Transgender Book Reviews

Orlando's Sleep
Nonfiction by Jennifer Spry
Copyright 1997, 186 pages (with photos)
New Victoria Publishers (Australia)
ISBN 0-934678-80-4

Capsule: This is the autobiography of John Spry, who knew he wanted to be a girl at an early age. Trying to live the masculine ideal as he grew up in Australia proved impossible. After secretive cross-dressing, a failed marriage and much soul-searching, he took the difficult path of becoming a lesbian woman. A story of disappointment, courage and patience.

Full review

Many people, uncomfortable trying to become the men or women that their families or societies expect them to become, have been finding comfortable way stations between those polar opposites. Once in a while, a person takes the complete leap from one pole to the other.

Orlando's Sleep is such a story. It's the well-written and intimate autobiography of John/Jennifer Spry, who has lived in both Australia and the U.S. As John, Spry grew up in a matriarchal family and thought his penis useless. Nothing delighted him more than dressing up in women's clothing, and even though he was discovered by his mother many times, his penchant was tolerated (but not talked about).

If given a choice between playing a rough and tumble boy's game or talking with girls, he'd choose the latter. More than once he was called a poofter (homosexual). Spry is quick to say that dressing was not a sexual thing with him, it was a gender thing. He has always been attracted to females.

At any early age (five or so) he knew he was a girl inside, but this knowledge received no affirmation. So he grew into a young man, went off to college, chased the Australian ideal of the hard-drinking, sporting man, and eventually married the daughter of an American friend. In such a close relationship, his attempts to hide his feminine side took him on a downward spiral. For one thing, he couldn't stay away from crossdressing, and that distressed his wife. On another level, he couldn't share the deepest parts of himself.

The story moves from Australia to New England in the United States. Spry has a strong appreciation for nature and writes entrancingly about it. After 16 years of marriage and the upbringing of an adopted son, he and his wife separate as he begins to seriously look at living as a woman. He is now 43 years old.

The second half of the book describes his slow and oftentimes painful transition from John to Jennifer. Just dressing as a woman, taking hormones and eventually having the sex-change operation is the easy part. The hard part is coexisting with neighbors and the public, and finding a job. His (now her) family members in Australia are continually negative.

Slowly Jennifer comes to life, new friends are found, and new personal discoveries are made. Finally, she returns to Australia to her roots, even as many in her family still refer to her as John.

If Spry makes a main point, it is that sex and gender are separate entities. For example, when she first told Australian acquaintances that she was becoming a women, but that she was still attracted to women and would be a lesbian, the retort was, "Why would you want to change your sex unless you wanted to have sex with a man?" That's why Spry sees herself as a transgendered person rather than as a transsexual. She assumed her true gender, but didn't change her basic sexuality.

Another revelation in this book is the psychological importance of how we dress. As a child and even into his middle years, Spry's femaleness was expressed by the clothing he secretly wore.

Orlando's Sleep is a very good read, especially for those similar to Jennifer or for those who know a John/Jennifer. The reader cannot help but cheer for her.

(Reviewer: Valory Gravois) (Copyright ©1999 by Alchemist/Light Publishing)

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