Grab the Lapels

In the Form of a Question by Amy Schneider

From November 2021 to January 2022, Amy Schneider dominated Jeopardy! She won 40 games before her defeat, but went on to play in the Tournament of Champions and won. Schneider has the second longest streak in Jeopardy! history, behind Ken Jennings. Famously, Schneider is also open trans. It’s typical for the game host to ask each player one question about their lives after the first commercial break. Schneider played so many games that she had the space and time to talk more about being trans in later episodes. While Jeopardy! is often considered a game for the educated elite, and it’s a proper show — no picking up the host and shaking him around like on The Price is Right – Schneider’s memoir is rather bawdy. I found it difficult to put down In the Form of a Question: The Joys and Rewards of a Curious Life by Amy Schneider.

Schneider was born in 1979, so our experiences overlap a great deal. Each chapter is a question that she is commonly asked, such as “How Did You Get So Smart?” and “What’s It Like Having ADD?” and “Okay Then, So What Have Your Experiences with Drugs Been Like?” In one chapter, Schneider describes how her affinity for Daria helped her to be less judgment and reengage with the world when she was depressed and isolated. I, too, see Daria as a representation of how I exist in this world. Thus, if you’re a baby Gen X or elder Millennial, you’ll feel more kinship with Schneider.

Oddly, I also felt like Schneider sounded like my spouse. Anything to do with ADHD, how Schneider learned and read, the way her brain works, etc., sounded familiar. Rarely have I read a book that develops a relationship to me so strongly. There are so many chapters that could apply to you, too: favorite teachers, theater, sexual relationships, mental health, confessing something hard, growing up religious, etc.

Best of all, Schneider is funny in a way I didn’t notice when she was on Jeopardy! (again, it’s a “formal people” game show). Her timing is fantastic, and the zingers often appear in footnotes. A simple one states, “Somewhat offensive, but not, like Speedy Gonzales levels of offensive.” They don’t interrupt the flow of a sentence because they’re at the bottom of the page and read more like an aside. I’m glad she did not use parenthesis extensively, which, for me, makes the main part of the sentence messy and get lost. The topics we didn’t get to hear about on Jeopardy!, such as drug use, sexual activities, and how she realized she is trans, appear in In the Form of a Question. Some stories are shockingly funny, such as the time she tried to help a woman standing outside in the cold only to realize the woman was a prostitute, and everything devolves into awkwardness you can feel.

Although I am open-minded and 100% support trans people, the trans experience is one I have a hard time wrapping my head around. That doesn’t mean I think their lives are what they say they are, just that my brain doesn’t “get it.” When I look for books about trans people, I see statistics about violence, hate crimes, suicide rates, and types of oppression. The truth doesn’t always translate to understanding how a transperson exists. However, reading a memoir in which the writer candidly writes about all the times she could have realized she was trans but did not, what it was like to get married to a woman before transitioning, and then coming out at work and beginning hormone therapy, helped me see that part of Schneider’s life. But more so, I see other aspects of Schneider and when being trans affects her experiences, allowing me to step back and zoom out, to see the fully lived experiences of a transwoman.

In the Form of a Question is really funny and personal, and I found it hard to put down.

42 comments

  1. Sounds like a fun and interesting book, especially if you saw her on Jeopardy at all.

    Also, I have to say the quote that came in you post email notice regarding Pride and Prejudice cracked me up! So much truth in it 🙂

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    • I never thought about Pride and Prejudice being relatable because Elizabeth’s family embarrasses her. I’ve never made it through that book, though I should give it another try, preferably with an edition that has notes about the time period and meaning behind some things that happen. Like, why would she be embarrassed if I wouldn’t today, only to find out it was some violated social norm from the 1800’s.

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      • Oh, I can’t resist this of course Melanie. The answer in one word is TACTLESS. Elizabeth’s mother has no sense of keeping things that should be private private, of respecting her daughters’ feelings and privacy. How comfortable would you feel if you were out at a family social occasion and met someone you rather like, and you mother started talking loudly about how he was a good catch and it looked like he was interested in you? That’s not a social norm from the 1800s but poor behaviour – tactlessness – in any time I think. Or, your young sister flaunts her marriage in front of you, when you the important people around you know that she had behaved so badly that her marriage was brokered. That need to broker the marriage is more related to social norms regarding “fallen women” but the girl’s silly prideful behaviour about being married/achieving her goal before her older sisters is tactless and unkind at any time. These universals are why I love Austen. She gets human beings at a fundamental level.

        Now, this book. Love your post and how you are able to show how and why you really liked the book. It sounds like one I could enjoy too, even if I’m not the demographic. My only comment is that we’ve had Jeopardy on here – franchised version I think – and I just could never like it’s the-answer-is-a-question twist on quiz shows. It just sounded forced to me, and spoilt what you are saying is a decent not silly quiz show.

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  2. Terry Pratchett was also a master of comic footnotes! Often his footnotes were the thing I carried away after reading one of his novels. I think it’s a great way to deliver a punchline.

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    • Especially if they put the footnote in the right place in the sentence in the main text. I hate when it interrupts a clause or comes too far after the point. I’ve never read Pratchett because I was under the impression all his books are series, and I don’t want to start a new series.

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      • They are loosely connected and the same characters show up across the books, but they are self-contained stories and you can read them in (almost) any order. There are a couple of places that don’t work as starting points – including, ironically, the first book – but mostly they work independently from one another.

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          • The first book’s not very good! It’s just reheated 80s fantasy tropes inexplicably tied to a couple of real-world scenarios. He wasn’t in his stride yet and doesn’t sound like Pratchett at all. It’s also probably the least connected to the others in terms of the loose overarching structure (at least those I’ve read).

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  5. We just had a friend come to stay for a week and check out Michigan who is a transwoman. I sometimes forget that we live in such a liberal area that I don’t even think twice about things. She was afraid to use the women’s bathroom while we were at a restaurant and I went, “Why?” Doh! I honestly don’t think it would have been a problem where we were BUT she comes from Utah where they just actively passed an anti-trans bill. Had I thought faster, and had not already peed, I would have made her go in with me. She told Rob later when she was home that being in the Michigan was the first time that she got to legitimately feel like her feminine self, and I find that heartbreaking.

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  6. Does Australia have a version of Jeopardy? I have no idea. The only parallel I can think of is Pick a Box, back in the 1960s probably, where one contestant, Barry Jones, dominated and went on to be Minister for Science in a Federal Labor government.

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    • Oof, this might be one of those books that do not cross cultures. I forget about that kind of thing because I feel so close to all of you, despite where you are located. The current host of Jeopardy! is the most winningest challenger ever to play the show, so he was a bit of a shoo-in when the long-time host passed away from cancer.

      I just Googled it, and found that “Jeopardy! Australia will air in 2024 on Channel 9 with Stephen Fry as host.” So, there you are! Though I thought Stephen Fry was from England. 🤷‍♀️

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    • Yes Bill, I saw a few episodes of Jeopardy at some time in my past – in the 1970s. It’s run in Australia on and off for a long time apparently but we don’t watch commercial tv so haven’t really been aware of it over its history:

      “Jeopardy! is an Australian game show based on the classic American format of the same name created by Merv Griffin.

      The original 1970s version aired Saturday evenings at 5:30 PM on the Seven Network, was hosted at first by Bob Sanders and later by Graham Webb, Mal Walden and Andrew Harwood involving students from various Australian schools and colleges as contestants.

      The 1993 version aired on Network Ten at 6 PM Monday to Friday (5 PM in certain regional areas), and was hosted by former Sale of the Century  host Tony Barber but rated poorly and was cancelled six months after its premiere episode.

      A new version is set to air in 2024 on the Nine Network with British comedian Stephen Fry as host and will be filmed in the United Kingdom with Australian expat contestants.”

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  7. This sounds like such a good book! And of course being Canadian, I have a soft spot for Jeopardy (due to Alex Trebek, RIP) although I never actually watched it.

    Trans issues are VERY top of mind for Albertans right now, as our provincial government (aka state government) has just come out with new legislation that requires schools to alert parents and get their permission if their kids want to use different pronouns. It’s also requiring parents to opt-in to any kind of sex education, which has very many people upset, including myself. I feel every child and youth deserves, and must have sex education, because a bunch of people graduating without knowledge of birth control is very scary. And the parents who decide to opt-out their kids from sex ed? Likely those are the kids who need it most. Wow, sorry about this rant!

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  9. I’m not a big Jeopardy! watcher but this sounds like an interesting book. Sounds like it’d be a fun way to learn more about the show and get a closer behind-the-scenes sort of experience, even if sitting through the episodes isn’t always for me. Love that it’s also got great trans rep!

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    • Actually, this book is so far off from what you would expect of a Jeopardy! champ. The current host was the GOAT/longest running contestant, and he (aside from a few insensitive Tweets) is a squeaky clean nerd from Utah.

      Actually, you don’t need to know anything about Jeopardy! to follow Schneider’s story.

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      • Perfect! Glad to have this one on my radar then thanks to your review, I would not have picked it up otherwise but now will be keeping an eye out.

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