Thomas Page McBee - Man alive: a true story of violence, forgiveness and becoming a man

Thomas McBees Man Alive hurtled through my life. I read it in a matter of hours. Its a confession, its a poem, its a time warp, its a brilliant work of art. I bow down to McBeehis humility, his sense of humor, his insightfulness, his structural deftness, his ability to put into words what is often said but rarely, with such visceral clarity and beauty, communicated. Heidi Julavits, author of The Vanishers and The Uses of Enchantment

Man Alive is a sweet, tender hurt of a memoir. Thomas Page McBee deftly recounts what has shaped him into the man he has become and howfrom childhood trauma to a mugging in Oakland where he learned of his bodys ability to save itself. This is a memoir about forgiveness and self-discovery, but mostly its about love, so much love. McBee takes us in his capable hands and shows us what it takes to become a man who is gloriously, gloriously alive.Roxane Gay, author of Bad Feminist and An Untamed State

Thomas Page McBees story of how he came to claim both his past and his future is by turns despairing and hopeful, exceptional and relatable. To read it is to witness the birth of a fuller, truer self. I loved this book.Ann Friedman, columnist, New York Magazine

Reading Man Alive is like sitting with someone uncurling his hands, then holding them out to you, open, so that you can behold all the hard-won strength, insight, agility, and love to be found there. Whoevers child I am, my body belongs to me, McBee writes, and his book is an elegant, generous transcription of the journey toward this incandescent, non-aggrandized, life-sustaining form of self-possessionthe kind that emanates from dispossession, rather than running from it.Maggie Nelson author of Bluets and The Art of Cruelty: A Reckoning

Following a twisty course marked by multiple switchbacks, Man Alive picks its path through a life pocked by abuse, yearning, violence, danger and desire. The book refuses to cleave to the conventions of other narratives of transition and makes uncertainty the hallmark not only of the past but of the present and the future as well. Exquisitely written and bristling with emotion, this important book reminds us of how much vulnerability and violence inheres to any identity. A real achievement of form and narrative.Jack Halberstam, author of The Queer Art of Failure

Man Alive isnt just a story about a transgender man. Its a story about self-discovery. Its a story about patience, forgiveness, kindness and bravery. Its a story told so beautifully and clearly that you cant help but see your own journey in these pages. With this book, Thomas Page McBee has done exactly what we should all strive for: to tell our stories in ways that humanize rather than sensationalize.Lauren Morelli, writer, Orange Is the New Black

MAN ALIVE

A True Story of Violence, Forgiveness

and Becoming a Man

Thomas Page McBee

City Lights Books | San Francisco

Copyright 2014 by Thomas Page McBee

All Rights Reserved

Cover art: Beefcake Paperdoll, a painting by Xavier Schipani

This book is also available in an e-edition: 978-0-87286-624-9

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

McBee, Thomas Page.

Man alive : a true story of violence, forgiveness and becoming a man / Thomas Page McBee.

pages cm (City lights/sister spit)

ISBN 978-0-87286-624-9 (paperback)

1. McBee, Thomas Page. 2. TranssexualsUnited StatesBiography. 3. Transgender peopleUnited StatesBiography. 4. Female-to-male transsexualsUnited States--Biography. 5. Gender identityUnited States. I. Title.

HQ77.8.M385A3 2014

306.76'8092dc23

[B]

2014022173

This is a work of nonfiction, but it relies on memory and, as such, its attendant illusions, specters, and plays of light. It is the truth as Ive lived it. Many names have been changed.

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