Lynn Lobban went to Dartmouth College in 1968 as one of its first women. Desperate to fit in on a campus of 3,000 men, she pledged a fraternity and endured a challenging initiation to become a full-fledged member. But as desperate as she was for male power, she needed male approval.
One of the Boys: Surviving Dartmouth, Family, and the Wilderness of Men
is a sometimes devastating, and often humorous look at how family abuse and male culture frequently converge to harm women throughout their lives; how one woman suppressed her traumatic childhood to become a fire-brand, fighting the institutional injustice of a college that refused to accept her as an equal.
"Crisp, unflinchingly sharp prose makes this book a remarkable remembrance of a troubled childhood . . . [Lobban] notes how her experience at Dartmouth answered her stated need to be 'one of the boys, and offered her temporary quasi-membership in a male power structure . . . a skillfully composed, often disturbing read with barbed moments of levity."
-
Kirkus Reviews
"
One of the Boys
is a must read for anyone who has survived a dysfunctional home and any form of childhood trauma. Insightful, relatable, and at times even hilarious, Lobban's memoir is a page turner where you'll find yourself rooting for her on every step of her unconventional journey."
- Yvonne Cassidy, author of
The Other Boy