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Reviews
"Sometimes in life we come across people that make us reflect on our lives, and there are few who in doing so can make us laugh like idiots, even at our seemingly most painful and embarrassing moments. Carol Sherman-Jones is a voice beaming brightly throughout the world sharing her journey through life to get her message out with her new book My Life as a Gay Man in a Straight Woman's Body. She learned to grin, and bare it...making the best of bad situations. She shows us how easy it is to fall off our right path and how easy it can be to find your way back. Sherman-Jones writes candidly about her shadows, bringing them to light, and sharing the lessons she learned from them. There are few authors that can write an autobiography and keep your attention with the almost unbelievable details as though reading fiction. I look forward to more of her books."
Heidi Young
Book Reviewer for "The Charleston Loop"
"I found My Life as a Gay Man in a Straight Woman's Body uplifting and fun-clearly it was written from the heart. Carol Sherman-Jones is a woman I have to meet."
Jill Duval
Publisher, New Mexico WOMAN
Taken from The Letter (a GLBT newspaper published in Louisville, KY and distributed throughout Kentucky, seven other states, and metropolitan Indianapolis, Cincinnati, and Nashville)
--David Williams, Editor
Book Review: Carol's of Cincinnati
by Bronson Majors
A drag queen-hippie-street person hangout in downtown Cincinnati? The capital of conservative Republican America? Isn't that someplace Alice wandered through?
As all of us who know and love the Queen City for its cultural flavor and-yes-its vibrant diversity-it's not a far stretch to picture a fun-loving restaurant that's not only existed but thrived in the heart of Ohio's most conservative county since the early 1990s. Were it not for a few moralistic folks in power, this city might be one of the great emeralds in the crown jewels of Middle America.
Carol's on Main Street-formerly Carol's Corner Café-is the focus of a candid autobiography by its founder, Carol Sherman-Jones, who, as the title of her crackerjack book suggests, really must be a gay spirit existing in a straight woman's body. No one who's gone through so much crap could really be all that straight!
During the 70s and early 80s, Sherman-Jones led a fairly typical life for an American teenager and young adult of the day: sex, drugs, rock 'n roll. That purposeless life took her from boyfriend to drug to party to job after job. But whether she always understood it or not, she was also on a spiritual quest that would eventually lead her to the relatively fine-tuned balance she has today. (Well, OK, she still has a lot of the old kick in her!)
Had it not been for the Goddess Fortuna-in the shape of a bad motor that gave out on her way from Phoenix to New York--she might never have found Cincinnati on the map. Considering such bad luck a sign of some sort, she settled down on the lower rungs of the restaurant ladder until one day a run-down greasy spoon literally slid into her lap. Price tag: a hundred pennies. Recognizing it as perhaps her one great chance in life, she grabbed it for all it was worth, cleaned it up with a little help from a passel of friends, and turned the business into one of Cincinnati's liveliest eateries.
All was not fun and games, of course. Her story takes us into a Cincinnati few suspect exists: crack-smoking chefs, waiters with boyfriend problems, bums in alleys, customers in strawberry suits with an odd sense of humor, and half-whacked, drunken ladies in fake wheelchairs. Then there were the reams of tax forms, ho-hum policemen, and city inspectors who came down on her hard but never seemed to notice the derelict apartment house next door.
The sadder moments: beautiful young friends with AIDS who didn't make it. She's dedicated various chapters to their memory.
How could a restaurant owner get any sleep? The answer: she didn't. After seven years, Carol wasn't running Carol's: Carol's was running her.
Some parts may sound too self-adulatory, but hey: give the woman a break. For most of her life she lived with the curse of low self-esteem, something most gay men aren't unfamiliar with. That's what makes this book so special. It's a triumphant celebration of a life that's seen more ups and downs than it needed, yet has emerged into middle age with all of its joie de vivre intact.
If to be gay in America is to learn how to survive with just half your humor intact, Sherman-Jones-who's straight--has developed that skill to perfection. Such gusto ought to infect many more lives than it does. Hers is a witty, ballsy bio that will leave you exhilarated, exhausted...and eager to see it made into a movie. We all need to take a few lessons from one of the Queen City's feistiest broads.
Bravo to Carol!
Carol Sherman-Jones. My Life as a Gay Man in a Straight Woman's Body. Chandler, AZ: Five Star Publications, Inc., 2002. 221 pages paperback. $14.95. ISBN 1-58985-004-1. Available in the region at Carmichael's, Outloud! Books & Gifts, Out Word Bound, Pink Pyramid, Planet Proud, and other fine stores. Also in the Williams-Nichols Collection at the University of Louisville.
[Sherman-Jones no longer owns Carol's, but her spirit is still very much alive there. See what all the excitement is about at Carol's on Main Street, which proudly distributes The Letter. It's at 825 Main between 8th and 9th].
"At a time when we incessantly worry about money, retirement, daycare, the stock market, and the seemingly short supply of peace and civility, comes a book that will refill your reservoir of hope. Following this remarkable woman's journey through life will change your attitude about yourself, your past, and your future.
The book's power comes not just from following Ms. Sherman-Jones as she tackles difficult issues, like the death of those she loves, but also from having numerous vignettes to which we can all relate, like learning what it truly means to be loved. Fortunately the book also holds answers to some hilariously funny questions such as why it is so important for waitresses to wear underwear along with their nude-colored pantyhose.
By peering into Ms. Sherman-Jones' life we are reminded that regardless of who we are, where we have been, or where we are headed, each of us has a largely untapped power to turn our life into exactly the type of life we would like it to be. We might not always know the right path to take, and sometimes we might intentionally take the wrong path, but when we are ready for it, each of us has the power to turn our life into a wondrous work of art."
Héctor A. Polanco, MBA, CMA, JD
This is an escorted tour through the gay night club scene in Cincinnati, and the psyche of a questing young woman. It's a very funny book, whose crisp one-liners and vivid images are laced with rueful wisdom and punctuated by howls of pain. Although intensely and uncompromisingly personal, it throws a penetrating light on current American values and morals; older readers will find it a rollicking but disturbing ride across the generational line.
Ted Berkman
ISBN 1-58985-004-1
$ 14.95
Published by Five Star Publications, Inc.
Published 2001
Paperback
234 pages
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