Intriguing Memoir

I just finished reading the memoir She's Not There:  A Life in Two Genders by Jenny Boylan.  The uniqueness of this memoir is neverending.  It chronicles the life of one person who is born as Jim Boylan, has a revelation in his teens that his male body does not match his female spirit, and then finally by age 40, he completely transitions to become Jenny Boylan.  For the most part I think transgender people have a much toughter experience than this memoir describes.  Jenny gets support from his immediate family (wife & sons), his colleagues at the college where he teaches, his band members, and his mother.  The only scary experiences he really relates is the difficulty telling people, the initial discomfort of his closest friend, and being stalked one evening as Jenny leaves a bar where the band was playing until one in the morning.  Even the stalking part turns out okay in that Jenny is able to get away from the harassing person and then subsequently lose the stalker while driving home.

Most transgender people I've read about experience extreme discomfort in social situations, have been ridiculed and even attacked by others as well as shunned by their immediate family members.  I was expecting this memoir to display more of that kind of experience; however, I felt Jenny Boylan had an extremely reliable support network that most transgender individuals totally lack.  Jenny's sister decides not to have anything to do with him after the transition, but he still has his mom's support.  I've read about people who totally lose any kind of relationship with their parents after this kind of event.  The most surprising portion of the book to me is how well Jim's boys accept the change.  To me, they are the real heroes of the book because they are so accepting of a parent that they have known as both male and female.  Adults could learn a lot just from the openminded nature of the two boys in this unique family.  

I would recommend this memoir, but also I would like to see a memoir that demonstrates the more frequent and harsh realities that most transgender folks experience.  Also, I don't think that families of the transgendered are always as accepting and forthright as Ms. Boylan's appeared to be; I think many families dealing with a transgender family member have serious arguments and struggle before they ever reach the kind of cooperative, supportive roles that they maybe once used to enjoy before transgenderism entered their lives.