Dress Like a Boy [Paperback]

Quentin Lee (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 26, 2000

Its Edward Ngs last year at Berkeley. Amidst campus protests, warehouse raves, and grad school applications, Edward is torn between sticking out in a non-monogamous relationship with his flaky bisexual lover and consummating his unfinished affair with his closeted younger cousin. Sexy, funny and honest, DRESS LIKE A BOY is an idiosyncratic epic of sexual experimentation and intellectual coming of age that foretells the imminent vision of a generation that has come of age in the early 90s when feminism, gay politics and multiculturalism intersected, when the personal became political.

Editorial Reviews

Review

A raw, passionate and probing novel... Lee nuances the landscape of queerness with irony, melancholia, nonchalance and creative abandon... -- Shu-mei Shih, Associate Professor, Comparative Literature UCLA, Advance Praise

His debut novel is as exciting as his films—raw, passionate and trendy all at once. -- XY Magazine, June 2001

Lee captures the passion, urgency and confusion that Ng experiences in bold passages... -- Asianweek, May 18-24, 2001

Poignant moments interspersed with provocative sexuality give this novel an edge that takes you to the millennium. -- Russell Leong, author of PHOENIX EYES AND OTHER STORIES, Advance Praise

About the Author

Born and raised in Hong Kong, Quentin Lee immigrated with his family to Montreal when he was 15. He went to University of California at Berkeley at 17 where he graduated with a B.A. in English. He then went to Yale University and UCLA where he completed his M.A. in English and an M.F.A. in Film Directing respectively. He has produced, wrote and directed three feature films, Flow (1995), Shopping for Fangs (1997) and Drift (2000). Dress Like a Boy is his first novel.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: iUniverse; First Print edition (October 26, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0595127851
• ISBN-13: 978-0595127856
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,298,396 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sexy and brilliant, August 4, 2001

By 

Jay Hernandez (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dress Like a Boy (Paperback)

I love this book. I'm not Asian American, but I bought this book out of a friend's recommendation from the bay area. I was looking for a smart gay novel to read, and it blew me away.

There's quite a bit of gay sex (well, I'm gay and I find it quite exciting) in the book, but it's not really about sex. The novel deals with a poignant sense of profound loss and desire... somewhat tragic.

I'm sort of from the same generation of the writer (or the protagonist at least) and it's very nostalgic. I look forward to Mr. Lee's next novel : ) Definitely a fan.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fresh, insightful voice!, May 19, 2001

By 

Bruce E. Beaudette (San Francisco, California United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dress Like a Boy (Paperback)

Quentin Lee, film director of, "Flow", "Shopping For Fangs", and, "Drift", has crafted an powerful first novel with, "Dress Like A Boy". The story is about a student at U.C. Berkeley, who is Gay and Asian. It is a complex tale involving Edward Ng, a native of Hong Kong, and the relationships that he has with his openly bisexual boyfriend, his closeted bisexual cousin, and various other family members and friends. The novel weaves back and forth between the present and the past, and Hong Kong and the United States to help explain why Edward Ng gets involved with, and then remains in a number of complex relationships. The author is also somehow able to tell his story in a way that would enlighten someone unfamiliar with the experiences of Gay Asian men, but in way that might also help to empower a Gay Asian reader of the work. Edward Ng is insecure, and thus he does come off as heroic, but that is explained by his restrictive and unsupportive upbringing, and the fact that he is Asian in a society that does not make much room for anyone who is not White. In the end the main character rises up like a phoenix, although meekly, realistically, and humorously from the wreckage of his life. I had expected Quentin Lee to conclude his tale like Charles Webb had done in his novel, "The Graduate", but instead chooses to keep his tale fresh and original. Having finished a novel that I could not put down, I smiled remembering that this was Lee's first work, and that more would likely come! ...

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dressed like a boy while reading this great book!, January 18, 2001

By 

Jerry Lentz (Hollywood, Ca) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dress Like a Boy (Paperback)

This book was a present from two friends. One who wrote this fine book (who I'd love to meet one day and get it signed) and the one who gave it to me. At first I wasn't interested in reading it, but while trapped on a plane with a talkative passenger, I ripped into Dress Like a Boy. I was moved. I can believe this is suppose to be the authors first novel. He captures a moment in time that feels as if I was living through it with the character. Vivid. Funny. Sad. I highly recommend this to all my friends, but they can't borrow my copy.