Not your average American girl : a memoir / edited by Christine Beatty.

Chronicles Beatty's odyssey from collegiate husband to transsexual prostitute, recovery from addiction, and the achievement of her most improbable dreams. Set mostly in the purgatory of San Francisco's Tenderloin district, her story guides readers on an intimate journey through worlds of hippies, strippers, soldiers, urban transsexuals, prostitutes, addicts, jail, and skid row. Ascending against all odds, she is also a pioneering rock musician, a controversial journalist, and a survivor of the worst pandemic of the 1980s. Told with unflinching honesty, humor, and the spirit of a rebel who refuses to be broken, Beatty's is a talk of sublime pathos and the triumph of the human spirit.--Adapted from publisher's description.