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amoskane's review against another edition
Difficult. I would love to talk to Hilton, though.
lizawall's review against another edition
This book made me have a lot of thoughts and feelings! I'm not even sure what all of them are!
chaetrain's review against another edition
challenging
dark
funny
reflective
tense
medium-paced
4.25
tristes tropiques is the most beautiful essay i’ve ever read. als’ voice is so lush and rich and sharp. he is equally unafraid to meander and to go in. besides tristes tropiques, loved the piece on louise brooks, andre leon talley, gwtw, and richard pryor. there’s a lot to learn from him as a writer- he switches up form so much but his voice feels so distinctively his. i definitely definitely don’t agree w a lot of his takes but he makes them so definitively and seductively that even when i don’t agree i still admire them. and rly just enjoy the way he continuously prods at the edges of race gender and sex with the fluid rigor of his language. so good and also quite difficult
ralowe's review against another edition
2.0
no. ventriloquize the subaltern to blame the oppressed for their oppression so dave eggers can sleep at night. the crisis in the intellectual life of the black faggot is real, steve mcqueen and lee daniels (my mind always leaps to the spectacle and narrative of film when i think about this, but my feeling of crisis is unfavorably corroborated as we survey cultural productions in other areas). it's not cute. funny, this won the lambda literary award for best gay fiction the same year that mattilda won for best for transgender fiction; and my concern with mattilda's book of how her portrayal of me boded this formative moment of queer of color critique. it's sad 'cause i love how he beautifully fucks with race and gender, loved the stuff on flannery o'connor and jane bowles. yet when he lazily fills in the gaps in his essay or argument with memoir it's feels like hilton's not here to save me. we in trouble girl. black male homosexuals just aren't bringing it for me right now: i feel a deeper queer affinity to adrian piper, wanegichi mutu, kara walker but i fear "queer" would be imprecise to describe them. i do love mykki blanco's lyricism on *join my militia* and that video is something else. she's from new york too. but als talks to us about eminem for some reason. i mean we don't need ferguson to know mass incarceration and disproportionate hiv seroconversion, to know genocide. but people bring up race to entertain stupid people apparently. that must fit in well on mcsweeney's internet tendency thing. and malcolm x is angry at the other because he caused his own natal alienation. the ethical crisis emerges when the belle-lettrist takes their joyce carol oates-ish descriptive seriousness as a benevolent prescription for the social (entrepreneur).
notallbooks_mp's review against another edition
This is very challenging and I’m just not in the headspace to do this much work in the few minutes I have to read before bed at night. I don’t doubt that it’s brilliant, but I don’t have the brain function to do this particular kind of work right now.
mattleesharp's review against another edition
2.0
i really wanted to like it a lot more. as enlightening as a couple of passages in a couple of essays in this book are, it is so so so unfocused. it doesn't read as a coherent collection. a few of the essays are downright boring / wastes of time. the richard pryor essay was wonderful. the opening essay was great. the writing is beautiful. but what were we really even examining across all of these essays? how far are we to stretch the definition of "white girl?"
horfhorfhorf's review against another edition
I keep hearing how great this book is, but I'm not getting through it. Going back on the shelf for now.
erincampbell87's review against another edition
5.0
Wow, I finally finished a book, guys. 2014 has been a struggle.
This is cultural criticism as biography at its absolute best and most relevant, because Als uniquely interprets cultural touching points through his perspective as a black gay man in a way that makes clear that much of our popular culture is impossible to truly appreciate without that understanding. Als' identification as an outsider in most of the groups with which he identifies - gay men, white women, black straight men - leaves him a perceptive observer and critic of each. Here, identification as a white girl becomes a way of looking, a lens through which the world is judged rather than a physical identifier. The essays are rambling and disjointed at times, reading more like a hazy stream of consciousness. Still, Als' world is fascinating and his critiques are always spot-on, which makes this a rewarding, if not occasionally challenging, read.
This is cultural criticism as biography at its absolute best and most relevant, because Als uniquely interprets cultural touching points through his perspective as a black gay man in a way that makes clear that much of our popular culture is impossible to truly appreciate without that understanding. Als' identification as an outsider in most of the groups with which he identifies - gay men, white women, black straight men - leaves him a perceptive observer and critic of each. Here, identification as a white girl becomes a way of looking, a lens through which the world is judged rather than a physical identifier. The essays are rambling and disjointed at times, reading more like a hazy stream of consciousness. Still, Als' world is fascinating and his critiques are always spot-on, which makes this a rewarding, if not occasionally challenging, read.
elizabeth_1898's review against another edition
3.0
The first essay: wonderful, 5/5, inspiring, beautiful use of language
The rest of the book: 2/5, lackluster
The rest of the book: 2/5, lackluster