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RJ, Farrah and Me: A Young Man’s Gay Odyssey from the Inside Out
1976 … Ford was ruling… the Bicentennial was blaring… Farrah Fawcett was flying and two Ohio boys were cavorting.
Jack is an only child growing up in Cleveland and by the time he is seven, he knows he’s different. The one constant in his young life is friendship and when Jack meets RJ the two find solace and discovery in one another. From their mutual obsession for Charlie’s Angel and pin-up girl Farrah Fawcett to exploring their sexuality one humid, summer night, they embark on a journey that forces Jack to grapple with his strict Catholic upbringing and an emerging, yet conflicted awareness that he is gay.
Set against the backdrop of the disco dance era, The Rocky Horror Picture Show , sun-kissed lifeguards, high school musicals and college fraternity hijinks, Jack’s pursuit of anything-but-gay personas leads to humor and heartache with people who help and thwart him.
Ever resilient, he navigates an uncertain future on the path to self-discovery in his quest for a happy, Technicolor ending.
Jack is an only child growing up in Cleveland and by the time he is seven, he knows he’s different. The one constant in his young life is friendship and when Jack meets RJ the two find solace and discovery in one another. From their mutual obsession for Charlie’s Angel and pin-up girl Farrah Fawcett to exploring their sexuality one humid, summer night, they embark on a journey that forces Jack to grapple with his strict Catholic upbringing and an emerging, yet conflicted awareness that he is gay.
Set against the backdrop of the disco dance era, The Rocky Horror Picture Show , sun-kissed lifeguards, high school musicals and college fraternity hijinks, Jack’s pursuit of anything-but-gay personas leads to humor and heartache with people who help and thwart him.
Ever resilient, he navigates an uncertain future on the path to self-discovery in his quest for a happy, Technicolor ending.
347 pages, Paperback
Published June 14, 2022
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July 26, 2023
I wanted to like this book, I really did. I think it's an important subject, and the differences between the world of the 70s/80s and now are worth highlighting. The thing was, I just couldn't engage in it, and I can't figure out who the author was trying to target with it. It could almost be YA, except I think the sex is too explicit for YA. It reads a bit like a "tell-all" but it seems unfair to RJ to reveal all these details. I also fear that RJ could be seen as being cast as an instigator/corruptor rather than how it’s summarized as two young men (Ok boys!) exploring together. The book doesn't have much in the way of 'lessons', other than perhaps as a heads-up to parents about high school boys sleeping together in your house.
I found that there is a jarring jumping between the perspective of the young man and the reflections that happens willy-nilly throughout. The issue for me though in reading is that the writing was tedious with sentences that didn't vary in length enough, plus the dialog didn't exactly ring true.
There is a story here, the author could keep working on improving the telling of it.
I found that there is a jarring jumping between the perspective of the young man and the reflections that happens willy-nilly throughout. The issue for me though in reading is that the writing was tedious with sentences that didn't vary in length enough, plus the dialog didn't exactly ring true.
There is a story here, the author could keep working on improving the telling of it.
Displaying 1 of 1 review