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Mark 947: A Life Shaped by God, Gender and Force of Will
by Calpernia Sarah Addams
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| Edition: Paperback |
| ISBN: 0595263763 |
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Publisher: Writers Club Press ( 2002)
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Dimensions : 0.58 x 9.00 x 6.00 (in inches)
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Average Customer Review: 
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Description : Mark 947 chronicles one woman’s progress from spirit to flesh, a literal transubstantiation by force of will. Born a boy to loving but religious parents in the rural heartland of Tennessee, Calpernia Addams found her way on an unlighted path from forbidden dreams to fulfillment as a scholar, showgirl and eventually, as a woman. Sultry stage siren by night, intellectual chameleon by day, she worked her way to the top of Nashville’s underground entertainment scene without ever succumbing to drugs, alcohol or bitterness, and through it all never lost her heart. When love walked into her new life in the form of a handsome young Army private, it seemed everything had at last come together. Then at the pinnacle of her career, as she was crowned Tennessee Entertainer of the Year in front of hundreds of adoring fans, her love was murdered in his sleep sixty miles away by bigoted fellow soldiers, sparking a national controversy that resonates still. Whether ablaze in the dazzle of the spotlight or haunting the woods of Tennessee in flannel and pigtails, Calpernia lives her life with the humor and spirit of a woman who can face anything and still move forward with hope intact.
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Review : Reviewer: Christine Beatty from North Hollywood, CA United States
As a transsexual woman, Calpernia Addams has walked an incredible path. Aside from her strict Fundamentalist upbringing, she was dragged into a national spotlight after her boyfriend was murdered in a 1999 "gay" bashing on an Army base. Such is the range of experience so touchingly recounted in Calpernia's autobiography Mark 947.
In the bible the book of Mark, chapter 9, verse 47 begins with "And if thine eye offends thee, pluck it out," a dramatic metaphor for the sex change that she'd wanted for many years. The title of this work is a jab at the biblical scripture she was bombarded with from early childhood. To escape this strict world, and her own inexplicaple feelings, Calpernia ran away to join the Navy, ending up in Desert Storm. Later, on a lonely outpost on an Aleutian island, she becomes increasingly aware she does not fit in as a guy.
The remainder of the story details an ongoing awakening into her sexuality and gender, from her first steps in "drag" to her crowning as Tennessee's Entertainer of the Year. Sweetly yet tragically, these pages introduce and then all too quickly take away the love of her life, Army PFC Barry Winchell who loved her as his girlfriend. The final chapters vividly portray her anguish, the dazed nightmare of the murder trial, and her beginning steps into acceptance.
This is an amazing and touching first book, one that I would recommend to anybody.
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