2024. I loved Lucy Sante's memoir of her transition. It is not harrowing like most transition memoirs. She comes from a place of privilege, and age, that provides the safety usually missing in trans stories. That being said, I was still so happy for her to finally be able to actualize herself. Her writing is superb, honed in a long career. I particularly enjoyed the pictures and the story behind them, and the music that she mentions listening to from time to time. I made a playlist and she actually made a playlist you can find at thislongcentury.com. It isn't her transition playlist, but I think it captures the feel of the book. ( )

I wanted to read this to understand the feeling of being in the wrong gendered body. Unfortunately, this was not the case - possibly because Sante transitioned so late in life. Feelings actually were hard to come by in this memoir - instead it felt intellectual, almost written at a remove. Also it was unclear what all the un-captioned photos were: were they photos of Luc, transformed into Lucy? It would have helped to know. ( )

[book:I Heard Her Call My Name: A Memoir of Transition|154486930]I Heard Her Call My Name is a fascinating description of the process of transitioning at an "advanced" age. What's it like when a vague discomfort with yourself and a penchant toward distance suddenly are transformed into knowledge about your gender? How do you change the way you've presented yourself to the world after 60 years?

Lucy Sante is exactly the right person to be writing this book. She's thoughtful and articulate. She's brave enough to share moments of difficulty and confusion, as well as moments of clarity and empowerment. Regardless of the identity of the reader, I Heard Her Call My Name offers an opportunity to reflect on how we come to know ourselves and how assumptions about "normal" can make that self-knowledge more difficult.

I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley: the opinions are my own. ( )