Girls Who Like Boys Who Like Boys: True Tales of Love, Lust, and Friendship Between Straight Women and Gay Men [Hardcover]

Melissa de la Cruz (Editor), Tom Dolby (Editor), Armistead Maupin (Foreword)

Book Description

Release date: May 17, 2007

A celebration of the most important relationship in a straight girl’s life—her gay best friend.

Thanks to iconic duos such as Sex and the City’s Carrie and Stanford and the title characters of Will & Grace, the love affair between straight women and gay men has moved into the mainstream. Never before, though, has a book looked at these friendships in the real world.

The editors, themselves best friends, have put together this collection of hilarious and poignant never-before-published essays that explore this unique relationship. In addition to stories about single girls and gay guys bonding over shopping sprees and brunch, these stories chronicle love and lust, infatuation and heartbreak, growing up and coming out, and family and children.

Straight women and gay men alike will relate to these tales from a diverse array of contributors, ranging from literary novelists to Emmy Award winners, single girls about town to mothers of four, downtown performance artists to Hollywood scenesters. This definitive anthology, the first of its kind, proves that more durable than diamonds, straight women and gay men are each other’s true best friends.

A share of the proceeds from this book will benefit The Trevor Project, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping gay teens.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

These pages resound with two main sentiments: "If you're lucky, really lucky, you have one friend in this life who feels like a gift" and "Getting a gay boyfriend enriches life immeasurably." This collection of original essays celebrates the fierce bond and special intimacy between straight women and their gay male best friends, as well as the sometimes disheartening realization that the boy you like, likes boys. Many essays soar with strong insights into love, humanity and the nature of friendship. James Lecesne writes a letter to a friend that whimsically deconstructs their 15-year friendship while revealing just how lifesaving it was. Cindy Chupack, on the verge of getting married again, embarks on a bittersweet reunion with her gay ex-husband. And Karen Robinovitz rhapsodizes on the joys of shopping with gay men and why when getting married one should, instead of bridesmaids, opt for "bridesgays." Contributors also include some familiar writers from the worlds of journalism, film, TV, theater and fiction, like Anna David, David Ebershoff, Michael Musto and Andrew Solomon. Though bookstores aren't lacking for lesbian and gay anthologies, this one justifies itself by tapping a less-explored subject with fresh voices and fervent first-person accounts. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Fueled by feeling that their deep, straight-woman-gay-man friendship "was both unique and universal," editors de la Cruz and Dolby developed this compelling anthology focused on various aspects of such relationships. The pieces in "Gays and Gals" look at group dynamics; those in "Close Confidants," at bedrock one-on-one relations; those in "A Fine Romance," at love and lust, complete with comic, sometimes poignant misunderstandings. "Growing Up, Coming Out" turns to formative and traumatic experiences, and "Father and Daughters, Mothers and Sons" concludes with considerations of the joys and sorrows of lasting ties. Standout essays include Karen Rabinovitz's "Shop Girls," praising style mavens; James Lecesne's "My Best Girlfriend," detailing 14 reasons not to kill yourself (Provincetown, great accessories, etc.); Sarah Kate Levy's "Super Couple"; David Levithan's fond recollection of high-school friends in "The Good Girls"; and Abigail Garner's meditation on her father's coming out to her when she was in kindergarten, "Like Father, Like Daughter." Whitney Scott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Dutton Adult; First Edition edition (May 17, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0525950176
• ISBN-13: 978-0525950172
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #413,560 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #49 in Books > Gay & Lesbian > Biographies & Memoirs > Gay

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Fun! May 24, 2013

By Goldie

Format:Paperback

I'm not sure why the negative reviews. Well I'm sure it's true that not all girls who like boys who like boys act like the women in the articles so what? You can't be everything to everybody at any time so giving a low rating to a book because it doesn't portray things the way you see them is lame. Anyway I've only read about 5 of the stories so far but the ones I've read were well written and fun! I also don't know why both the other reviewers keep going on about "dysfunctional." Really they stories are about people the way they are. Who exactly is functional?

4.0 out of 5 stars Flawed but honest February 1, 2011

By HCV

Format:Hardcover

The stories collected within the volume document dysfunctional but honest relationships. Do all "girls who like boys who like boys" act like the girls in "Girls Who Like Boys Who Like Boys"? Not even close. However, the collection points out the widely varied and sometimes deeply dysfunctional elements of the gay male/straight female relationship, which is what it set out to do.

1 of 12 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Avoid at all costs December 5, 2010

By R. Cruz

Format:Paperback

Maudlin stories about relationships that are dysfunctional with a capital "D".

What are these authors thinking? Who do they think they are fooling?

There needs to be a follow-up to this book entitled: "She May Call You Her 'Friend' But She Will End Up Treating You Like the Enemy."