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Title details for The Man in the Gray Flannel Skirt by Jon-Jon Goulian - Available

The Man in the Gray Flannel Skirt

by Jon-Jon Goulian
Rob Shapiro
Audiobook
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The vibrant, funny, and heartwarming story of an outcast who becomes an odd man in
 
If you have ever felt like a misfit in school or been paralyzed by your family’s imposing expectations, if you have ever obsessed about your appearance or panicked about choosing a career path, if you have ever wondered if every single thing to which your body is exposed, from egg yolks to X-rays, might harm you, then you may be surprised to find a kindred spirit in The Man in the Gray Flannel Skirt.
Growing up in sunny La Jolla, California, Jon-Jon Goulian was a hyperneurotic kid who felt out of place wherever he turned, and who, in his own words, was forever on the verge of “caving in beneath the pressures of modern life.” From his fear of competition to his fear of pimples, from his fear of sex to his fear of saturated fat, the range and depth of Jon-Jon’s phobias were seemingly boundless. With his two older brothers providing a sterling example he believed he could never live up to, and his stern grandfather, the political philosopher Sidney Hook, continually calling him to account for his intellectual failure, Jon-Jon, feeling pressed against the wall, wracked with despair, and dizzy with insecurity, instinctively resorted, for reasons that became clear to him only many years later, to a most ingenious scheme for keeping conventional expectations at bay: women’s clothing! Ingenious, perhaps, but woefully ineffective, as Jon-Jon discovers, again and again, that behind his skirt, leggings, halter top, and high heels, he’s still as wildly neurotic, and as wracked with anxiety, as he’s always been.
In this hilarious and heartfelt memoir, Jon-Jon Goulian’s witty and exuberant voice shines through, as he comes to terms with what it means to truly be yourself.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    May 17, 2011

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780307876768
      • File size: 273129 KB
      • Duration: 09:29:01

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      This talkative, self-indulgent, and mad memoir of a man born to great privilege is a vain, wandering waste. Goulian, now in his late 40s, has done little with his life--despite having had all the advantages. What is intended to be interesting is that he is a heterosexual who adorns his tattooed body with lip gloss, sarongs, halter tops, and perfume. However, the shallowness of the work poses the question: Why should we care? Rob Shapiro narrates in an entertaining, direct, and thoughtful way, conveying by his tone much of the self-deprecating and mildly sardonic humor. However, this highly skilled narrator cannot rescue a catalogue of neuroses without much explanation or insight. W.A.G. (c) AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      February 14, 2011
      A man wears women's clothes, rejects a legal career, and otherwise baffles his parents in this flamboyant but callow memoir. Goulian, a former secretary at the New York Review of Books, has a Columbia B.A., an unused law degree, and a proud history of menial jobs and underachievement: "I own nothing, save nothing, accomplish nothing tangible and have no permanent hold on life." Goulian relates body-image issues (he had his first nose job at age 15), a militant refusal to grow up (at age 29 he was collecting stuffed animals and calling his long-suffering father "Dada"), or his gruesomely detailed sexual anxieties. Much of the book consists of Goulian fencing with relatives—including his choleric grandfather, the neoconservative philosopher Sidney Hook—as they nag him to do something with his life, but his defiance of bourgeois propriety and ambition comes off as defensive narcissism. Through all his flashy attempts to grab the reader's attention, Goulian's story never seems interesting or serious enough to deserve it. Photos.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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