of Nickel and Dimed-style immersion reporting,
this book is a sure bet.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Funny, compelling, and human.”
—The Times (London) “Not many women could get away with successfully
impersonating a man over a long period, but then, not many men have the balls
Norah Vincent has…. This is an addictive, enthralling read: each chapter is
progressively more fascinating as Ned becomes more ensconced in his new life.”
—The Guardian (London) “Masterful. It’s one of the few books about men that
has actually made me feel sorry for them.”
—Lionel Shriver, The Guardian (London) “This eloquently constructed book
makes for fascinating reading, as much for the chronicle of her own journey as
for her insights into the male condition.”
—Metro (UK) “Fascinating.”
—Sunday Express (UK) “An extraordinary human document, rich in empathy
and insight. Readers expecting a light read about a diverting stunt will find
themselves taking a riveting and richly illuminating journey into some of their
own deepest truths. You start out peeping into a window and end up staring into
a mirror.”
—Bruce Bawer, author of While Europe Slept
“A fascinating, original and often hilarious long day’s journey into the world of
men. Posing as a man and infiltrating the female-free places males congregate,
Norah Vincent finds the male precincts to be a lot better—and a lot worse—than
most women ever imagine.”
—Christina Hoff Sommers, author of Who Stole Feminism? and The War
Against Boys
“This gripping book got me through a delayed transatlantic flight beside a
shrieking baby. Could I say more? It was high-risk stuff, Norah Vincent’s
undercover research into what men are like when they’re in the places where
men are men. The reader’s heart beats fast at the chances she took. In adventure
writing like this it is the quality of the adventurer that matters. Norah Vincent’s
perceptiveness, and above all her large sympathies, make her the perfect guide.”
—Nuala O’Faolain, author of Are You Somebody? and The Story of Chicago
May
Praise for Norah Vincent “Norah Vincent is a true freethinker and independent
journalist in the European manner, challenging prevailing assumptions in
academe, politics, and media. Her work has always had a bold skepticism and
energy. She is a model of pragmatic, enlightened feminism.”
—Camille Paglia
Self-Made Man
One Woman’s Year Disguised as a Man
Norah Vincent
Penguin Books
To my beloved wife, Lisa McNulty,
who saves my life on a daily basis
PENGUIN BOOKS
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First published in the United States of America by Viking Penguin,
a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. 2006
Published in Penguin Books 2007
Copyright © Norah Vincent, 2006
All rights reserved
ISBN: 1-4295-2028-0
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