NYTimes.com – By Vanessa Grigoriadis
Writing a first book is supposed to drive one mad — just not literally. Then again, few authors embark on a project as psychologically creepy as Norah Vincent’s “Self-Made Man,” a ferocious and gripping nonfiction book, published in 2006, about the 18 months she spent disguised as “Ned.” Reporting from incongruent areas of male inhabitation — including a strip club, a bowling league and a monastery — Ned gave Norah, a feminist and lesbian who took no sexual gratification in cross-dressing, the gift of perception about masculine insecurity, communication and anger, an emotion women are socialized to sublimate. In return, she lost it. “Voluntary Madness” is the fallout.