Passing

When People Can't Be Who They Are

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By Brooke Kroeger

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$11.99

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$15.99 CAD

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  1. ebook $11.99 $15.99 CAD
  2. Trade Paperback $21.99 $28.99 CAD

This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around December 1, 2004. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.

Despite the many social changes of the last half-century, many Americans still “pass”: black for white, gay for straight, and now in many new ways as well. We tend to think of passing in negative terms–as deceitful, cowardly, a betrayal of one’s self. But this compassionate book reveals that many passers today are people of good heart and purpose whose decision to pass is an attempt to bypass injustice, and to be more truly themselves.

Passing tells the poignant, complicated life stories of a black man who passed as a white Jew; a white woman who passed for black; a working class Puerto Rican who passes for privileged; a gay, Conservative Jewish seminarian and a lesbian naval officer who passed for straight; and a respected poet who radically shifts persona to write about rock’n’roll. The stories, interwoven with others from history, literature, and contemporary life, explore the many forms passing still takes in our culture; the social realities which make it an option; and its logistical, emotional, and moral consequences. We learn that there are still too many institutions, environments, and social situations that force honorable people to twist their lives into painful, deceit-ridden contortions for reasons that do not hold.

Passing is an intellectually absorbing exploration of a phenomenon that has long intrigued scholars, inspired novelists, and made hits of movies like The Crying Game and Boys Don’t Cry.

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Genre:

On Sale
Dec 1, 2004
Page Count
288 pages
Publisher
PublicAffairs
ISBN-13
9781610390262

Brooke Kroeger

About the Author

Brooke Kroeger wrote the biographies, Nellie Bly: Daredevil, Reporter, Feminist, and Fannie: The Talent for Success of Writer Fannie Hurst, and is an associate professor of journalism at New York University. A former foreign correspondent and editor, she has written widely for newspapers and magazines. She lives in Manhattan.

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