Status
Available
Call number
Publication
Picador (2003), Edition: 1st, 332 pages
Description
I have a dad who is a woman, much like me, but with better legs. Growing up, Noelle Howey hardly spoke to her distant, bad-tempered father. After coming home, he'd mix up a twelve-consonant vodka and orange juice and then sleep, watch TV, drink, and sleep again. Occasionally, he'd shake up the routine by eating a salad. Instead Noelle drew all her comfort from her wonderful, tomboyish mother. Then, when she reached 14, Noelle finally discovered her father's secret: Dick Howey liked to wear women's clothing. In fact, he wanted to be a woman.
User reviews
LibraryThing member PatienceFortitude
Dress Codes could have been interesting, but it jumped around too much in time: trying to tackle two parents' sets of childhoods, as well as the narrator, to make sense of the father's transformation of sexual identity and eventual sex change.
I felt awkward reading it, as if I were overhearing
I felt awkward reading it, as if I were overhearing
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prurient family secrets. Show Less
LibraryThing member PatienceFortitude
Dress Codes could have been interesting, but it jumped around too much in time: trying to tackle two parents' sets of childhoods, as well as the narrator, to make sense of the father's transformation of sexual identity and eventual sex change.
I felt awkward reading it, as if I were overhearing
I felt awkward reading it, as if I were overhearing
Show More
prurient family secrets. Show Less
LibraryThing member PatienceFortitude
Dress Codes could have been interesting, but it jumped around too much in time: trying to tackle two parents' sets of childhoods, as well as the narrator, to make sense of the father's transformation of sexual identity and eventual sex change.
I felt awkward reading it, as if I were overhearing
I felt awkward reading it, as if I were overhearing
Show More
prurient family secrets. Show Less
LibraryThing member Narshkite
I admire what Howey did here. The book is honest without being remotely sensational. That is not easy with this subject matter. Because I admire the effort it pains me to not give a higher rating. The last 100+ pages were better, but the first half of this book was so dull. 90% of it should have
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been cut. I almost abandoned the read more than once. She tried so hard to show us how damaging her father's secret was to the family. and how freeing his coming out was for them that we had to slog through a bunch of really boring everyday dysfunction. Who wants to do that? Show Less
Subjects
Awards
Lambda Literary Award (Winner — 2002)
Stonewall Book Award (Honor Book — Non-Fiction — 2003)
Language
Original language
English
ISBN
0312422202 / 9780312422202