Review: A Year Without a Name: A Memoir

A Year Without a Name: A Memoir by Cyrus Grace Dunham
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I decided to start November out seeing how many memoirs I could read.

This memoir is an excellent capture of grappling with genderqueer identity. I've marked a bunch of places that resonate with experiences friends of mine have had, but I've never seen in articulated so well. It's a quick read and very worth reading.

I verified with the publisher that I could quote from my copy so here are the bits that resonated with experiences friends of mine have had, so eloquently stated:

"Whenever my bodily claustrophobia grows unbearable, I seek new lovers, new locations, new friends. So be it. Novelty is the longest-lasting short-term coping system I know of."

"I hated myself for still believing that one person, a lover, could rid me of whatever kept me hating myself in the first place."

"...More and more people in my life began to accuse me of dishonesty... A friend who had caught on to my habit gave me her marked-up copy of a 1975 Adrienne Rich essay called 'Women and Honor: Some Notes on Lying.' Rich writes that the liars, afraid of themselves, cannot bear their own contradictions, cannot face what might be lost if they are honest. I said whatever I thought people wanted to hear...."

"How to know if the problem was gender or personhood. How to know if the problem was gender or me."

This book came out November 15, 2019 - I was sent a copy from the publisher.

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