"Normal"

On 2/27/10, I wrote to highly recommend Amy Bloom's latest short story collection, "Where the God of Love Hangs Out." I was intrigued to discover that in addition to writing short stories and novels, she had written a nonfiction book titled "Normal: Transsexual CEOs, Crossdressing Cops, and Hermaphrodites with Attitude" (Random House, 2002), so I found and read it. Bloom had been wondering about the definition of "normal" regarding questions of gender and sexuality, so she researched three groups of people, as the title indicates: female-to-male transsexuals, male cross-dressers, and the intersexed. She spoke with doctors and scientists, as well as with people in each of the three categories, including activists, people who are open about their differences, and those who hide them. For example, she went on a cruise with a group of male cross-dressers and their wives, and describes them in perceptive detail. Bloom writes of the great variety, the great continuum, of what is "normal." She states that nature is "vast, capricious, occasionally hilarious, and infinitely varied." Even within each of the three groups she writes about, there is enormous diversity. At the same time, she shows us the ordinariness and humanity of people who happen to be different from the majority in particular sexual or gender traits. Besides Bloom's message of understanding, the best part of the book is her portraits of specific individuals whom she has gotten to know and with whom she has made a very human connection. The stories she tells are alternately serious, humorous, and heartbreaking; of of them are fascinating.