Customer Reviews

Fag Hag (Plume Fiction)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

OK - It's my turn!! Here I was stuck for a month in some ridiculous backwater business assignment so I took a chance and bought all the Rodi books to keep me company. The GayMuse of Entertainment was watching over me! This guy is literate, amusing, profound, and definitely has the ear of his audience. I could go on and on about all his books: comparing & contrasting & up-thumbing and down-thumbing... but the bottom line is that this man WRITES with a wit and wisdom that is oh! so rare in Gay Fiction today. Now do a little 'search' here at amazon.com on 'rodi' and pluck up anything that pops up. I guarantee you that you will be pleased... if not just a little bit moved!

Robert Rodi has been compared to Armistead Maupin (author of "Tales of the City") and the comparison sure is apt with "Fag Hag." Like Maupin, Rodi has an eye for detail, which he uses to skewer and satire the good and bad of contemporary urban gay life. And Rodi (like Maupin) also has compassion for even his unsavory characters. In this book, Natalie (think Natalie on "The Facts of Life" for a rough mental image) is the classic "fag hag" in love with her best pal: a gay man, Peter, who will never be able to return her secret desire. A manipulative woman on a Bette Davis/Joan Crawford scale, Natalie resorts to more and more desparate measures to snare her man, or at least keep him for herself. But her work becomes more challenging when Peter falls in love with Lloyd, a libertaarian intellectual "survivalist." One of the funniest scenes in the book occurs when Lloyd turns his rational, Socratic conversational approach on a bitter, wisecracking queeny gay man, who has no idea how to respond.... I was a little disappointed by the ending, but otherwise this is an enjoyable, funny read. Gay male readers (and the women who love them) will get the most out of this book, but most anyone with a sense of humor should be able to appreciate the (decidely politically incorrect) satire here.

I enjoyed this book, but I found myself frustrated with Natalie and her blind descent into madness. But then, maybe that's the point -- we are often the last to realize we've gone over the edge. Even so, Natalie's actions seemed too much over the top, even for a genre in which over the top is the norm. Still, it is well-written and funny, and I'd probably read other books by Rodi.

I read this book years ago. Just when I was starting to get tired of the overly P.C. humorless writings that the gay community was being subjected to. This book was a godsend both then and now. It could be a Psychological essay on the type of girls who become fixated on gay men used in classes at Ivy League schools if it wasn't so damn funny.

Natalie loves Peter, She loves hanging out with him, going to clubs, watching movies, and she knows if she can keep breaking up his relationships by subtle sabotage he will one day realize that all of those men can't make him happy, only she can. Read on while she slips farther and farther from reality, especially when Peter meets perhaps the "one". I've enjoyed all of Mr. Rodi's books but for character depth, humor, and re-readability this one is still my favorite.

I've read all but one of Robert Rodi's books (Drag Queen). This one isn't as good as Closet Case but still entertaining. Natalie is the title character, a fat girl in love with the perfect Peter, who can't seem to keep a boyfriend. She's happy living her life with him, until he meets a right-wing libertarian....

Like most of his books, the main characters who are straight are less than admirable, while the gay ones have only a few flaws. But don't let that turn you off - this book is still an amazingly funny work. Very easy to picture everything in your mind, quick page-turner, lots of fun to read.

With all the melodrama in this book, it would make a perfect film for Lifetime! Imagine a tinge of Fatal Attraction, only without the precursory affair between the two leads. It was almost frightening to read, since you can imagine people in the real-world who are just like Natalie. Not a good book to give a potential stalker! :-) Definitely worth the read!

"Fag Hag" starts as a comedy and then slowly gets darker and darker - an innocent reader may miss the early signs that something is in the air.
It is a story of not-too-beautiful girl Natalie who fell for her gay friend Peter and at least superficially decided to let her laugh turn into friendship. Yet deep inside she is still in love and will do anything to stay with the man she loves.
We may laugh at Natalie when she successfully chases away potential candidates for her gay friend's significant other. Rodi very skillfully thickens the atmosphere, what seemed innocent at the beginning will come back to grow to completely unexpected dimensions. Fortunately, the tragic dimension never develops into a real tragedy, when Natalie decides that there are no holds barred in her attempts at keeping Peter forever by her side against his will, she will be stopped on time.
Rodi combines his comic literary skills with psychological depth of analysis achieving almost eerily true picture of a friendship between a gay man and a straight woman gone terribly wrong. Fag Hag is simply a must read for gay men and their straight female friends because it delineates in detail all the dangers of such relationships. You will be laughing at the characters antics but don't forget to give a moment of thought to how similar their behaviour may be to yours and where you are heading if in a similar situation.

It's melodramatic- a perfect beach book. Funny and colorful- a great read with very little depth and some often insulting moments- but isnt that the fun of it?

Although this book was embarassingly cliched in parts, it wasn't pretentious or trying to be something that its not. The characters were beautifully described and the story read easily. The book was thoroughly enjoyable and comes recommened to everyone from avid readers to those who don't read often.

No one seems to mention how Natalie takes in a little Black girl to raise as part of conquering her suburban blues. That very act alone and the stereotypes are insulting. Or perhaps thsi is how White people think ALL people who are Black would be? I doubt it but thats the first major flaw.
The second is the lack of depth Peter shows to Natalie. i fthey were totally together and he was a shave dumber you could understand all of her manipulations working. But him having some smarts makes everything seem like a set-up for her insanity which is ultimately contrived and silly. She suddenly gets money when she needs to bug his place, her kidnapping and imprisonment of Peter and Lloyd's militia rescue...all a bit trite.
Lets not even touch the wilding Latino gang that she gives a freebie to in order to maintain the gay one's machismo in the gang. It's sickening. All the races are stereotypes and disgusting while Peter and Lloyd could fly with angel wings if teh book oepned too fast.
Also the concept that there is no play from the inner workings of their relationship. Using Natalie as the ploy ultimately wear sthin because everything is from her eprspective, which is warped and some things that need to be explained become inexplicable.
The whole pity over certain kinds of women clutching to gay men is attacking and pathetic too because it never supposes genuine relationships of human beings, just gay to straight, lose rto winner, man to woman. This book is misogynistic is truth as all of the women are settlers or fools, even Natalie's boss who has a gay husband, or downtrodden Black girls with thug boyfriends.
The problem with gay literature is that it has only so many veins because the writer pushes the whole gay thing. Satire/lark, coming out story, fetish clique insights or lurid drama with gay sex. Even the sex scene in this book is incomprehensible. Why write about people, including gay people, if they're just going to be caricatures.

The one star saving grace of this whole book is Lloyd's realistic arguments, his thoughts. Though not necessarily agreeable to all, it shows some depth. Unfortunately so much work went into Lloyd and Natalie as polarities that they stretch to the point of unrealistic.