Gina
The Woman Within
By Gina Large 

Learning New Stuff to be Tolerant On

A Rare Journey that Has
Something To Teach Us All

     Gina is a poignantly written memoir. It is one of those books that may not be read by the very person who would benefit from its reading. It is the first-person tale of a real-life transsexual. It is the kind of book that can open one’s mind to the hardships of others; understanding, after all, is the only true path to tolerance.

      The author, Gina Large, opens her book by talking about the self that lay inside her male body: “…this little lady didn’t die. She survived in her solitary confinement for 19,723 days, just watching, waiting and wishing.” With those words, the reader knows, is a story as movingly told as any is about to be unraveled. The reader is also aware that it will include a look at a world she otherwise may never be privy to.

     Gina tells a story that includes tales of the emotional roller-coaster she rode to the age of fifty-four that included cross-dressing, a relationship with a young man, her marriage to a woman (while Gina was still physically a man), the birth of her child (while she was still physically a man), the nervous collapses caused by living what amounted to a lie and much more.

     Gina: The Woman Within is a book of honesty. It has been said that the honest writing is most akin to great literature. I can’t think of a memoir that approaches the parameters expected of a classic or that could be printed in a “Great Literature of the World” collection, but this book is—if nothing else—honest. It is also interesting, heart-warming and mind-broadening.