Self-Made Man

I listened to the audio version read by the author, Norah Vincent. Vincent went undercover as a man, to experience what she felt would be a life of privilege and ease. She found it wasn’t so easy as she had pictured, though. Vincent’s experiences as “Ned” tend toward the extreme: bowling leagues, high-pressure sales jobs and “men’s movement” retreats. It’s perhaps not surprising that little is said of ordinary, well-adjusted men. When Ned goes looking for extremes, he’s bound to find them. Still, Vincent’s observations of men’s interactions and the cultural expectations of them are often interesting, insightful, and vibrant.