Bonnie G.'s review of A Queer and Pleasant Danger (original) (raw)

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Bonnie G.'s Reviews > A Queer and Pleasant Danger: The True Story of a Nice Jewish Boy Who Joins the Church of Scientology and Leaves Twelve Years Later to Become the Lovely Lady She is Today

A Queer and Pleasant Danger by Kate Bornstein

A Queer and Pleasant Danger: The True Story of a Nice Jewish Boy Who Joins the Church of Scientology and Leaves Twelve Years Later to Become the Lovely Lady She is Today
by

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Well no one can accuse Bornstein of hiding anything. Even by memoirist standards Kate is an over-sharer. Luckily she has some great stories.

I am fascinated by Scientology. So her experience in the org, particularly in SeaOrg, is riveting. As a salesperson she enjoyed a pretty cushy ride, until she didn't. In the end the org cost her her daughter (she talks about this in the first few pages, not a spoiler) and separated her from beloved family for many years. It also validated her obsessive behaviors, valued her skill at performative storytelling (also known as lying or using alternative facts), and provided her with a lot of opportunities to have random sex.

Also fascinating was Kate's journey to her current identity as a nonbinary trans lesbian. Its been quite a road. Her interactions with radical cis lesbians, especially butch lesbians, were really instructive. I know of course how crummy the LGBT establishment has historically been (and mostly still is) to trans women. there has been a lot written and discussed about this in the past few years, but the stories of Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson alone tell the story. Kate's story is slightly different, perhaps because she is upper middle class and white, but still saddening.

The most disturbing part of this is the part that deals with Kate the masochist and cutter. She mostly seems to deal well with her borderline personality disorder, but she is an old woman who still cuts and it is implied enjoys when others cut her. (Actually, she said that she got off on being carved. No implication. There was detail. What is not clear if she outgrew the desire and practice or if she still enjoys being sliced up.) That is not okay, and my heart cries for her because she has normalized and accepted her self harm and invited cruelity. I am glad she triumphed over suicidal ideation, alcoholism, and other challenges, but she still has work to do.

At times when reading this I felt like a peeping tom, but I know in my heart she wants me to peep. An interesting bio all in all, honest, edifying, and a quick read.

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Reading Progress

May 17, 2021 –Started Reading

May 17, 2021 – Shelved as:jewish

May 17, 2021 – Shelved as:memoir

May 19, 2021 –24.03% "Can a memoir offer TMI? Perhaps..."

May 22, 2021 –Finished Reading

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