Adult Human Male on the road.
Author Oliver Radclyffe keeps me going... come meet us Wednesday on Zoom!
I’m hiding (aka writing) in the Berkshires this rainy, uncharacteristically cold Memorial Day weekend. Ever grateful for my writerly, romantic friends who welcome me year after year to reground with the trees, their impressive collection of books, and the sweetest lapdog that lives to snuggle. My kind of canine (or human.) It’s tempting to read under the covers all day, especially with Tourmaline’s brand-new biography of Marsha P. Johnson demanding attention. (Our June book club read!) But I keep reminding myself: the mission here is to write. Write or you can’t go to dinner with friends. Write or you wasted your time in the forest. Write or you’ll never get published. Write or it will gnaw you to the bone.
A few weeks ago, I mentioned this essay that has rattled around in my brain for a long time. It’s trapped in some sort of narrative purgatory; the conceit is there, I can pitch it, and I sketched out the details, but the shape feels loose, fuzzy, incoherent. I can’t seem to untangle it.
Last night, I finished re-reading
’s Frighten the Horses in preparation for our conversation this Wednesday. (RSVP!) In between chapters, I reread sections of his monograph of essays: Adult Human Male. I recommend reading the two together. Oliver the memoirist is vulnerable and, for most of the book, unsteady. Oliver the essayist is decisive and crisp. Adult Human Male is a manifesto. A clear-eyed, embodied man calling bluff on the “hostile cis perspective.”
Adult Human Male was published first, but was written after Frighten the Horses was already in contract with Roxane Gay Books (Grove Atlantic.) The opportunity to write a collection emerged fortuitously after the Unbound Edition Press publisher Patrick Davis read one of Oliver’s essays (on Radclyffe Hall!) The only catch was that he had to deliver a complete manuscript in just a few months.
To meet the quick deadline, Oliver pulled together all of his notes and ideas that were too political for the memoir and “jammed until they all fell into place.”
I think the speed at which I had to work helped - I really had very little time to revise, so writing in this brief, punchy way seemed to be the best and fastest way forward.
We readers are the beneficiaries of Oliver’s sprint. The book is accessible, not academic. A small, approachable book about gender that fires back at the group of British gender critical writers (and one billionaire author in particular) who have put trans people (him/me/us) in their crosshairs. Even the book title is a counterpunch. This group of too-online “feminists” would tag their posts #AdultHumanFemale to identify each other.
The book is so damn quotable. If I could, I’d tuck a copy into every hotel room drawer. My copy is full of scribbles, underlines, LOLs, hearts, and “!!!”
Perhaps you saw in the news this week that the very big, bad bill passed this week in the House removed all gender affirming care from Medicaid. It’s worse than that. If it becomes law, the bill would prohibit any Affordable Care Act marketplace plans from covering care. I’m tempted to send copies of Adult Human Male to the Senate, as if reason, logic, and empathy still held water in Congress. But, the bill is cruel and regressive in 100 other ways. And, as Oliver explains, the trans community is “a percentage of the population so small it found itself on the wrong side of the decimal point.” Our government is wrongfully deporting and imprisoning some bodies, while condemning others to feel hopelessly trapped inside themselves.
Oliver’s fearlessly foregrounds the physical. His phantom penis is central to Frighten the Horses and, in Adult Human Male, Oliver inventories the rest of his body parts. Multiple times, Oliver situates himself in front of the mirror, assessing what he sees and the pain he feels. I relate. How many times did I stare at my body in disbelief until I couldn’t stand the sight any longer? In one particularly charming section of Adult Human Male, Oliver remarks on his body’s newfound ability to collect belly button lint.
So, back to that essay I’m writing/avoiding. Reading Oliver last night made me realize that I’m trying to talk about my body without actually describing my body. Turns out, I need to put my skin in the game.
Off to go write, for real… so that I can reward myself with MARSHA!
xx Kyle
FYI: Adult Human Male just went into its second printing. HURRAY! You can order directly here from Unbound Editions’ website.
Come hang with me and Oliver this Wednesday, May 28th at 8p ET / 5p PT. The Being Alive Book Club is a casual gathering where all are welcome and invited to discuss the book or hang back and listen. Have a question for Oliver and can’t make our session? Drop below in the comments or over in our Substack chat thread.
I could hire you for my book review and preview because you damn won’t know how to do a good job. And I also see that Oliver penis is a great importance in this book and that is very thrilling and interesting to me Kyle.
This was very lovely and I can’t wait for Wednesday. It’s amazing what you do here🫠
Also just finished FtH. Ready to hang back and listen to you and Oliver converse. I read the book in three sittings. Seems like his story could save someone's life.