I'LL TAKE EVERYTHING YOU HAVE

Sixteen-year-old Joe Garbe leaves the family farm, finding trouble and romance in Chicago during the Great Depression.

Arriving by train, Joe meets his cousin, Bernie, at the station and is instantly enamored by the sights and sounds of the city. Thanks to Bernie, Joe lands a job in the kitchen of the Lago Vista hotel, where he now meets Eddie Zambriskie. Their chemistry is palpable from the start, and they start dating. Meanwhile, Joe’s desperate need to settle his family’s debts back home in Kickapoo gets him involved in an underhanded scheme: His role is to take a French conversation class with wealthy people who will be sailing to Europe on vacation and gather information about his classmates’ names and travel dates so that Bernie’s criminal confederates can burgle their homes while they’re away. This ruse is complicated by Joe’s love affair with Raymond Kenrick, one of his marks, who introduces him to kissing, so-called pansy parlors, and sex. The emotionally nuanced characters, most of whom are presumed White, navigate stages of guilt, paranoia, and remorse as they swindle as a means of survival—with tragically beautiful results. Through passionate, cinematic scenes, Klise poignantly captures the fears and joys of being gay in this polished work of historical fiction.

A transportive, thrillingly queer adventure.