This abstract is from materials provided by the author.
Contessa is a compassionate yet honest fictionalized novel about a great film star who, upon retirement, decides to reveal to the public that she started off in life as a male—the son of a bootlegger in rural Arkansas. Included are the intimate and unexpurgated facts concerning her life as a transsexual and her sex change in Havana in 1957. Most of the 544 pages are devoted to Contessa's younger years and the hate she had to endure to achieve any happiness in life. This book is a safari through the bigotry, self-righteousness and hate in the United States from the year of Contessa's birth up to the present date.
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