Homodramatica: Family of Five

by Kate Christie

In 2011, shortly before the birth of her first daughter, novelist Kate Christie started a blog she titled Homodramatica. Over the next few years she wrote about queer parenting, lesbian fiction, same-sex marriage, chronic illness, and the joys—and challenges—of raising three girls under the age of three. Now for the first time Christie is sharing her nonfiction writing in a book that tells the story of her growing family—and of her own personal growth over the same period.

From the introduction: “Through the process of revision and the addition of previously unpublished content, [this book offers] a quasi-coherent story of one family’s beginning. Each chapter presents a text-based snapshot of daily life for my wife, daughters, and myself at a specific moment in time. Woven through this writerly scrapbook, as I’ve come to think of the collection, is the theme of gay marriage in the United States: What are the flash points in the cultural conversation about same-sex marriage? How does the debate impact parenting in general? And how does the political climate impact the life of our gay-married, same-sex parented family in particular?”

As the saying goes, the personal is political. For one queer family caught up in the culture wars of the early twenty-first century, the two have often been inextricable.

Genres: Nonfiction, LGBT

279 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 28, 2018

About the author

Kate Christie, author of In the Company of Women, Gay Pride & Prejudice, and the Girls of Summer series, was born and raised in Kalamazoo, MI. A graduate of Smith College, she lives near Seattle with her wife, their three daughters, and the family dogs.

To join her mailing list and receive email notifications of new releases, giveaways, and other news, visit https://katejchristie.com/mailing-list/.

Reviews

[Lexxi Kitty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quite good interesting book based on blog posts the author wrote as she started her career as an author, and as she and her wife grew their family to include three girls.

Based on? Well, the blog posts are not just pulled and published, they are expanded upon, and modern day observations are injected into the thoughts and writings of years ago.

Many interesting tidbits. Made me teary-eyed in parts, made me laugh in parts. One of the interesting parts was when the author mentioned someone asking if she was always going to have athletes be her main characters. It's true, of course, many of the authors characters are sporty lesbians (as is herself and her wife; her first book, she notes, bares a striking resemblance to her own real life story, though she wrote the book years before). I mention that because the first book I read by the author was by a college professor writing a 'gay' version of 'Pride and Prejudice', so I didn't 'get into' the author the same way someone who read her from her first book 'got into her'.

So - great nonfiction book. And, apparently, the book ended up with my highest rating for the author.

Rating: 5+

August 2 2018

[Ranger · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read several of Kate Christie's novels and followed her blog from the beginning. I looked forward to rereading her blog posts as a collection but happily discovered that a lot of the material is brand new. I worried with Kate as her wife struggled through 34 hours of labor, I mourned the loss of her dogs, I delighted in the early morning snuggles of her small children.

I recommend this book to parents in general, but especially to LGBTQ+ folks who might be struggling with their identities as parents or who just want to read about someone who's been there. Homodramatica is heartwarming without an ounce of sentimentality.

[Margo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Inspired by blog posts, this memoir brings together a number of essays on what it is like to be a lesbian family. She writes about queer parenting, chronic illness and queer politics with humor and compassion. If you like her blog, you will like this book. If you don't know of her, after this read you'll feel like you know her personally.