This is a deceptively easy read by Noelle Howey, recounting family (or as she might say, dysfunctional family) life as an only child who grows up as her father transitions.

It is an easy read because Noelle tells her story well. For devourers of TGism, it may be a bit of a disappointment in that her father's TGism is placed within the context of wider family matters, not least Noelle'sown personal growth, which is amply demonstrated by the last chapter which deals with a period of her own deep depression.

This is, of course, absolutely right - we are just one part of the tapestry of human existence. Noelle does not try to understand why her father (Da) is the way she is, after all Noelle is a hormonal teenager full of her own trials and tribulations at the time things are happening. Naturally, she is more concerned on how this impacts on her everyday life and her mother's.

The book covers far more than this as it deals with her grandparents and how her parents met. In some ways this might be seen as self indulgent, but as a setting for a transition event it sets the mundane contextual nature.

I liked it - a human story told with humanity.

Picador, ISBN 0-312-42220-2