CLEAVAGE: MEN, WOMEN, AND THE SPACE BETWEEN US
JENNIFER FINNEY BOYLE
© 2025 Celadon Books
$29.00
256 pages

Once upon a time not so long ago, "Jim" Boylan was one of "a group of twelve-year-old Visigoths" intent on mischief. They did normal boy stuff: setting off rockets, roughhousing, roaming, and bike-riding. The difference with the other boys in the group was that "Jim" knew she was really a girl.

Back then, vowing that it was a "secret no soul would ever know," "James" went to college, dated, fell in love too easily, then married a woman and fathered two boys. But there was still that tug. Boylan carried the child she once was in her heart — "How I loved the boy I'd been!" — but was a woman "on the inside." Saying it aloud eventually became critical.

Boylan had a hard talk with her wife, Deedie, knowing that it could be the end of their marriage. She's eternally grateful now that it wasn't.

She's also grateful that she became Jennifer when she did, when politics had little to do with that personal decision. She worries about her children, one whom is Trans, both of whom are good, successful people who make Boylan proud. She tries to help other Trans women. And she thinks about the words her mother often said: "Love will prevail."

"Our lives are not a thing to be ashamed of," Boylan says, "or apologized for, or explained. Our lives are a thing of wildness, and tenderness, and joy."

Judge Cleavage by its cover, and you might think you'll get a primer on anatomy. Nope, Boylan only has one chapter on the subject, among many. Instead, she leans heavily on her childhood and her transition rather late in life, her family, and her friends, continuing where her other books leave off. In sum, she guesses that "a huge chunk of the population... still doesn't understand this trans business at all..."

Let that gentle playfulness be a harbinger of what you'll read: some humor about her journey, a few oh-so-deliciously well-placed snarks, and many things that might make your heart hurt: self-inspection that seems confidential, and well-told and satisfying memories that are both nostalgic and personal from "both the Before and the After."

This memoir has the feel of having a cold one with a friend. Boylan fans will devour it. It's also great for anyone who is Trans-curious or just wants to read an enjoyable work from a born storyteller.