Amateur (book)
{{short description|2018 book by Thomas Page McBee}}
{{Infobox book|
| name = Amateur: A True Story About What Makes a Man
| followed_by =
| title_orig =
| translator =
| image = Amateur-A True Story About What Makes a Man.jpg
| caption =
| author = Thomas Page McBee
| illustrator =
| cover_artist =
| country = United States
| language = English
| series =
| subject =
| genre = Memoir
| publisher = Scribner
| release_date = August 14, 2018
| english_release_date =
| media_type = Print
| pages =
| isbn = 9781501168741
| isbn_note =
| dewey =
| congress =
| oclc =
| preceded_by =
| illustrators =
}}
Amateur: A True Story About What Makes a Man is a nonfiction book by Thomas Page McBee, published August 14, 2018, by Scribner.
The book was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Nonfiction and was shortlisted for The Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction and the Wellcome Book Prize.
Background
McBee began regularly writing about masculinity in The Rumpus, which led to his first book, Man Alive, in 2014.{{Cite web|last=Wheeler|first=Dave|date=2018-07-13|title=Review: Amateur: A True Story About What Makes a Man|url=https://www.shelf-awareness.com/issue.html?issue=3290|url-status=live|access-date=2022-01-14|website=Shelf Awareness|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190619020142/https://www.shelf-awareness.com/issue.html?issue=3290 |archive-date=2019-06-19 }} During this time, he was transitioning and "wrestling with the implications of embracing a gender responsible for so much hurt in the world."
In hopes of improving his self-defense skills and further investigating masculinity, McBee began boxing and eventually participated in a charitable boxing match, making him the first transgender man to box in Madison Square Garden.{{Cite web|date=2019-04-05|title=Thomas Page McBee|url=https://www.cccb.org/en/participants/file/thomas-page-mcbee/231191|url-status=live|access-date=2022-01-14|website=centre de cultura contemporània de barcelona|language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210118172225/https://www.cccb.org/en/participants/file/thomas-page-mcbee/231191 |archive-date=2021-01-18 }}
Reception
Amateur received a starred review from Publishers Weekly,{{Cite web|title=Nonfiction Book Review: Amateur: A True Story About What Makes a Man by Thomas Page McBee. Scribner, $24 (224p) ISBN 978-1-5011-6874-1|url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-5011-6874-1|access-date=2022-01-14|website=PublishersWeekly.com|language=en|archive-date=2022-01-14|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220114181105/https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-5011-6874-1|url-status=live}} as well as positive reviews from Kirkus,{{Cite web|date=2018-06-18|title=Amateur|url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/thomas-page-mcbee/amateur/|url-status=live|access-date=2022-01-14|website=Kirkus Reviews|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220114181104/https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/thomas-page-mcbee/amateur/ |archive-date=2022-01-14 }} The New Republic,{{Cite magazine|last=Livingstone|first=Jo|date=2018-08-28|title=A Trans Memoir Explores Masculinity In Extremis|magazine=The New Republic|url=https://newrepublic.com/article/150899/trans-memoir-explores-masculinity-extremis|access-date=2022-01-14|issn=0028-6583|archive-date=2022-01-14|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220114181104/https://newrepublic.com/article/150899/trans-memoir-explores-masculinity-extremis|url-status=live}} Buzzfeed,{{Cite web|last=Rebolini|first=Arianna|date=2018-08-31|title=35 New Books To Get Excited About This Fall|url=https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ariannarebolini/best-books-fall-2018-fiction-nonfiction-poetry|url-status=live|access-date=2022-01-14|website=BuzzFeed News|language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180901005346/https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ariannarebolini/best-books-fall-2018-fiction-nonfiction-poetry |archive-date=2018-09-01 }} Booklist,{{Cite book|date=July 2018|title=Amateur|url=https://www.booklistonline.com/Amateur-A-True-Story-about-What-Makes-a-Man-Thomas-Page-McBee/pid=9583722|url-status=live|access-date=2022-01-14|via=Booklist|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220114181112/https://www.booklistonline.com/Amateur-A-True-Story-about-What-Makes-a-Man-Thomas-Page-McBee/pid=9583722 |archive-date=2022-01-14 }} The Rumpus,{{Cite web|date=2019-06-21|title=What to Read When You Want to Celebrate Pride|url=https://therumpus.net/2019/06/what-to-read-when-you-want-to-celebrate-pride/|access-date=2022-01-14|website=The Rumpus.net|language=en|archive-date=2022-01-14|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220114181104/https://therumpus.net/2019/06/what-to-read-when-you-want-to-celebrate-pride/|url-status=live}} The Guardian,{{Cite web|last=Guest|first=Katy|date=2018-10-26|title=Amateur by Thomas Page McBee review – a trans boxer's life lessons|url=http://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/oct/26/amateur-by-thomas-page-mcbee-review|url-status=live|access-date=2022-01-14|website=the Guardian|language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181026085434/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/oct/26/amateur-by-thomas-page-mcbee-review |archive-date=2018-10-26 }} Los Angeles Review of Books,{{Cite web|last=Glazner|first=Greg|date=2015-01-04|title=Becoming a Man: A Memoir of Sex, Gender, Trauma, and Transformation|url=https://www.lareviewofbooks.org/article/becoming-a-man/|url-status=live|access-date=2022-01-14|website=Los Angeles Review of Books|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170710230757/https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/becoming-a-man |archive-date=2017-07-10 }} and Shelf Awareness.{{Cite web|last=Wheeler|first=Dave|date=2018-08-14|title=Amateur: A True Story About What Makes a Man|url=https://www.shelf-awareness.com/readers-issue.html?issue=740|url-status=live|access-date=2022-01-14|website=Shelf Awareness|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180826141220/http://www.shelf-awareness.com:80/readers-issue.html?issue=740 |archive-date=2018-08-26 }} Kirkus called the book "[p]rovocative and illuminating". Writing for Shelf Awareness, Dave Wheeler noted that "McBee ponders these sociological implications [of masculinity] with refreshing care and empathy, untangling a positive depiction of masculinity from the toxic strains paraded through contemporary discourse. His writing is marvelous, pinning ideas that could so easily be abstract to the visceral, physical poetry of boxing." The Rumpus called it "a must-read for parsing through the many layers of toxic masculinity and white privilege in American culture that allowed Kavanaugh to be seated on the Supreme Court."
The Financial Times{{Cite news|last=Armstrong|first=Robert|date=2018-08-24|title=The fight stuff: what makes a man?|work=Financial Times|url=https://www.ft.com/content/cf8095d6-9988-11e8-9702-5946bae86e6d|access-date=2022-01-14|archive-date=2022-01-14|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220114181123/https://www.ft.com/content/cf8095d6-9988-11e8-9702-5946bae86e6d|url-status=live}} and The A.V. Club{{Cite web|last=Goldblatt|first=Amanda|date=2016-08-06|title=The first trans man to box in Madison Square Garden spars with masculinity|url=https://www.avclub.com/the-first-trans-man-to-box-in-madison-square-garden-spa-1827994740|url-status=live|access-date=2022-01-14|website=The A.V. Club|language=en-us|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180806165958/https://www.avclub.com/the-first-trans-man-to-box-in-madison-square-garden-spa-1827994740 |archive-date=2018-08-06 }} provided mixed reviews. Robert Armstrong of The Financial Times said, "Amateur is a heck of a tale, and McBee is a gifted memoirist. He is particularly good at communicating his own fear and ambivalence—both in crossing the gender frontier and in learning a sport that draws on a brutal code of male behaviour that his experience has given him reason to reject." Writing for The A.V. Club, Amanda Goldblatt noted that the book covered "countless topics... a lot to pack into such a thin volume, which weighs in at just over 200 pages," meaning the "discussions can sometimes feel fleeting, moving more like a feature article than a book." However, Goldbatt complimented McBee's "genius for association and nimble structural moves."
The book was included on lists of the best memoirs, best nonfiction, and best LGBT books of 2018.
References
{{reflist}}
{{Lambda Literary Awards}}
Category:2010s LGBTQ literature
Category:2018 non-fiction books
Category:Transgender non-fiction books
Category:LGBTQ literature in the United States
Category:Charles Scribner's Sons books
Category:2018 LGBTQ-related literary works