I said it as plain as I could make it. "I'm not a man, you guys. I'm a woman."

Norah Vincent's book on her Year Disguised as a Man has arrived, and so far (taking a break between chapters 2 and 3) it's, well, interesting! well done! and really well-written.

The opening chapter - besides from Norah's figuring out how to dress, speak and act in order to pass for a man - includes her unceremonious reflexions on what siginificance it might have as a premise for this particular book that she's a lesbian: "Practically from birth, I was the kind of hard-core tomboy that makes you think there must be a gay gene."(5) "How else to explain..." she continues, recollecting incidents from her childhood and puberty, keeping matters open and allowing the readers to ponder them on their own.

She has a fortunate talent for describing people's manners (her own too) and takes good note of the way these manners change when she introduces herself as Ned and hangs around with the guys for a while. Eventually - and this is not the typical thing for reporters in disguise to do - she lets people know that she's really Norah. She is simply letting them in on her secret after a while and is taking their response into account as part of her research and part of her story.

So much for Getting Started. And for Friends. Next on Norah Vincent's table of contents is: Love.