A charming and often touching novel of self-discovery.
A skittish Midwestern gay man comes out with the help of a Washington, D.C.–based drag performer in Myer’s comic debut novel.
Randy Larson was born in 1986 and spent the first 32 years of his life in North Dakota, attempting to conceal the fact that he was gay from his small-town Lutheran neighbors. After his elderly parents die, one after the other, he decides to honor his mother’s last wish for Randy to move to a place where he can be himself and live a little. After weighing the pros and cons of various cities, he chooses the nation’s capital, as it’s big, but not too big, and, most importantly, not too cold. The move goes easier than expected: He quickly finds a job at the U.S. Department of the Treasury and a serviceable, if overpriced, one-bedroom apartment. Gaining entrance into the city’s gay community isn’t so simple, however, and Randy isn’t sure how to begin. Luckily, he stumbles into a gay bar one night while looking for a steakhouse, and there he meets a towering drag performer and Jayne Mansfield impersonator whom Randy comes to think of as his “fairy godmother.” Jayne is his opposite in nearly every way, and her regimen for Randy’s rebirth may be too much, and too fast, for him. Can Jayne successfully take the North Dakota out of the boy, or is the boy about to run screaming back to his hometown? Myer’s engaging prose effectively captures Randy’s playful insecurity, as when he panics during the opening moments of his first-ever date with a man: “While my brain proceeds with its usual work to undermine confidence, my feet have continued forward. At 7:31, I’m standing at the entrance to Lauriol Plaza. Derek, waiting at the host desk, breaks into a warm smile. At least he recognizes me, so that’s a plus.” Not all the jokes land, but overall, the book is a fun and generally entertaining read about overcoming insecurities and learning to be oneself. It’s also an affecting ode to unexpected friendships and finding communities that one never realized one needed.
A charming and often touching novel of self-discovery.Pub Date: Jan. 21, 2023
ISBN: 978-1639887675
Page Count: 332
Publisher: Atmosphere Press
Review Posted Online: March 6, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.
A young woman’s experience as a nurse in Vietnam casts a deep shadow over her life.
When we learn that the farewell party in the opening scene is for Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s older brother—“a golden boy, a wild child who could make the hardest heart soften”—who is leaving to serve in Vietnam in 1966, we feel pretty certain that poor Finley McGrath is marked for death. Still, it’s a surprise when the fateful doorbell rings less than 20 pages later. His death inspires his sister to enlist as an Army nurse, and this turn of events is just the beginning of a roller coaster of a plot that’s impressive and engrossing if at times a bit formulaic. Hannah renders the experiences of the young women who served in Vietnam in all-encompassing detail. The first half of the book, set in gore-drenched hospital wards, mildewed dorm rooms, and boozy officers’ clubs, is an exciting read, tracking the transformation of virginal, uptight Frankie into a crack surgical nurse and woman of the world. Her tensely platonic romance with a married surgeon ends when his broken, unbreathing body is airlifted out by helicopter; she throws her pent-up passion into a wild affair with a soldier who happens to be her dead brother’s best friend. In the second part of the book, after the war, Frankie seems to experience every possible bad break. A drawback of the story is that none of the secondary characters in her life are fully three-dimensional: Her dismissive, chauvinistic father and tight-lipped, pill-popping mother, her fellow nurses, and her various love interests are more plot devices than people. You’ll wish you could have gone to Vegas and placed a bet on the ending—while it’s against all the odds, you’ll see it coming from a mile away.
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781250178633
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
PERSPECTIVES
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
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