Synopses & Reviews
"Theres no news like hearing irrefutable proof that youre not the sole cause of your parents woes, your fathers drinking, your unshakable feeling that youre not put together quite right and finding out the problem all along was your fathers unrequited yearning for angora." —Noelle Howey from
Dress CodesThroughout her childhood in suburban Ohio, Noelle struggled to gain love and affection from her distant father. In compensating for her fathers brusqueness, Noelle idolized her nurturing tomboy mother and her conservative grandma who tried to turn her into “a little lady.” At age 14, Noelles mom told her the family secret straight out: “Dad likes to wear womens clothes.”
As Noelle copes with a turbulent adolescence, further confused by the male and female role models she had as a girl, her father begins to metamorphose into the loving parent she had always longed for—only now outfitted in pedal pushers and pink lipstick. Could becoming a woman make her father a completely different person? With edgy humor, courage, and remarkable sensitivity, Noelle Howey challenges all of our beliefs in what constitutes gender and a “normal” family.
Review
"Noelle Howey's story is astonishing for the skill, perception and integrity with which it is told...both funny and entertaining." (Amy Wilensky, author of Passing for Normal: A Memoir of Compulsion)
Review
“A profoundly affecting account of her fathers long road to self-realization and a meditation on what it means to be female.”—
San Francisco Chronicle Book Review“[Howey] never loses her sense of humor.... A clever writer, Howey takes this incredible material and creates a witty, warm, life-affirming memoir.”—The Washington Post Book World
“Howeys voice is chatty and clear, sassy at times, with all the aplomb of somebody used to explaining an unusual family structure. Dress Codes is a mix of contemporary references and timeless emotion.”—The Oregonian (Portland)
“Its hard to imagine any memoir of recent years that better exemplifies ‘family values—in the form of openness, love, and the sharing of intimacies.”—Salon.com
“This memoir is told with an honesty and tenderness that truly sets it apart from other tell-all tales.”—Elle
Review
“Truth, as it turns out, really is stranger than fiction.Funnier, too. And sadder. Messier, as well—and just generally richer and more interesting. At least, such is the case in Noelle Howeys wise and entertaining memoir
Dress Codes. This book may not be what everyone has in mind when they extol ‘family values, but rarely has the true value of family been so movingly and lovingly evoked.” —John Colapinto, author of
As Nature Made Him:The Boy Who Was Raised as a Girl“With disarming honesty and startling lucidity Noelle Howey beautifully weaves together the stories of three people coming into themselves. Like life, Howeys frank, probing book is sexy and difficult, and painful and joyous.” —This be Nissen, author of The Good People of New York
“Tremendously gratifying, Dress Codes is both funny and entertaining, and purveys a vital social message: that there is not much more important than being at home in your body and mind.” —Amy Wilensky, author of Passing for Normal:A Memoir of Compulsion
Synopsis
Could becoming a woman make Noelle Howey's father a completely different person? With edgy humor, courage, and remarkable sensitivity, the author challenges beliefs in what constitutes gender and a "normal" family.
Synopsis
Throughout her childhood in suburban Ohio, Noelle struggled to gain love and affection from her distant father. In compensating for her fathers brusqueness, Noelle idolized her nurturing tomboy mother and her conservative grandma who tried to turn her into “a little lady.” At age fourteen, Noelles mom told her the family secret: “Dad likes to wear womens clothes.” As Noelle copes with a turbulent adolescence, her father begins to metamorphose into the loving parent she had always longed for—only now outfitted in pedal pushers and pink lipstick.
About the Author
Noelle Howey is the co-editor of
Out of the Ordinary: Essays on Growing Up with Gay, Lesbian and Transgender Parents, winner of two 2000 Lambda Literary Awards. She has also written for
Ms., Jane, Mother Jones, Teen People, Bitch, Mademoiselle, and
Self. A finalist for a GLAAD Media Award, she received a 2001 Nonfiction Fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts. An Ohio native, Noelle Howey lives in Minneapolis with her husband.