The House of Impossible Beauties by Joseph Cassara

Jan 14, 2018 Paromjit rated it it was amazing

Shelves: historical-fiction, netgalley, literary-fiction

Joseph Cassara has written a heart wrenching paean to the LGBT community, a blend of fact and fiction based on the critically acclaimed documentary on the House of Xtravaganza in the 1980s and 1990s, Paris Is Burning. Set in New York, it tells of young gay and transgender characters, facing the trauma and rejection of their actual families and their efforts to set up their own chosen close knit and supportive 'family' circle that faces up to the challenges of identity, murder, abuse, brutality, Joseph Cassara has written a heart wrenching paean to the LGBT community, a blend of fact and fiction based on the critically acclaimed documentary on the House of Xtravaganza in the 1980s and 1990s, Paris Is Burning. Set in New York, it tells of young gay and transgender characters, facing the trauma and rejection of their actual families and their efforts to set up their own chosen close knit and supportive 'family' circle that faces up to the challenges of identity, murder, abuse, brutality, the horrors of the Aids crisis, hatred, prejudice and tragedy. The character driven story unfolds with verve, humour, wit, anger, and colour as it follows its inevitable trajectory with the complications of life in this era in LGBT New York. It does not shirk from the grittiness of life as a sex worker, the perils of addiction and in its depiction of the never ending abuse.

17 year old Angel, has been traumatised by the way her family has treated her. She is transfixed by the glamour and vitality of the drag scene, and hones in on the legendary drag queen, Dorian. She meets and falls for Hector, a professional dancer, but yearns to create a form of family and home for others, who like her, now have none that they can fall back on. With this in mind, Angel and Hector set up the first ever latino House of Xtravanganza within the Harlem Ball circle. Tragedy beckons as Hector faces serious health issues. Angel brings in Venus who searches for the rich man to protect and look after her, the introvert transgender Juanita who obsesses over design and fabrics and Daniel. You cannot help falling for this cast of characters and their unflinching determination to be there for each other against all that the world throws at them.

I loved the humanity and courage portrayed in a lyrical narrative bursting with fizz and life affirming energy. This is a novel that is destined to leave a trail of tears and heartbreak in its wake. A wonderfully ambitious book that evokes an era, a place, a community and its history. Many thanks to Oneworld publications for an ARC. ...more

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Oct 05, 2017 Tammy rated it really liked it

The House of Impossible Beauties follows four transgender kids through the heyday of the Harlem ball culture which was ground zero for the AIDS crisis. The places and characters are real but it is a fictionalized account of House Xtravaganza. I don't see the comparisons to A Little Life which is much more nuanced but this fierce, gritty novel will ultimately break your heart.

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Feb 22, 2018 Ann Marie (Lit·Wit·Wine·Dine) marked it as dnf

DNF'ing this one at page 129.

The deal-breaking issue I have with this book is pacing. It's moving too slowly for me. If anyone had told me I would have found a book set in 1980's NYC and written about the drag world and ball culture scene to be boring I would have laughed at them. Sadly, this is the case. I like the characters well enough but the story feels like it's going nowhere fast. I know that if I'm not drawn in at this point, I will likely never be invested fully enough to justify the t ...more

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Feb 03, 2019 Jenny (Reading Envy) rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: read2019, reviewcopy, ala-otr

I was a member of the American Library Association's Over the Rainbow Booklist Committee for 2018, and this book made our top ten list for fiction and non-fiction books for adults.

I am going to go ahead and borrow the committee's annotation for a brief description:
“For fans of the FX show Pose or the documentary Paris Is Burning, Cassara lovingly documents the NYC ball scene of the 1980s when queer people of color were able to compete in a vicious and loving environment of fierce queens with eve ...more

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Mar 21, 2019 Thomas rated it really liked it

Shelves: lgbtq, adult-fiction, historical-fiction

A powerful novel set in 1980s New York City that centers a cast of queer and trans characters of color. While the burgeoning Harlem ball scene occurs in the periphery of the story, most of the narration sheds light on each of the character's backgrounds and what brings them together. Joseph Cassara describes immense suffering in these pages, ranging from transphobic abusive parents to the lethal HIV virus to drug abuse. As a queer person of color who sometimes distances himself from the queer co ...more

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Apr 17, 2019 Michael rated it liked it

Shelves: 2019

Set in the eighties amidst the outbreak of the AIDS epidemic, The House of Impossible Beauties brings to life the daily struggles of the members of the House of Xtravaganza, the first all-Latinx house in the Harlem ball circuit. The sprawling story follows a small cast of characters—Angel, Venus, Hector, Dorian, Juanito, and Daniel—as they come of age while navigating the many trials of love, sex work, financial instability, addiction, and ball culture. Incredibly fast paced, the novel lacks any ...more

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Mar 23, 2018 shady boots | #WatchPOSE rated it really liked it

Shelves: the-gay-agenda, 2018-faves, i-just-have-a-lot-of-feelings, read-in-2018, yas-queen

Before I share my thoughts on this book, if you enjoyed it or if you're interested to know more about ball culture, I STRONGLY IMPLORE you to watch the documentary Paris Is Burning if you haven't already. It gives a more in-depth look at the ballroom scene of 80's New York, and also introduces you to the real people behind the characters of this book, as well as many other legendary queer pioneers. It's available on YouTube here.

It is important to remember this particular era in LGBTQ+ history b ...more

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Sep 15, 2017 Blair rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2018-release, netgalley, first-novels, read-on-kindle, sex-and-sexuality, historical

With The House of Impossible Beauties, debut author Joseph Cassara has created a fictionalised account of the House of Xtravaganza, immortalised in the 1990 documentary Paris is Burning. From the backstory of key figures to the initial formation of Xtravaganza – the first all-Latinx house on the Harlem ball circuit – and beyond, we follow a cast of gay and trans performers as they fight to get off the streets, find and lose each other, and deal with the development and devastating impact of the With The House of Impossible Beauties, debut author Joseph Cassara has created a fictionalised account of the House of Xtravaganza, immortalised in the 1990 documentary Paris is Burning. From the backstory of key figures to the initial formation of Xtravaganza – the first all-Latinx house on the Harlem ball circuit – and beyond, we follow a cast of gay and trans performers as they fight to get off the streets, find and lose each other, and deal with the development and devastating impact of the AIDS crisis. Some of the characters are recognisable – with probably the best-known being Venus Xtravaganza – and some seem to have been reimagined to a greater degree, e.g. Angel/Angie (without doing extensive background research, it's difficult to gauge how closely or loosely any of them resemble their inspirations).

The beginning of the book is stunning, positively singing with energy and potential. We meet Angel as a young teen, just starting to understand that she's trans, and trying to figure out what that means for her relationship with her mother and brother. She fights to get herself taken under the wing of legendary drag queen Dorian, and when she meets and falls in love with Hector, a dancer, the groundwork for the House of Xtravaganza is laid. There's a bit of a lull in the middle – not because the characters are uninteresting, but because the more quotidian scenes of their lives don't feel quite as original as the rest; they follow a similiar pattern to many other stories about people struggling to make ends meet. Occasionally, the narrative threatens to slip into misery-lit territory. Those familiar with Paris is Burning will know there is an unavoidable tragic development concerning one character. Thankfully, Cassara handles this difficult subject matter compassionately, and doesn't try to dramatise the event itself.

The structure can feel a little random, and there's sometimes a sense that large chunks of detail that might be important to the story have been left out. Ultimately The House of Impossible Beauties is not a plot-driven novel, nor does it focus much on the ball scene itself: as much as it's a work of fiction, it's also a piece of queer history; Cassara's primary concern is the characters, what they mean to one another, and how they become family. Here, violence – whether in the form of abuse and murder, or the destruction wrought by AIDS – is part of the senseless cruelty of existence, not a mystery to be solved or a wrong to be dramatically avenged.

Fierce and tender, The House of Impossible Beauties works as both novel and biography; it brims with life and tells heartbreaking stories. I'm glad this was my first book of 2018.

I received an advance review copy of The House of Impossible Beauties from the publisher through NetGalley.

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Jan 02, 2018 Paula Bardell-Hedley rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommended to Paula by: NetGalley

Shelves: netgalley, lgbtq-fiction, historical-novels

New York's underground drag ball scene flourished in the early 1980s. These glitzy, elaborately-themed events rose with meteoric intensity from the Harlem district, bringing with them an immense euphoria and camaraderie among the area's prominent LGBT population.

The House of Impossible Beauties follows the often complicated lives of several homogeneous characters from their confused, abused, traumatic childhoods to the magnificent heydays of their in-your-face draggery and wild expressionism. New York's underground drag ball scene flourished in the early 1980s. These glitzy, elaborately-themed events rose with meteoric intensity from the Harlem district, bringing with them an immense euphoria and camaraderie among the area's prominent LGBT population.

The House of Impossible Beauties follows the often complicated lives of several homogeneous characters from their confused, abused, traumatic childhoods to the magnificent heydays of their in-your-face draggery and wild expressionism.

New Jersey born author, Joseph Cassara, readily acknowledges that several of his novel's characters are based on historical figures (Venus Xtravaganza, Pepper LaBeija and Dorian Corey may be familiar to some readers), and locations in which much of his narrative is set, such as Christopher Street Pier - a once vibrant cruising spot, which is still a popular gathering place for young gay people - are now legendary landmarks.

The House of Xtravaganza is one of the most famous and enduring 'houses' (a sort of surrogate family for individuals of mixed gender identities), brought to prominence in the groundbreaking 1990 film documentary, Paris is Burning. Cassara's protagonist, Angel – the founding member and 'Mother' of this all-Latino collective – is quite obviously based on Angie Xtravaganza, the very real transgender star of the Harlem ball scene. Her drag daughter, Venus, and other members of the group are adopted 'house children', a close-knit coterie who engage in sex work in order to survive. They strive to defend, dignify and elevate one another, but are heartbreakingly vulnerable and can do nothing to protect their beloved hermanas from a mysterious sickness, often referred to by the predominantly unsympathetic and scaremongering media as a 'gay plague'.

Cassara's Hispanic trans-women and butch queens are sassy, charismatic and brave, and his exceptional debut novel is a humane microhistory of their uninhibited but precarious lives on the drag circuit of a bygone era.

Many thanks to Oneworld Publications for supplying an advance review copy of this title. ...more

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May 03, 2018 Sara rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: arc, fiction, historical-fiction

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Cassara has managed to capture a snapshot of hedonistic 80s culture, richly steeped in beautiful creatures and intricate backstories that interweave to create a wonderful story about an underground community that many of us knew nothing, and still know, little about. The characters have been carefully crafted with obvious love and attention to detail in order to recreate a tale full of wit and sadness in equal measure.

The story is ...more

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Jan 20, 2018 Eric Anderson rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

RuPaul's Drag Race has found a global audience in recent years and I've been a huge follower of it since the third season. It's still one of the highlights of my life hearing RuPaul praise my blog on his podcast. (You can listen to the audio of this at the bottom of my intro page here.) The widespread fandom of this show has popularised drag as an art form again so it seems like the right time to look back at some of the most significant drag movements of recent history. The documentary 'Paris i ...more

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Nov 29, 2018 Dennis rated it liked it

Recommended to Dennis by: Dusty Drosche

Shelves: slow-burn, lgbt, historical-fiction

The House of Impossible Beauties is a tragic story of how trans-women of color in the LGBTQ+ community in the 1980s handled the stigma that is attached to them by cisgendered society during the AIDS crisis. Wow, that is one heck of a sentence, but it definitely describes this story well. If you ever watched Paris is Burning or Pose, this story will definitely resonate with you. It's a powerful character study of a time period that is often overlooked, and definitely not talked about in school ...more

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Apr 13, 2019 Gerhard rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2019, favorites, gay-interest

This is one of those novels that is equal parts frustration, exasperation, and brilliance. Despite being flawed and often too rough around the edges, the characters are so vividly drawn that the reader cannot help being sucked up into the maelstrom of their lives. And what a maelstrom it is.

This book first popped up on my radar a while ago. Soon thereafter I started watching Ryan Murphy’s Pose on Netflix. Out of curiosity, I finally started reading the Joseph Cassara novel. I was so struck by th This is one of those novels that is equal parts frustration, exasperation, and brilliance. Despite being flawed and often too rough around the edges, the characters are so vividly drawn that the reader cannot help being sucked up into the maelstrom of their lives. And what a maelstrom it is.

This book first popped up on my radar a while ago. Soon thereafter I started watching Ryan Murphy’s Pose on Netflix. Out of curiosity, I finally started reading the Joseph Cassara novel. I was so struck by the similarity between the two, I thought the television serious must have been based on the book. Turns out instead that both drew from the wellspring of Jennie Livingston’s 1990 documentary ‘Paris Is Burning’, which I have not seen to date. Livingston, in turn, was a consulting producer on Pose.

The novel is freed from the didactic burden of the television series in having to explain its context and milieu, and to find its voice in the fraught state of current gender and identity politics. I think the television series is much more about making a statement and educating modern straight audiences, while Cassara, ironically, has the luxury of a much larger canvas to make his characters really pop.

Gay literary fiction has evolved to the point where sexuality is coincidental, and everything is about identity. Cassara shows extraordinary empathy in bringing his large cast to life. His use of slang and jargon takes a bit of getting used to – I think the book could really have benefited from an index at the end – but the reader quickly picks up on the verbal and behavioural nuances of each character.

Is the story predictable, and does it fall into the trap of condemning its outcast and marginal characters to an unhappy ending? Well, I don’t think you can write about the 1980s drag ball scene and hope to sugar-coat the fates of so many talented and spirited individuals who fell victim to AIDS.

Cassara makes us care so deeply for his characters that, come the inevitable fourth horseman of the runway, it is a fate that shook me to my core, so stunning and visceral is his portrayal. But it is not anger that fuels this book.

It is immense joy and pride in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. There are moments of such tenderness, grace, raw passion, vulgarity, sassiness, and sadness that, for a brief instant in time, I felt like an upstanding member of the House of Xtravaganza myself.

And when Daniel and Juanito move out on their own, I felt like a parent wishing for a fairy-tale ending. Well, that is life. We live, and we love. There really is nothing else. ...more

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Mar 02, 2018 Gabriella rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2018-reads, queer-stories

Joseph Cassara has written an insular, (relatively) low-glitz, immensely tragic account of queer and trans Latinx youth in 1980-90s New York. I struggle to call it “accurate” or “authentic” because like Cassara, I am not a member of the House of Xtravaganza, the first Latinx house in the Harlem ball circuit, and wasn’t alive during the AIDS epidemic, which snakes its way through this book every time you start to believe in a happy ending for these characters. I can only relate to these people gi Joseph Cassara has written an insular, (relatively) low-glitz, immensely tragic account of queer and trans Latinx youth in 1980-90s New York. I struggle to call it “accurate” or “authentic” because like Cassara, I am not a member of the House of Xtravaganza, the first Latinx house in the Harlem ball circuit, and wasn’t alive during the AIDS epidemic, which snakes its way through this book every time you start to believe in a happy ending for these characters. I can only relate to these people given my queerness, blackness, womanhood, and humanity, but on all these fronts, Hector, Angel, Venus, Juanito, and Daniel feel incredibly legitimate.

I appreciated how Cassara took a story we all thought we’d understand, and inverted the timeline we’d all expect. His focus on the upbringings of the future Xtravaganzas was extremely insightful, as they show the earliest signs of their explorations with gender, love, and loss, but definitely not what you expect him to spend so much time on. Given their very short adult lives, it ultimately seemed apt to account for as much of their prior context as possible. Somewhat implausibly, I didn’t mind that there was only one ball—and a slightly underwhelming one, at that. Cassara's aim, after all, is to highlight the very real life that happens after "the clock strikes midnight,” as his most prescient reimagined character, Dorian Carey, once remarks.

Make no mistake, this book is utterly heartbreaking. I would recommend being in a very positive place in your personal life before you read it, as it will completely gut you and everything you love. Every character you begin to root for, every relationship you hope will last, every dream you think will be realized, inevitably falls apart due to the very real issues these characters are battling—drug abuse, racism, homophobia, transphobia, poverty, and of course, AIDS-related complications. It’s intense, but also necessary, as the real people behind these stories often passed away much too soon, and much too tragically.

I think the one aspect I would’ve loved to read more of was the actual creation of the House of Xtravaganza. Much is mentioned about the novelty of having an all-Latinx house, and Joseph Cassara finds many inventive linguistic means of infusing the characters’ Puerto Rican identities elsewhere into their narratives. However, when it came to their lived experiences in the ball scene/queer community, I think he could’ve gone further—why was it so important to create their own ethnic space? What were the all-black houses missing, and what were the Xtravaganzas able to offer each other by sharing a common language and culture? Parts of these answers are made impossible by the lack of substantive black characters, save a few supporting drag queens. I also think it would’ve been easier to make this clear had Hector been present for longer, though I understand why this didn't make sense.

There is a lot to appreciate in The House of Impossible Beauties, but probably also a good deal to critique. As he describes in this really fun interview, Cassara stylistically experiments with the pronouns of his trans characters in ways that one may find either insightful or offensive. His seemingly uncritical embrace of the hallmark documentary by which we know these characters, Paris is Burning, may be an affront to those who had serious problems with the film’s invasive white gaze. Cassara, a gay Puerto Rican man who was inspired by many of the characters, definitely has a more familial and respectful relationship with the Xtravaganzas. However, the fact remains that any novel seeking to posthumously remember folks who weren’t respected (financially, politically, sexually, or artistically) in life will pose some problems.

My hope in and enjoyment of this novel, however, stems from its deep aim to right these societal wrongs, by allowing the Xtravaganzas to live once more. Through his work, Cassara helps us relate to the plights of the past, and also charges us to question how much progress we’ve made. (Throughout the novel, I often found myself thinking about our current struggles to support HIV patients and prevent its spread.) I would recommend this book to anyone seeking to broaden their understanding of queer culture and struggles, both past and present—The House of Impossible Beauties is an unattempted approach to understanding some of our community's dynamic young people. ...more

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Jan 10, 2018 Emily May rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mma-2018, modern-lit, 2018

“We dance for the memories of things we dread to remember,” Katya said as the rest of the class went into position, raising their legs up, then beyond the head. “We dance for the things we wish to forget.”

3 1/2 stars. The House of Impossible Beauties is almost amazing. Cassara has created several memorable characters, drawn scenes with luminous writing, whilst also introducing many readers to a relatively unknown area of modern history: the House of Xtravaganza, gay subculture in the 1980s, an

“We dance for the memories of things we dread to remember,” Katya said as the rest of the class went into position, raising their legs up, then beyond the head. “We dance for the things we wish to forget.”

3 1/2 stars. The House of Impossible Beauties is almost amazing. Cassara has created several memorable characters, drawn scenes with luminous writing, whilst also introducing many readers to a relatively unknown area of modern history: the House of Xtravaganza, gay subculture in the 1980s, and New York City's underground ballroom scene.

There's a lot to praise here, but this book does fall into a number of traps common among debut novelists. A hundred pages could easily have been cut without losing anything from the story and sometimes I would read whole chapters that seemed superfluous. Some more or better editing should have picked up on this.

The occasional Spanish word in an otherwise English language novel was probably supposed to add some Latin authenticity, but it made many parts read awkwardly. It felt out of place and gimmicky.

I usually give a short overview of the plot when reviewing, but that's difficult here seeing as The House of Impossible Beauties is essentially plotless. It contains a series of episodic - albeit entertaining - chapters delving into the gay/trans/drag experience of the lead characters. They dress up, dance, have lovers, and dabble in prostitution, all while the specter of AIDs lurks in the background, but there's no overarching story or question driving the book.

In terms of characters, Angel and Venus sparkled. These two fierce Latinx drag queens are sassy as hell and through taking shit from anyone. Angel is based on real-life house member, Angie Xtravaganza, and I love how the author weaved historical fact with his fiction as much as possible. Unfortunately, Daniel and Juanito's stories interested me less and, truth be told, no other characters could compete with Angel and Venus, and I found myself waiting to return to their chapters.

But it's an impressive debut in many ways. Cassara’s writing has moments of sheer brilliance and he has created two extremely memorable characters. It is loud and bright and fun, but also dark and sad, as much of the 1980s was for New York's LGBTQ+ community. I look forward to what the author writes next.

TW: transphobia; rape; abuse.

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Jun 14, 2018 Nat K rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: 2018-books, dnf

Sadly I've moved this to my DNF shelf. I'm not saying it will remain there, but I simply don't have the interest in it to continue.

I hate to admit defeat with books! Obviously I start reading them because I want to. And think (or hope) that I will enjoy them. But this one simply didn't retain my interest, and I felt quite indifferent to the characters. It's not a good sign that I read SO many other books well after having started this one. It's a shame, as so many people on GR loved it.

It start ...more

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Dec 05, 2017 Neil rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2017, netgalley

First of all, a bit of history and context because I, for one, was not aware when I started this book that it is based on fact. I discovered this after about 50 pages or so when the story encouraged me to Google something and then, an hour later, I was more aware of the historical context. The book is set in New York in the period from the late 1970s through to the early 1990s.

Lifted from Wikipedia:

Composed primarily of African American and Latino LGBTQ men and women, members of the ballroom com ...more

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Feb 22, 2018 Doug rated it liked it · review of another edition

3.5, rounded down.

Like most first novels, this suffers from being a tad overwritten and under-edited. It could have easily lost 100 superfluous pages or more, which would have improved the pacing. A couple of other things that bugged me were a lack of any real plot (it just seemed like a bunch of random vignettes from the NY gay/drag scene, ca. 1976-1993, with no real through-line); the constant interjection of random Spanish words and phrases, that might have lent some verisimilitude, but made ...more

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Jan 24, 2018 Christopher Alonso rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: lgbtq

Review forthcoming, but all I'm gonna say is wowowow this hurt me, and I encourage everyone to read it.

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Jan 23, 2018 Laura rated it it was ok

Shelves: fiction, queer-reads

How badly I wanted to love this book. How disappointed I was. I was planning on loving it: a book about queer and trans street kids finding family with each other in the underground ball scene of the 1980s. The novel is based on the real House of Xtravaganza, one of the more famous houses of ballroom culture, founded in 1982 by Hector Xtravaganza. Many of the characters in this novel (including Hector and the house mother, Angel) are based on real people who part of the all-Latino House of Xtrav How badly I wanted to love this book. How disappointed I was. I was planning on loving it: a book about queer and trans street kids finding family with each other in the underground ball scene of the 1980s. The novel is based on the real House of Xtravaganza, one of the more famous houses of ballroom culture, founded in 1982 by Hector Xtravaganza. Many of the characters in this novel (including Hector and the house mother, Angel) are based on real people who part of the all-Latino House of Xtravaganza.

Ball culture is an important part of queer history and culture about which I know little. I’ve always found fiction to be a useful and meaningful medium for telling true stories, and so I was excited to pick up this novel in the hopes that it would do justice to the depth, power, creativity, and resilience of the people who’ve been involved in ball culture.

It did not do that. The whole novel felt as if it existed on the surface–a shiny veneer with nothing underneath. Or, rather, underneath was the true story, the real lives of countless trans and queer warriors, mostly poor, mostly people of color, many of them working the streets, many of them homeless. But the truth and depth of those stories did not come across in these pages.

The characters, for me, fell flat. I finished the book with a sense that I never really got to know them. They were not drawn as whole people with deeply unique stories, histories, desires, fears, and joys. Perhaps Cassara would have been better served using entirely fictional characters, rather than trying to base his story on real people. Because the characters felt so far away, the emotional impact of the book was not personal. I did not feel it in my gut.

Reading this novel was brutal–but because of the horrors it describes, not because of any emotional investment, on my part, in the characters. It was imagining the real people who have gone through the traumas Cassara describes that left me feeling empty and angry and sick. For me, this is a mark of an unsuccessful book: I cared deeply about the subject matter, but the fictional narrative as it was presented failed to move me.

Another thing that irked me was the absence of fierce queer love, of safety, of tenderness. There were scenes in which the characters took care of each other, but they were few and far between. The moments of sisterhood and queer family building felt thin compared to the rest of the book, which was primarily moments of violence and terror.

Violence and terror: it was brutal. There was a rape scene, there was sexual assault, and there was abuse. There were many instances of transphobia, femmephobia, and homophobia, much of it violent. Most of the scenes in this book were deeply painful to read.

I don’t mean to minimize the violence that queer and trans people, especially queer and trans people of color, face. Everything I described above happens, and far too often. But queer and trans people have also built tremendous networks of fierce love and power. Ball culture is an example of that. But ball culture–a community of safety and celebration–was mostly absent from the novel. Despite being a book inspired by ball culture and the real House of Xtravaganza, I never got a sense of that culture. The book did not feel steeped in it, not even a little bit.

To his credit, there was some gorgeous writing, and the few scenes in which the four main characters were all together felt true. There was the occasional line that nailed a certain feeling or a certain moment. But those few moments could not carry the book.

I believe that Cassara was trying to write a book that celebrated that community. I believe he was trying to balance the danger and pain of being poor and queer and of color with the vibrancy of music and dance and drag and being true to yourself, of falling in love and finding home and surviving and thriving. But only the terror came through for me.

In my opinion, that’s a slight on the lives of the real people from which he drew inspiration. It’s only telling half the story. It’s important to write and speak and make art about racism and homophobia and transphobia and violence and the ways all these systems of oppression devastate lives. But it’s just as important to recognize how much beauty exists in those lives. ...more

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Mar 20, 2018 Jessica Sullivan rated it liked it

Shelves: 2018-read, diverse-books, literary-fiction, multiple-narrators

I wanted to love this so bad, I really did! It's about the queer ball scene in New York City in the 1980s, as documented in the popular film Paris Is Burning. Wonderful subject matter that had the potential to be so riveting and affecting.

The main problem with this book is that there are too many shifting perspectives and not enough focused character development. With the exception of a few sections that are notably strong, Cassara relies heavily on dialogue, which detracts from the substance.

Th ...more

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Mar 25, 2018 Elizabeth☮ rated it it was amazing

Shelves: recent-reads, never-forget

I don't even know where to begin in my review of this one. The world Cassara has created is just mind-blowingly good. This takes place in New York during the 1980's. Our narrators are all boys that have been marginalized in their own homes and find their way to the streets. Each story is unique yet there is a common thread of displacement and misunderstanding.

Once the boys make a home for themselves in the houses that host balls that gave these men a place to express themselves, everything seems ...more

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Jun 17, 2018 Ashley rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: class-gender-race, fiction, lgbtqia, lit-fic

The definition of meh for me. I should have known better, and I feel like my not enjoying this book is my fault. I am usually not into lit-fic, except on rare occasions. But this was recommended to me by one of those Book Riot quizzes where it was like, if you like this and this and this, then you should pick up ______. I read the synopsis and said, hmmm, that does sound like I would enjoy it! I was lured in with the promise of an exploration of NY in the 1980s, drag and ball culture, and explor ...more

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Mar 09, 2018 Georgia rated it really liked it

Το “The house of impossible beauties” είναι το ντεμπούτο μυθιστόρημα του συγγραφέα Joseph Cassara. Η ιστορία του διαδραματίζεται την δεκαετία του ’80 στην Νέα Υόρκη με κεντρικούς ήρωες λατινοαμερικάνες και αφροαμερικάνες drag queens, trans women και γκέι άντρες. Με φόντο την HIV επιδημία και τα άκρως εντυπωσιακά balls ο Cassera πλάθει μια ιστορία που στο επίκεντρο της βρίσκεται η κρυφή ζωή των αποκηρυγμένων ανθρώπων μιας πουριτανικής κοινωνίας τριάντα και χρόνια πριν.
Αν όχι όλοι οι χαρακτήρες τό Το “The house of impossible beauties” είναι το ντεμπούτο μυθιστόρημα του συγγραφέα Joseph Cassara. Η ιστορία του διαδραματίζεται την δεκαετία του ’80 στην Νέα Υόρκη με κεντρικούς ήρωες λατινοαμερικάνες και αφροαμερικάνες drag queens, trans women και γκέι άντρες. Με φόντο την HIV επιδημία και τα άκρως εντυπωσιακά balls ο Cassera πλάθει μια ιστορία που στο επίκεντρο της βρίσκεται η κρυφή ζωή των αποκηρυγμένων ανθρώπων μιας πουριτανικής κοινωνίας τριάντα και χρόνια πριν.
Αν όχι όλοι οι χαρακτήρες τότε ένα τεράστιο ποσοστό αυτών έχουν υπάρξει αληθινοί άνθρωποι, ο συγγραφέας δεν άλλαξε τα ονόματα τους, και έχοντας αγαπήσει τις προσωπικότητες τους μέσα από το Paris is burning (ένα απίθανο ντοκιμαντέρ για την Ball scene της δεκαετίας του ’80, το προτείνω σε όλους!) χάρηκα πολύ που θα τους «έβλεπα» ξανά. Με άγγιξαν τόσο πολύ οι προσωπικές τους ιστορίες και τα προβλήματα που αντιμετώπιζε ο καθένας τους ξεχωριστά αλλά και μαζί σαν κοινότητα. Ένιωσα πολύ λυπημένη γιατί γνωρίζω πως ήταν η απεικόνιση της πραγματικότητας πολλών LGBTQ+ ανθρώπων ανά τα χρόνια. Αν υπάρχει κάτι που μπορεί κανείς να πάρει από το βιβλίο αυτό είναι ότι εμείς επιλέγουμε την οικογένεια μας, κάπου υπάρχει μια ομάδα ανθρώπων έτοιμη να μας δεχτεί στην αγκαλιά της και να αποδεχτεί έτσι όπως είμαστε.
Παρόλο που το βιβλίο αυτό το αγάπησα για καθαρά συναισθηματικούς λόγους υπήρξαν δυο πράγματα που με ενόχλησαν. Το πρώτο είναι πως σε κάποια σημεία ένιωσα ότι οι χαρακτήρες που είχα γνωρίσει μέσα από το ντοκιμαντέρ δεν έμοιαζαν πολύ με αυτούς που βρήκα στο μυθιστόρημα και επίσης με ενόχλησαν οι αλλαγές στο background τους, έπρεπε όμως να μου θυμίζω συνεχώς πως ο Cassera τους χρησιμοποίησε σαν έμπνευση και δεν είχε σκοπό να γράψει μια αμιγώς βιογραφική ιστορία, αν και κράτησε πολλά στοιχεία από τις πραγματικές τους ζωές, άλλα ένα μυθιστόρημα φόρο τιμής σε αυτούς τους ανθρώπους. Και το δεύτερο στοιχείο του μυθιστορήματος που με ενόχλησε είναι η επιλογή του συγγραφέα να περιλάβει πολλές ισπανικές λέξεις στην ιστορία του με αποτέλεσμα να μην βγάζω νόημα γιατί δεν γνωρίζω την γλώσσα. Μπορεί σε μια πρόταση να μιλάει ένας χαρακτήρας αγγλικά μαζί με ισπανικά και να αναγκάζομαι να βγάζω νόημα από τα συμφραζόμενα. Ήταν λίγο εκνευριστικό αν και κατάλαβα πως ήθελε ο Cassera να δώσει χρώμα στους διαλόγους! Παρόλα αυτά η γραφή του ήταν πολύ καλή και μερικές στιγμές απλά υπέροχη.
Αγαπώ Angie και Venus, η Angie έχει μια ιδιαίτερη θέση στην καρδιά μου , και χάρηκα τόσο πολύ που είχα την ευκαιρία να περάσω μερικές μέρες παρέα μαζί τους.
Θα πρέπει να ευχαριστήσω την φίλη μου που το βρήκε και αμέσως σκέφτηκε πως θα μου αρέσει και είχε δίκιο. Αυτό το μυθιστόρημα είναι κομμένο και ραμμένο επάνω μου, στα γούστα μου και δούλεψε καλά με τα συναισθηματικά μου «κουμπιά». Είχα χρόνια να κλάψω διαβάζοντας ένα βιβλίο και το The house of impossible beauties το κατάφερα πάνω από δύο φορές.
Το προτείνω σε όσους ψάχνουν βιβλία με LGBTQ+ θεματολογία , θα σας ανταμείψει!

https://cherrybookreviews.wordpress.com/2018/03/09/review-the-house-of-impossible-beauties-%ce%b1%cf%80%cf%8c-%cf%84%ce%bf%ce%bd-joseph-cassara/
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Mar 05, 2018 Matthew rated it really liked it

4.5 stars.

Author Virginia Postrel once wrote that “glamour is an imaginative process that creates a specific emotional response: a sharp mixture of projection, longing, admiration, and aspiration.” Contextually Postrel was unlikely speaking of the halcyon days of glitz and glamour that made up the Harlem ball scene in the 80s and 90s, but she may as well have been. I’d be hard pressed to find a better example of Postrel’s definition of glamour than Joseph Cassara’s triumphant debut The House of 4.5 stars.

Author Virginia Postrel once wrote that “glamour is an imaginative process that creates a specific emotional response: a sharp mixture of projection, longing, admiration, and aspiration.” Contextually Postrel was unlikely speaking of the halcyon days of glitz and glamour that made up the Harlem ball scene in the 80s and 90s, but she may as well have been. I’d be hard pressed to find a better example of Postrel’s definition of glamour than Joseph Cassara’s triumphant debut The House of Impossible Beauties.

As triumphant it is the novel is also undeniably heart-wrenching, as the glamour Cassara’s ensemble aspires to achieve is not without its hardships. It comes at a cost, both in and out of the control of Cassara’s unforgettable characters. Yet what the novel proves is that this cost is worth it, despite the heartache. After all, who are we as people without dreams to help forge our paths?

That was meant to be a rhetorical question but one could answer that we’d be stuck living in a monochromatic world. If such a milquetoast existence sounds hunky dory to you, I suppose you may wanna consider something other than The House of Impossible Beauties.

Pedantic rant aside THoIB is truly one of those transcendent books that has just about everything, and evokes just about every imaginable emotion. It’s not without its flaws - find me a big, ambitious debut that doesn’t - but that’s part of the appeal. It’s a deeply human novel; flaws should be expected. Nobody’s perfect, even if we spend our entire lives aspiring to live in a world that is.

Cassara’s characters all but achieve this in their own way. New to the NYC drag scene Angel is escaping a tumultuous past, searching for a new family after her very own fails her. She meets Dorian, an aging queen who mentors Angel on the art of glamour. Dorian also introduces Angel to Hector and the pair not only fall in love but dream of starting their own house - the first all-Latino house, in fact - within the Harlem ball circuit. Soon the House of Xtravaganza is more than just a glamorous dream: it’s glamour redefined, fully realized and in the flesh.

Angel soon meets and recruits Venus, a trans girl in search of many of the same familial aspects Angel longs for and hopes to accomplish with her own house. Angel also recruits Daniel and Juanito, the former a muscle-bound butch, the latter a quiet, young artistic boy. This makeshift family learn to make do with what they have, lean on one another to continue living within a world that has all but dismissed them. Their choices may not always be admirable – prostituting themselves, turning to drugs – but you can’t help but root for them to succeed.

And yet in the wake of the AIDS epidemic it seems as though the cards are already stacked against them. Hector is the first to succumb; their community begins to drop like flies as the 80’s whirl on. Cassara navigates us through the whirlwind, amidst each character’s highest of highs and lowest of lows, with a sharp, witty and compassionate prose that’s practically irresistible and altogether authentic. That said, stylistically I had a couple of minor quibbles that were more personal preference than egregious errors on the author’s part: the infusion of Spanish was a bit overdone (it worked far better during dialogue than within the narration), and the shifting of pronouns, while very clever when writing about trans folk, was at times inconsistent.

But like I said, these are just simply quibbles. We live in an imperfect world so tiny little imperfections such as these are not only justifiable they’re welcome; perfection would be boring. If there’s anything THoIB is not, it’s boring. It’s a revelation, really, a spirited celebration of love, humanity, and finding one’s identity in a world seemingly resistant to imagination. In short, it’s throwing shade back on those who threw it in the first place. ...more

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Mar 26, 2018 Read By RodKelly rated it it was ok

Shelves: books-owned

I knew from the first few chapters that this would be a tough read for me. The thing that kept me reading to the end were the glimmers of wonderful writing that came up every 50 pages or so, and really held this almost 400 page novel together.

The trouble here was in the writing and the structure; I believe the author was in over his head a bit with this subject. When authors choose real people for a fictional story, there is always the risk of reducing the characters to very flat versions of th ...more

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May 21, 2018 MaryBeth's Bookshelf rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, historical-fiction, lgbtq

Set in New York City during the 1980's and 1990's this story focuses on gay and transgender characters living during the beginning of the AIDS crisis and Harlem Ball Scene. This is this story of many unlikely people who come together to form a family after being rejected by their own.

Angel meets Hector after being shunned by her mother, and together they create The House of Xtravaganza - a home for Latinos in Harlem. Together they create their own family, free from the stereotypes and violence ...more

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Sep 06, 2017 Teresa rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

THIS. BOOK. I literally cried for about 3/4 quarters of this book...it was heart breakingly beautiful. Joseph Cassara writes without abandon; I was so wrapped up in Angel, Venus, Daniel and Juanito's lives that my life was placed on hold for about 3 days.
Cassara weaves a gorgeous but gritty story of a house of "misfits". All thrown together because their families don't agree with how they have chosen to live their lives. I feel in love with all of them but Juanito in particular captured my hear ...more

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Feb 19, 2018 Greg rated it liked it

Shelves: 2018, reviewed

"Men come and go, I always say that. Maybe love is shorter than it should be, but hot diggity damn, Chanel is fuckin' forever" says one character. And so it goes, Chanel and rather restrained and multiple sexual encounters until an explosive, explicit scene wraps it all up in drugs and broken hearts and pain and a future filled with early deaths.
This story deserves a better telling, and since there is nothing new under the sun, it is ALL in the telling. The author just can't stop piling on the "Men come and go, I always say that. Maybe love is shorter than it should be, but hot diggity damn, Chanel is fuckin' forever" says one character. And so it goes, Chanel and rather restrained and multiple sexual encounters until an explosive, explicit scene wraps it all up in drugs and broken hearts and pain and a future filled with early deaths.
This story deserves a better telling, and since there is nothing new under the sun, it is ALL in the telling. The author just can't stop piling on the adjectives: soup is 'bangin' soup' or hair is 'looking especially fly' (and was 'fly' even used as a slang word in the 1980s?). The author goes for broke with lines like "Lady Midnight had long climaxed and now she was ready for sleep." Okay, arrest that editor! But I admit, I laughed out loud, and maybe that was the point. And the language/words of the characters are all over the place. Within the same scene, with the same characters, we read, "See, our minds are on the same wavelength" and "You know what I mean nena. That man you're seeing, dimelo todo." I have no idea what that means, even in the context in which "dimelo todo" is used.
So 4 stars for originality and 2 stars for some absolutely outrageous lines* which become overpowering by the end of the book. I didn't like at all the author's multiple references to Sandy Hook as that felt on the cheap side as a way to get some tears, but then again, the author's acknowledgements end with a real beauty: "Finally, to all the gentle souls we lost to the virus, and to the brothers and sisters at Pulse who left us too soon. This book is for you" is the only sob-inducing acknowledgement I've ever read. Overall, I'm giving this book a 3 star average. *And not for a f***ing whoregotten (hey, I can write like Cassara!!!) billion s***ing dollars or a Chanel #5 equivalent leave out: "I'm so hungry for a good, meaty man that someone needs to alert Sally Struthers to my cause." Read again, memorize, and file away for just the right, righteous moment. ...more

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Aug 17, 2017 Al rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, owned

I haven't even finished this book; I still have a fourth left to go, and even now I can say that this is the most haunting, yet glamorous, book I have ever read. The entire cast is diverse, both racially, sexually, and gender-wise. There isn't a dull moment in this book. It's laugh-inducing, it makes you love the world and then hate it again with the turn of a page, and it's extremely tear-jerking; still not forgiving Joseph Cassara for making me cry during lunch last week. It's full of some of ...more

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