From Publishers Weekly
Winner of the Lambda Literary Foundation's Best Self-Published Novel award, Babcock's energized debut tells the coming-of-age story of teenager Erick Taylor, who, like his heterosexual classmates, struggles with issues of adolescence, peer pressure and sex. Exasperated by constant harassment in his rural Minnesota Catholic high school, Erick cuts class, dons six-inch platform shoes, paints his fingernails and flees to his only haven: the home of 26-year-old "grandiloquist" drag queen Chloe. Working together at the mall only invigorates Erick's infatuation with Chloe as the summer months finds him going blonde, smoking pot and becoming a regular at Screwdriver, Golden Valley's only gay bar—anything to escape the clutches of his "decent Christian" parents, who remain devastated by the death of their other son, Tommy, and dismayed by Erick's behavior. After a hot affair with a local boy sours, a whirlwind of drugs births Miss Geneva Flowers, Erick's drag persona. But even Chloe's AIDS diagnosis fails to prevent Erick from dissolving into a narcotic-fueled stupor, until a loving boyfriend and the harsh light of reality finally force him to grow up. Overindulgent drug use and the rambling first-person narration are thankfully offset by poignant revelations and heartfelt emotion in the closing pages of this mixed but promising debut.
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In classic Cinderella fashion, Babcock's self-published, gay coming-of-age novel won a clutch of literary awards, gained a mainstream publisher, and is now generating lots of prepublication attention. Set in Minneapolis in the 1990s, the story charts the turbulent quest of 16-year-old Erick Taylor, who, in short order, comes out of the closet, drops out of school, leaves home, and moves in with his best friend, David, a drag queen whose performance name is "Miss Chloe." Immediately star-struck, the self-indulgent, rather dim Erick vows he, too, will become a fabulous performer (under the name Miss Geneva Flowers), but his dreams are derailed by the reality of his growing addiction to crystal meth. The dramatically detailed and quite horrific drug scenes are easily the most successful part of an otherwise meandering, sometimes melodramatic, sometimes sentimental plot that evokes the spirit of both the movie
Stage Door and the early, pulpy gay novels of Gordon Merrick. Nevertheless, Babcock does manage to paint a vivid, insider's picture of a very narrow segment of gay culture, and the attendant buzz will surely attract reader demand.
Michael CartCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
