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Considered one of the great comic creations in Literature, listed as one of the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die, and indisputably a queer classic, Myra Breckinridge was the book which made transsexuality a household topic, and inspired the camp film of the same name, starring Raquel Welch in the title role. Along with its sequel Myron, this volume features a new introduction by Gore Vidal himself for this edition.
In Myra Breckinridge, Myron gets a sex change, becomes Myra, and then moves to Hollywood in order to collect the inheritance left by her "husband'' Myron. The one problem is Uncle Buck Loner - who stands between her and the property - a profitable school for would-be actors run by Buck. Myra is certain that everything will turn out her way, as she is the New American Woman - Every man wants her, but none may have her.
The sequel feature poor Myron as he battles against Myra, only this time they've somehow become stuck in the 1948 movie "Siren of Babylon." It's a strange world, the Hollywood of 1948, and Myron tries frantically to return to 1973 and his beloved Richard M. Nixon, while Myra has plans of her own to both bring back the glory of MG Studios by fixing "Siren" and to curb the human population growth by re-forming man in her image - strong, sterile Amazonian woman. Her one problem: Myron and how to keep him from escaping the film. This book takes a bizarre and wonderfully campy look at the Hollywood of the 1940s as seen through the eyes of the 1970s, and Myra's self-proclaimed mission to "realign the sexes" by turning macho heterosexual boys into homosexuals is both audacious and hilarious!
A darkly satirical statement on American hypocrisy, Hollywood fantasies, and changing sexual mores, (it was published only a few years after the world's first sex-change operations made headlines), what makes it even more ground-breaking, for its time and even today. is that the character of Myra is shrewd, witty, beautiful, talented, intelligent - in short, she was everything that queer / transgender people are not supposed to be! Also check out all of Gore Vidal's other writings.
Paperback, 448 Pages, Orig. Publ. 1968/1974 This Ed. Publ. 1993
Author: Gore Vidal