A Queer and Pleasant Danger: A Memoir
By: Kate Bornstein / Narrated By: Alice Rosengard
Length: 10 hrs and 55 mins
Disarmingly honest; I mean, like, waaaaaaay honest!!!
The book opens with Kate Bornstein feeling a tad sad, a tad wretched about not being able to contact her daughter from her former life. She’d searched far and wide and even went so far as to dig up her ex-wife’s (back from when she was a man) phone number, make that call, been summarily hung up on.
Her plan to get in touch with her daughter? Well, before that, she haaaaas to get her favorite scalpel and carve a heart into her flesh. Phew! Okay, she got THAT outta the way, so onto the next phase of her plan: Become a star so that Jessica, her daughter, can find HER, can get in touch with HER, should Jessica ever wish to.
Okay, my message to Jessica: Uhm, Jessica? You might wanna RUN, WOMAN, RUN!!! Head to the hills! Cuz if you listen to this audiobook, thinking you’ll find a warm and fuzzy person… well, yeah, I s’pose you’ll find that. -BUT- oh my goodness! You’ll find soooooo much else also!
Here’s what you’ll find if you listen to your parent’s A Queer and Pleasant Danger. You’ll hear PLENTY of escapades where your dear ol’ parent spends oh so much time in between the legs of men and women. Yes, Kate has much much MUCH to tell us of all the time she’s spent in such places. She’s QUITE graphic about it (Though I have to admit that I didn’t blush anywhere near so much listening to Bornstein go on and on about her somewhat lewd escapades here as I’ve blushed listening to a Regency romance gone off the beaten path. I dunno what that says about me, but there you are).
Plus, she excitedly tells us that joy of JOYS! She’s HAPPILY labeled as Borderline Personality Disorder. Plus, there’s heavy-duty PTSD. Plus, oh yeah. She’s TOTALLY a masochist, loves the pain and cutting that comes in a good S&M relationship (And in the book she chronicles her long-term slave relationship with two other Masters… oh my…), has dabbled in pretty much everything, and OF COURSE, she’s a transgender man turned woman who’s very much that transgender woman who loves other women. For Kate, it’s always been women who’ve made her go weak at the knees.
Alice Rosengard does a pheNOMenal job with narration. Cuz as down and dirty, as graphic, as this book gets, as reprehensible and mind-boggling as some of the things Bornstein does and gets into, Kate is always VERY likable and, yes, even charming and sweet. She just seems to have a veritable joy and appetite for life. Well, that is, if you can get past her suicidal and self-destructive behavior, her penchant for starving herself nearly to death (And ya miiiiiight wanna stay away from this book if you’re struggling with an eating disorder, cuz she TOTALLY glamorizes anorexia nervosa and even gives tips on how to get into it successfully).
Basically, Jessica, your pop, now mom, is a huuuuuge mess. But she’s an ADORABLE huuuuuuge mess. She’s traveled a lot, been through a lot, she’s braved a lot and has been quite courageous in her way (Seriously, just her jaunts as an actress left me speechless because, even tho’ I dabbled in drama as a teenager, I can’t IMAGINE getting up onstage and spouting lines as I have clips snagged onto my breasts… it’s just a TAD outside my ken).
Try the book for an exotic jaunt into the mind and inner-life of a VERY different, VERY vibrant woman who’s seen and done it all.
But, Jessica? I don’t think your Scientology friends are gonna like it…
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