In How You Get Famous, Nicole Pasulka dives into the birth of Brooklyn drag and its intersections - and discontents - with RuPaul's Drag Race.
In the eIn How You Get Famous, Nicole Pasulka dives into the birth of Brooklyn drag and its intersections - and discontents - with RuPaul's Drag Race.
In the early 2010s Merrie Cherry was born in a dingy bar - Metropolitan - in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Meanwhile Aja was jumping subway turnstiles to get to her gigs and Thorgy Thor was bringing the edgy and freaking to Manhattan. Each were contributing in their own way to something bigger: an edgier, scrappier, and more deeply interesting version of drag that fucked with gender and did away with the old school ways of doing drag. The years that followed in that decade saw the introduction of numerous new Brooklyn drag queens and a genre of the art form that has gone from the margins to the mainstream as Brooklyn queens such as Sasha Velour find their spotlight.
I first moved to Brooklyn in 2013 and quickly found myself ensconced in the queer nightlife scenes that had cropped up around the borough: this is why I was so excited to read this book. But How You Get Famous let me down because of the far, far too much space and time given to discussing RuPaul's Drag Race. I wish - so deeply - that Pasulka had spent time centering the many queens that made names for themselves in forums other than RPDR. And though the book does mention these queens and their spaces and fans in passing, this book is really a book about Aja, Thorgy Thor, Sasha Velour, and the other "Ru Girls." I am glad Merrie Cherry - the Grand Dame of Brooklyn Drag - was centered, but I was sad to see so many queens relegated to the margins or just simply left out. For the Drag Race fans this book will be fun but for those of us who came of age in the 2010s Brooklyn queer spaces, this book does not suffice....more
In Brown Neon, Raquel Gutierrez's essayist abilities bring about a conversation on art, queerness, butchness, and brownness.
Gutierrez opens their colIn Brown Neon, Raquel Gutierrez's essayist abilities bring about a conversation on art, queerness, butchness, and brownness.
Gutierrez opens their collection of essays telling us the story of her time with Big Poppa, a singular figure who shaped queer history, politics, and rights from the 70s onward. In this essay, she discusses the tension between those who lean towards butchness and those who choose to transition and the beauty that lies between. From there Gutierrez discusses her Latinx experience and its intersections with her queer and working-class identities. An artist and art critic theirself, Gutierrez centers her writing on these topics around queer, brown artists and brings light to their work.
Brown Neon left me wanting more of some parts and less of others. Gutierrez's essays on gender and butchness were novel and contributed important thoughts on the topics, but some of her art essays seemed more like insider topics in which she personally knew artists few other of us do. Either way, Gutierrez's voice is one I'll definitely read again....more
Pretty Baby is Chris Belcher's reflection on growing up queer in Appalachia and coming of age as a dominatrix-academic in L.A.
From puberty, Chris was Pretty Baby is Chris Belcher's reflection on growing up queer in Appalachia and coming of age as a dominatrix-academic in L.A.
From puberty, Chris was fascinated by sex and sexuality and spent much of her teenage years trying and failing to explore it - first with boys and then with girls. But being queer in coal country is never easy, and Chris struggled to find her place as a masculine, visibly queer girl in West Virginia. When she found herself in L.A. - pursuing a PhD in English but without the finances to survive - she also found herself dating one of the most prolific dominatrixes in the city. This woman - Catherine - would teach Chris everything she needed to know: how to do high-femme drag, how to travel safely, how to whip, cane, and spank. Chris became the embodiment of a shift in power balances: a woman who is paid to have power over men.
The first half of Pretty Baby is thoroughly enjoyable to read as Belcher's childhood story is unique, and she tells this story with such a vivid voice. But the books feels a bit disjointed to me: the first half acts as a thorough retelling of her childhood while the second half is a sporadic collection of certain sex-work experiences she has had and her thoughts on sexuality and domination that are spawned by them. This in and of itself could have been a great book of essays on its own but in the context of this memoir felt out-of-place. I wanted to learn more about Chris Belcher the dominatrix, sex worker but felt I learned more about theories of domination, sexuality, and gender. Nonetheless, Pretty Baby is an enjoyable read that will open your eyes and minds to sex, sex work, and their possibilities. ...more
Didn’t Nobody Give a Shit What Happened to Carlotta is James Hannaham’s story of transitions: of gender, of incarceration, and into a new world.
CarlotDidn’t Nobody Give a Shit What Happened to Carlotta is James Hannaham’s story of transitions: of gender, of incarceration, and into a new world.
Carlotta was in the wrong place at the wrong time when she was arrested and convicted of a crime she didn’t commit. At the opening of this story, we find Carlotta leaving prison after 22 years, a changed person from when she entered: most clearly because she has left her gender assigned at birth to be the woman she always was. But life outside of Prison is no easy feat as she tries to find a home free of alcohol, to land a job despite her conviction, and to rekindle friendships and family connections with people who don’t know who she is or has become.
Hannaham takes his readers into the mind of Carlotta so that you can feel the pain, stress, and frustration she feels trying to fit into a world that has done nothing but beat her down. Hannaham’s writing is powerful, and he makes Carlotta such a unique character with a special voice, though the novel can tend towards the too-easy and unbelievable at times, likely because Hannaham, himself, is not trans. With superb writing and a truly magical narrator, Didn’t Nobody Give a Shit What Happened to Carlotta is a must read book for anyone who cares about queer lives, prisons, and those at the bottom of society’s hierarchies....more
In Virology, Joseph Osmundson combines his occupational passion for microbiology and his personal passion for writing to reflect on the ways in which In Virology, Joseph Osmundson combines his occupational passion for microbiology and his personal passion for writing to reflect on the ways in which viruses shape us and we shape each other.
Virology is a collection of disconnected essays tied together by a general thread of self-reflection in times of viral upheaval. Some of these essays take the form of scientific reflection - Osmundson is, after all, a virologist - while others take the form of personal reflection, of personal growth before, during, and after COVID-19. At times the essays seem out of place - like the one on archiving activist history (which actually was my favorite essay). Osmundson writes about the anxieties we all felt at the beginning of the pandemic and the ways in which racial disparities and metaphor shape our responses and reactions to this life-shattering event.
Osmundson is at his best when he writing about science: he has a way of connecting complicated, erudite ideas to our lives as we live them today. And his own personal narratives are also compelling: it feels nice to hear a scientist reveal his own emotional experiences of love, lost love, and friendship. But his essays on politics and general cultural ideas feel less compelling: his ideas on metaphor, war, and race are ideas I agree with but his support for his arguments and ideas in them seemed short-changed. And at times his reflections on his own past relationships and his own (sometimes seemingly extreme) reactions to COVID-19 make the book cringe-y in parts. Overall Virologyis a great book to read as you, the reader, reflect on the ways in which this pandemic or ones that have come before - especially the HIV/AIDS crisis - shaped you and your experiences; this book is a perfect summer read....more
Greenland is David Santos Donaldson's tale of queerness, Blackness, whiteness, their loves, and their gulfs.
Kipling (literally) seals himself away in Greenland is David Santos Donaldson's tale of queerness, Blackness, whiteness, their loves, and their gulfs.
Kipling (literally) seals himself away in the basement of his Brooklyn apartment and, in the wake of a divorce, the end of a friendship, and numerous publishing rejections, sets off to rewrite his story of Mohammed, E.M. Forster's little known Black, Egpytian lover. Kip, himself a Black man from the "colonies" who grew up in London to parents trying with every fiber to blend with their white upper middle class compatriots, realizes he has more in common with Mohammed than he ever thought. What transpires is nothing less than a saga, as Kip realizes and reflects on his Blackness, sense of un-belonging, his encounters with whiteness in his romantic relationships, and the franticness with which he wants to escape it all.
Greenland unfolds in short bursts of flashbacks, present stories, and a story within the story - a structure that is at first jarring but becomes such an incredible part of the book as you find yourself engrossed in three stories instead of just one. Santos Donaldson writes in a way that is compelling and places you right in the mind of Kipling so that you see through his eyes as he wrestles with his racial and sexual identity and the story will leave an impact on so many readers. Greenland is hands-down the best book I've read this year; I hope it comes to mean as much to you as it does to me....more
Ryan O'Connell's foray into fiction, in Just By Looking at Him, struggles to free itself from Twitter-isms enough to shine light on its beautiful storRyan O'Connell's foray into fiction, in Just By Looking at Him, struggles to free itself from Twitter-isms enough to shine light on its beautiful story underneath.
Elliot is a successful television writer in a relationship with Gus that, at least from the outside, seems to be equally as successful. Gus is able to care for Elliot and ensure that Elliot's cerebral palsy does not prevent him from living life. But Elliot becomes increasingly frustrated: with his relationship, with his substance abuse issues, and with his own relationship with his disability. As he confronts all of these, he realizes that his desire to assimilate and to avoid thinking about his own disability has deeply impacted his ability to live life.
The underlying message of Just By Looking at Him is beautiful but the medium of the message is itself quite messy. O'Connell writes much like a comedian tweets and this writing makes it really hard to connect with the characters. In fact, one of the key elements of the book - that the main character has internal struggles addressing his disability - was not clear to me until 2/3 into the book when the character was finally resolving this issue. This book has an important message about people with disabilities, queerness, and self-love, but this message is muddied by the language used to convey it....more
In The Kingdom of Sand Andrew Holleran returns to the literary world (after a 13-year hiatus) in a rambling, stream-of-consciousness writing that leftIn The Kingdom of Sand Andrew Holleran returns to the literary world (after a 13-year hiatus) in a rambling, stream-of-consciousness writing that left me underwhelmed.
The protagonist in The Kingdom of Sand is someone past readers of Holleran will be familiar with: a gay man, formerly a resident of New York City, who now calls North Florida his home. Except now the protagonist is in his twilight years, a 60-year-old man living in his dead parents' home. This home remains a sanctuary to the dead with not even the figurines his mother used to display moved or sold or boxed away despite her death years prior. As an elderly gay man in North Florida, the protagonist befriends Earl, an even older man he meets at the one local cruising spot in the area. Over the course of the book, our protagonist wrestles with his own feelings of loneliness, aging, and death while watching one of his only queer community die.
The Kingdom of Sand is an important book for what it does: it tells the story of a gay man in his old age, living outside a major metropolitan area. This story is rare for so many reasons, foremost because so many queer men died during the AIDS crisis that so few have lived to experiencing old age as a gay man. And for this reason, I wanted this book - and Andrew Holleran himself - to be a success. But it was not. Holleran writes with a pure stream-of-consciousness, without editing or removing redundant or irrelevant points. At numerous points, Holleran redescribes - in the same detail - scenes he has described before creating unnecessary redundancy. This book's style was not for me, but maybe it will be for you....more
Andrew Sean Greer and his protagonist Arthur Less are back for more comedic, existential adventures in Less is Lost.
Arthur Less is happily living withAndrew Sean Greer and his protagonist Arthur Less are back for more comedic, existential adventures in Less is Lost.
Arthur Less is happily living with his lover Freddy in their "Shack" in San Francisco, where they both work on their own writings. When Freddy is off in Maine, Less receives news that his ex-lover Robert has passed and along with his passing comes the inheritance of some very steep bills. In order to pay down these bills, Less postpones his trip to Maine to see Freddy and embarks on a road trip down the California Coast, across the Southwest and Southeast, and back up the Eastern seaboard to his childhood home in Delaware. Along each leg of this journey, Less meets a cast of characters - including ones who share his name - and Less slowly makes up the money needed to pay what is owed to Robert's estate.
I fell in love with Arthur Less - and Greer's writing - when I first encountered him in Greer's prior book, Less, and Greer does not let his readers down with this sequel. Greer has the unique and uncanny ability to write with lightness and humor while shining spotlights on quintessential elements of human experience like love, aging, and family. Less is Lost, much like its predecessor, will have you rolling on the floor laughing, wiping away tears, and pausing to think about your own relationship to love, life, and society. Just as good as its predecessor, Less is Lost is a must-read book of the year....more
In Acts of Service, Lillian Fishman explores the nooks and crannies of sexual desire.
Eve comes from an upper-middle-class home and yet finds herself aIn Acts of Service, Lillian Fishman explores the nooks and crannies of sexual desire.
Eve comes from an upper-middle-class home and yet finds herself a barista in Brooklyn with a longterm pediatrician girlfriend with whom she does not live. On a whim, Eve posts faceless nudes pictures of her body on the internet and begins communicating with a fan. It turns out the "fan" is actually a submissive queer woman, Olivia, who sought Eve out on behalf of her sexually dominant counterpart, Nathan. What ensues are relationships of dominance and control (between Olivia and Nathan and Eve and Nathan) and mystery and curiosity (between so many). What begins as a casual fling turns into a psychological exploration of the depths of human desire and the ways in which this desire forces us down clearly irrational paths.
Acts of Service is like a slow-burning fire; for much of the initial portion of the book the use of dialogue to explore nuanced and complex concepts was tiresome. But by the middle of the book, Fishman's style begins to hit the reader forcing you to think about your own desires and the ways in which our desires interfere with our intellect. The book is often overwritten and Fishman tries to be too clever with her use of language, but the underlying purpose and meaning of the story is real: in the dark reaches of our libido stands our most inner desires and these desires can open new doors of self-understanding, if only we open them....more
Edgar Gomez bucks the trend of subpar queer memoirs with his unique and interesting voice in High-Risk Homosexual.
Edgar was raised in Orlando, FL and Edgar Gomez bucks the trend of subpar queer memoirs with his unique and interesting voice in High-Risk Homosexual.
Edgar was raised in Orlando, FL and struggled from a young age to suppress his femininity and fully embrace his sexuality. The book opens with young Edgar in Nicaragua visiting his uncles who run a cockfighting ring and who, after making Edgar bet on cockfighting, lock him in a room with a woman in what is a clear attempt to make Edgar not gay. From this moment Edgar grows up and opens up to his mom who, who though accepting still struggles to come to terms with his sexuality. But Edgar's sense of self and sexual identity that he has built finds itself confronted with deep-rooted trauma stemming from the shooting at his favorite gay club, Pulse in Orlando. Edgar escapes to California where he confronts this and many other traumas that populate his past.
I often find myself bored and underwhelmed by the plethora of gay memoirs that seem to come out every year, which is why I had prepared for the worst when I picked up this book. But High-Risk Homosexual, though a gay memoir, has a unique voice, a unique perspective, and a reflective tone that makes it resonate in a serious way. Gomez is a fantastic writer who is able to probe his own life for stories that move readers intellectually and emotionally. And High-Risk Homosexual will make any queer person stop and think about who they are and how they got there....more
Zaina Arafat's You Exist Too Much is a thoughtful, beautiful reflection on how our past and our traumas bind themself to who we are.
This novel opens oZaina Arafat's You Exist Too Much is a thoughtful, beautiful reflection on how our past and our traumas bind themself to who we are.
This novel opens on a queer, Palestinian woman in a closed relationship with Anna while pursuing un-"gettable" people in secret. What unfolds is a combination of flashbacks on her life and the life of her mother, a Palestinian woman shaped by the own traumas inflicted upon her by the Israeli occupation of Palestine. Through the myriad of relationships this woman finds herself in, she comes to terms with her own love addiction and the ways in which it has stemmed from her relationship with her mother and the ways it impacts her ability to have a real relationship with another person.
Arafat's writing is intense and beautiful, and her story in You Exist Too Much is overflowing with nuance. You find yourself both cheering for and yelling at the protagonist, and in this complexity you find a bit of yourself. You find a person who is a product of her past - a past she couldn't control - and who must confront, resist, and embrace this past in order to grow and overcome who she would otherwise be....more
Damn Shame is actor, singer, writer, pornstar, escort, and organizing guru, David Pevsner's, ode to a life of overcoming shame from inside and out.
DavDamn Shame is actor, singer, writer, pornstar, escort, and organizing guru, David Pevsner's, ode to a life of overcoming shame from inside and out.
David was a young boy in suburban Chicago when he first learned to be ashamed of his body and where he also discovered that he was gay. Pevsner would grow up, go to acting school, and proceed to build a career as wide and varied as his delicious nude photographs that pepper this book. Pevsner experiences as an escort and in theater eventually helped him overcome the shame he had internalized as a young child; his is a journey of self-esteem, self-love, and lots and lots of sex.
Damn Shame is a thoroughly enjoyable and fun memoir to read; its perfect for light, humorous summer reading. That being said, though I enjoyed this book, I could not help but feel a subtle yet strong sense that Pevsner is a bit naive. He correctly reflects on the ways in which he has overcome his own bodily shame and, I believe, hopes to help others do this. But in striving for this outcome, Pevsner fails to understand that his ability to come to terms with his sexuality and nude body are premised on the fact that he is a traditionally attractive guy. I'm left wondering if he could have had such a powerful inner transformation if instead of washboard abs he had a little more "paunch." This critique aside, the book is fun and perfect for reading by the pool....more
If I Survive You is Jonathan Escoffery linked short-story collection on race, blended identities, and poverty.
Trelawny was born a second son in Miami If I Survive You is Jonathan Escoffery linked short-story collection on race, blended identities, and poverty.
Trelawny was born a second son in Miami to Jamaican immigrants, but, despite his Jamaican heritage, appeared ethnically and racially ambiguous. Growing up Trelawny struggled to find his place: the cubans thought he was too Jamaican and Black, the Jamaicans thought he was too white and hispanic. And in a multicultural, immigrant city like Miami, not having a group - or an established, clear identity - spelled trouble for young men. What transpires is a collection of stories that focus on the ways in which rejection and identity confusion in our childhoods can create fissures that quake our lives forever.
Though If I Survive You is primarily about the life of Trelawny, it is in fact a collection of short stories, some of which are about characters auxiliary to Trelawny. Unfortunately, I do not believe this format was well suited to the theme or motivation of the book. By making this a collection of short stories - each about Trelawny and each about the ambiguity of immigrant and multiracial identities - instead of getting to know Trelawny as a complex and nuanced character, he comes across as singularly flat and without any development. The childhood Trelawny you meet in the first story is unnecessarily the same as the on you meet in adulthood towards the end. Nonetheless, this book does make important points about racial identity, American life, and ambiguity, each an important topic in its own right....more
Stalking the Atomic City is Ukrainian writer, Markiyan Kamysh's, nihilistic reflection on life at the edge of the world and at the edge of reason.
KamyStalking the Atomic City is Ukrainian writer, Markiyan Kamysh's, nihilistic reflection on life at the edge of the world and at the edge of reason.
Kamysh is what is known as an "illegal tourist" or a "stalker," but not in any ordinary meaning of those words. The places Kamysh stalks are all within the borders of the Chornobyl exclusionary zone - an area off limits to most all human life because of the dangerous levels of radiation that exist there, a consequence of the aftermath of the Chernobyl Nuclear Plant meltdown. Instead of avoiding these dangers, Kamysh embraces them - spending days and weeks on end camping out in the empty military bunkers and cities and towns that once populated this region of Ukraine. And during his adventures he meets looters, interacts with the police in a game of cat and mouse, and lies awake in empty bomb shelters next to ad hoc wood-burning stoves drinking water laced with radiation.
On one hand Stalking the Atomic City is a book about nothing other than Kamysh strange, (perhaps) unwise, and meaningless adventures; on the other hand it is a book about shirking human rationality and living in a way that is completely unmoored from rationality. This short little book will make you think about your own life and the ways in which you bind yourself to "rational thinking" as a means of avoiding danger and in doing so avoid liberation, as well....more
Alejandro Varela's The Town of Babylon is a smart reflection on life growing up in American suburbia when your queer and non-white.
Andres is a public Alejandro Varela's The Town of Babylon is a smart reflection on life growing up in American suburbia when your queer and non-white.
Andres is a public health worker married to a surgeon, Marco, when he returns home to his unnamed suburban hamlet to care for his ailing father in the midst of his own relationship challenges with Marco. Despite his hesitations, he decides to attend his class reunion where he meets a litany of Trump supporters, an ex-lover, and the absence of his closet childhood friend. Andres reconnects with people he's lost - including Simone, his best friend who is in a mental health institution, mourns the loss of his brother, and reflects on the ways in which suburbia abuses people who (racially) look different, who immigrate from other places, and who are queer.
Varela can write, and his storytelling propels his characters forward with depth and complexity. As a reader, you're forced to juggle the competing tensions of Andres personal challenges and likability with his arrogant tendencies that lend themselves to him looking down on the people from his childhood. The book does get preachy in a way that can be frustrating; Varela falls victim to the same tendency many left-leaning authors seem to fall prey to in that he tells his readers what to think where perhaps showing them would be far more powerful. Nonetheless, put this book on your reading list for this year, and you won't be disappointed....more
Kelefa Sanneh's Major Labels is a remarkable and comprehensive survey of the seven major genres of contemporary music, their origins, and their intersKelefa Sanneh's Major Labels is a remarkable and comprehensive survey of the seven major genres of contemporary music, their origins, and their intersections.
Starting with Rock and Roll, Sanneh traces the ways that the various genres of music grew out of each other and added nuance and variety to each other, as well. Rock grew out of early jazz, rhythm and blues, and gave us everything from soft rock to grunge and metal. And while rock developed into a genre dominated by white artists, Black artists made strides in Hip-Hop and R&B, but also made significant contributions in dance, where Black artists have us House and Techno. In all of this Sanneh nicely combines conversations on music history with the ways in which music and society affect each other.
Sanneh is truly a master, and Major Labels is truly a masterpiece of history and cultural commentary. Sanneh manages to highlight and discuss such disparate genres as Country and Hip-Hop with care and respect, shining light on the fact that all of these genres, though they may not be of your personal taste, contribute to our general social consciousness. Yet, there was one section where I feel Sanneh faltered: the final section on Pop music. While he does a nice job discussing the history and creation of a "pop" genre, he fails at discussing pop music in the 21st century, by, for example, discussing Katy Perry more than he did Lady Gaga, the single artist who revolutionized the genre. Nonetheless, Major Labels is a masterpiece that any fan of Rock, R&B, Country, Punk, Hip-Hop, Dance, and/or Pop must read....more
Grant Ginder's Let's Not Do That Again is the perfect 2022 Summer read; suspense, romance, drama, and melancholy fill its pages.
Greta Harrison finds hGrant Ginder's Let's Not Do That Again is the perfect 2022 Summer read; suspense, romance, drama, and melancholy fill its pages.
Greta Harrison finds herself inexplicably lonely despite being a successful post-graduate with a Congresswoman for a mother and a (wealthy) family lineage of which to be proud. This loneliness drives her into conspiracies spewed by her grandmother and ultimately into the arms of a far-right-wing political figure in France. Meanwhile, her mother, Nancy, a progressive advocate, finds herself in the fight of her life as she tries to win a coveted U.S. Senator position. Nick, Nancy's son and Greta's brother, finds himself in the middle: his mother's former "fixer" turned NYU writing professor deftly balances rescuing his sister's life, his mother's political campaign, and discovering a budding relationship with Charlie, an FBI agent.
Let's Not Do That Again is replete with twists and turns that make it the perfect, light but engaging summertime read. Though the book itself is a bit juvenile with simplified characters and simplistic takes on American politics and conspiracy theories, it nonetheless was truly a fun book to read. If you're looking for something to read while you lay by the pool this summer, look no further than Let's Not Do That Again....more
Joan Didion captures the heart and beauty of Americana in her classic, Slouching Towards Bethlehem.
Slouching Towards Bethlehem is a collection of essaJoan Didion captures the heart and beauty of Americana in her classic, Slouching Towards Bethlehem.
Slouching Towards Bethlehem is a collection of essays split into three parts. The first, and best part, includes a number of essays from the 60s that discuss Hollywood, American culture, and the iconoclasts that persist in both (think, John Wayne). The next two parts serve as Didion's own personal musings on places as far afield as New York City and Hawaii but also touch on something deep in human psyche: a feeling of nostalgia for an America that we are told existed, but probably never has.
Nostalgia is the element that makes Joan Didion who she is; she has an ability to tap into something that we, in the U.S., long for and love even 50 years after she wrote these essays. But this Nostalgia - 50 years later - can also be cringe-y at moments where Didion fails to acknowledge that her pioneer ancestors did not, in fact, discover an uninhabited land in California (hello, Native Americans). Of course, I go back and forth regarding how much we can truly hold a writer in the 60s for failures to see social problems we collectively did not acknowledged until only recently, and this is especially true in the case of Joan Didion, a writer who has, in her later years, been an advocate on racial issues. Nonetheless, and in spite of this, Slouching Toward Bethlehem is a classic for a reason, and its a classic you shouldn't miss....more
Loading...
