- Hardcover: 352 pages
- Publisher: Virago Press Ltd; A Peter Davison Book edition (3 Dec 1998)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1853816582
- ISBN-13: 978-1853816581
- Product Dimensions: 22 x 14 x 3.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 704,353 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Billy Tipton was a jazz performer who played in clubs throughout the Midwest of the US for nearly 50 years. Tipton never made the big time as a musician and ended up working as a booking agent in Spokane, Washington. Only with Tipton's death in 1989 was it revealed that the five-times-married father of three boys was biologically female.
Diane Wood Middlebrook's biography describes the transformation of Dorothy Tipton, a white Oklahoman who was not allowed to play jazz because she was a girl, into Billy Tipton, a male pianist and bandleader. The author traces the life of this itinerant jazz musician over several decades and through changing constructions of gender.
Middlebrook, whose biography of Anne Sexton was noted for its controversial use of tape recordings and notes made during the poet's psychiatric treatment, was approached by Kitty Tipton Oakes, one of Billy's former wives, to write this biography. She interviewed his/her friends, spouses, family members, and colleagues and found them to have different, yet universally sympathetic, readings of Tipton's gender. In addition to examining what gender is, Suits Me also asks to whom it belongs: the individual or the people who interact with the individual. - -Rebecca Brown
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
'This well researched biography avoids sensationalism in its perceptive portrayal of an artist...'
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The subject-matter (both story and sub-text) of Suits Me is unfailingly fascinating; Diane Wood Middlebrook's treatment of it frequently so. Much to her credit is the amount of personal research she undertook: she writes with the authority of scores of interviews with those involved in the life (lives?) of Billy (Dorothy) Tipton. Generally she can summon up a brisk narrative drive as well, though some periods, notably nearly two decades of domesticity in Spokane, disappear far too rapidly: too recent and embarrassing, perhaps, for the participants to tell all.
Explaining, however, is more of a problem. Ms. Middlebrook takes us with a nice precision through the stages of impersonation for work and cross-dressing for life, but she is less clear on the stages of Billy's career. Why did the ambitions to be a top jazz pianist disappear? She hazards a guess, but I would have been happier if her insights on jazz had been more convincing - this despite the help of Norma Teagarden. But the big question is: how did s/he get away with it? Inevitably Ms. Middlebrook is forced into speculation (perhaps more people knew than are letting on) and her confrontation of various obvious physical questions is frank enough. Some (by no means all) of the sociological/psychological speculation can be unhelpful, however, and it is also unfortunate that she can be reduced to writing, 'Perhaps what happened went something like this.'
However, this is at least honest - and, instead of carping, I should welcome a thorough and well-researched account of a remarkable life whilst hoping that somebody else (one of Billy's errant adopted sons, perhaps) can come up with a different angle and set of insights.
Explaining, however, is more of a problem. Ms. Middlebrook takes us with a nice precision through the stages of impersonation for work and cross-dressing for life, but she is less clear on the stages of Billy's career. Why did the ambitions to be a top jazz pianist disappear? She hazards a guess, but I would have been happier if her insights on jazz had been more convincing - this despite the help of Norma Teagarden. But the big question is: how did s/he get away with it? Inevitably Ms. Middlebrook is forced into speculation (perhaps more people knew than are letting on) and her confrontation of various obvious physical questions is frank enough. Some (by no means all) of the sociological/psychological speculation can be unhelpful, however, and it is also unfortunate that she can be reduced to writing, 'Perhaps what happened went something like this.'
However, this is at least honest - and, instead of carping, I should welcome a thorough and well-researched account of a remarkable life whilst hoping that somebody else (one of Billy's errant adopted sons, perhaps) can come up with a different angle and set of insights.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I first read about this book in a magazine. Being an avid reader of unusual/bizarre books, I thought "Just my cup of tea." So I bought it. Now, I don't claim to know much about the jazz scene of the time or the singers and musicians, but I will say one thing - general opinion at the time was that a woman's place was in the home. So Billy Tipton was born. I was intrigued by just the small review I'd read.
I think, had Billy Tipton been around today, we may have been able to spot the differnce. I'm not sure that cross-dressing was such a well publicised phenomena back then which is why this book interested me. I wanted to see just how well he'd carried it off - read it to see just HOW well he did manage it! You'll be very surprised.
The book is well written and is sympathetic to Billy's reasons. It also shows that those days gone by weren't all they were cracked up to be, unearthing all sorts of sub-stories within. An intriguing book, but don't expect all the answers to your questions.
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