A Schoolboy Wearing Lipstick
By BENOIT DENIZET-LEWIS
Published: September 2, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/04/books/review/tango-my-childhood-backwards-and-in-high-heels-by-justin-vivian-bond-book-review.html?_r=1Hilton Als, a writer for The New Yorker, probably did Justin Vivian Bond a disservice by contributing the preface to Bond's novella-length childhood memoir, "Tango." That's not to say that the preface is bad — quite the opposite. It is poetic and affecting, and it features revealing descriptions of Bond, a transgender singer-songwriter and performance artist with a fervent following among New York City's avant-garde. "Justin Vivian has learned to dance with V's self," Als writes, "to wear the heels and the suit that fit V's being, all cut and formed to suit V's soul, having earned it as so many of us earn it, through being brutalized and suppressed and sometimes through love, too." ("V" is Bond's preferred, gender-free pronoun.)
