An amalgam of essay, poetry, and internal conversation, the book is set in the years prior to the author embarking on their transgender journey and utilizes everyday objects to capture extraordinary moments and feelings. This deeply felt memoir from National Magazine Award-nominated Catalan and Danish descent trans author River Halen mines the emotional terrain of personal reinvention and rebellion. Be warned, clocking in at nearly 1000 pages, Irving's latest is an investment in time and patience, but die-hard fans of the author's trademark homespun prose and delicate way with words will find much to savor here.ĭream Rooms by River Halen, $20 (Book*hug Press) The main thrust of the story is of Adam finding out who his father is, but along the way Irving fills the pages with history, insight, opinion, and themes of family love and tolerance. There's also Nora, his cousin, who is also a lesbian and is overcoming a sexual abuse ordeal. The novel chronicles the life of an illegitimate New England boy named Adam Brewster and his lesbian mother, Ray, who, despite having a female partner, Molly, marries Elliot, an English teacher, but goes on to eventually transition into a woman. The Last Chairlift by John Irving, $38 (Simon & Schuster)įan favorite John Irving incorporates several queer women into his latest offering, though the result is arguably mixed. Combining Cuban history and queer survival all wrapped in a compelling mystery, this enigmatic novel is a spellbinding success. But Nicolas is HIV-positive and is sent to the "sidatorio," a sanitarium for infected individuals where he begins an activist group bent on infecting as many people as possible. In his first fiction in several decades, the author presents the life of Rafa, an orphan in Havana who finds a boyfriend in Nicolas after he offers him a job at his mother's restaurant. Sacrificio by Ernesto Mestre-Reed, $27 (Soho Press)Īn authentically rendered 1990's Castro's Cuba lies at the heart of Ernesto Mestre-Reed's epic historical fiction which, though a succession of its character's entanglements, explores the underground aspects of the country's gay and HIV-positive population. That being said, this is a novel about a drag queen with ulterior motives, so high drama and theatrics are perhaps a requirement. Morrison's skills as a wordsmith are on fiery display here, even while the plot, the dialogue, and the book's nearly 500 pages can become overly melodramatic. Luci begins her crawl back to the top by way of a silly stage production called "The Phantom of the Pantomime," but along the way, readers will learn that Luci is a master of the dark arts, and when a former rent boy named Luda swoops in to replace her ailing co-star, the backstabbing and black magic shenanigans know no bounds. Imagine an aging drag queen named Luci LaBang, a sequin-studded "Narcissus in middle age" who found stardom on the television screen but now that star is tarnished in her 50s and you've got the bawdy premise of comics writer Grant Morrison's raucous debut novel. Luda by Grant Morrison, $28 (Del Rey Books) Vividly drawing from his own experiences in the 1980s and '90s as a social justice activist, Soehnlein weaves a brilliant tapestry of love, pain, honor, illness, healing, and the fight to stay alive in the face of homophobia, a decimating epidemic, and rampant inequality. Soehnlein, $20.95 (Amble Press)Īfter more than a decade-long hiatus, Soehnlein returns with this nostalgic, immersive, unforgettable coming-of-age novel about a young queer man who becomes entrenched in the unique AIDS activist community of ACT UP, a defiant world of passion and anger that swallows him whole and forces him to choose between his boyfriend and his allegiance to the cause.
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