The House of Impossible Beauties
'Equal parts attitude, intelligence and eyeliner.' - Marlon James
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- 5,99 €
Beschreibung des Verlags
NAMED A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2018 BY Buzzfeed • Esquire • Bustle • The Millions • The Wall Street Journal • Entertainment Weekly • Nylon • Elle • Dazed • The Irish Times
'Cassara has written a heartbreaking tale of gay men struggling to survive in a world of clubbing and drugs. It is also an unexpected love story.' Graham Norton, Top Five Reads of 2018
'Cassaras’s propulsive and profound first novel, finding one’s home in the world – particularly in a subculture plagued by fear and intolerance from society – comes with tragedy as well as extraordinary personal freedom.' Esquire
A gritty and gorgeous debut inspired by the real House of Xtravaganza made famous by the seminal documentary Paris Is Burning
New York City, 1980
Nowhere is the city's glamour and energy better reflected than in the burgeoning Harlem dance scene.
Angel
Just seventeen years old and burnt by her traumatic past, she wants to create a family for those without.
Hector
When Angel falls in love with him, the two decide to set up the House of Xtravaganza, the first ever all-Latino house on the dance circuit.
The Xtravaganzas
They are joined by Venus, Juanito and Daniel, all with their own devastating stories to tell, each determined to survive.
Told in a voice that brims with wit, rage, tenderness, and fierce yearning, The House of Impossible Beauties is a gritty and gorgeous debut - a tragic story of love, family, and the dynamism of the human spirit.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Angie and Venus Xtravaganza were key members of the New York drag ball scene made famous to outsiders by the 1991 film Paris is Burning. Cassara's debut novel imagines them as runaways fleeing impoverished, unsupportive, or abusive homes; ball circuit stars embodying the glamour they craved; loving sisters and mothers to needy gay teens and each other; and grieving, jonesing, dying women. There's also a love story between Juanito and Daniel, younger runaways whom Angel (as she's called here) and Venus take in and teach to walk a ball and work the street. Impressionistically covering the period from 1976 to 1993, the book is long on origin stories and grief, as lovers and friends die of AIDS, johns fail to keep their promises, and cocaine and crystal meth take their toll. What it lacks, besides the ball scene, which readers see little of, is the feeling that Cassara is adding something to the story. While readers who are too young to know this history may appreciate having access to a dramatic moment and some of the legendary figures who populated it, those for whom this is more familiar territory may find themselves wishing for more insight. Angel and Venus may get to tell their story here, but they largely come across the way they looked from afar: as strong yet fragile, street-smart, shade-throwing, generous, and ultimately doomed divas.
