Drag Queen (Robert Rodi Essentials)
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3.0 • 1 Rating
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- £0.99
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Publisher Description
A wildly irreverent satire of gender identity and family dynamics, Rodi's 1995 novel has been long out-of-print; now it returns, its NSFW hilarity as timely as ever - if not timelier. Mitchell Sayer, a buttoned-down gay attorney at a prestigious Chicago law firm, discovers he has a long-lost twin. But his well-ordered life comes apart at the seams when the separated siblings finally meet, and Mitchell discovers his brother Donald is better known as Kitten Kaboodle, star of the city's most infamous drag revue. Plunged into a chaotic world where he's forced to confront his own fluid masculinity, Mitchell learns that appearances aren't just deceiving - they're even more disturbingly revealing. Building to a riotous climax in which identities blur and destinies go bust, all to the accompaniment of a cabaret pianist, Drag Queen is a rip-snorting romp through wigs and wardrobes, wit and wantonness. "A plateful of giddy meringue from the undisputed doyen of the effervescent gay novel of manners." - Kirkus
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
With titles like Rodi's (Fag Hag, Closet Case), subtlety is certainly not an issue; his latest gay-themed romp proves no exception. As Mitchell Sayer's Mame-ish mama sets out to join a Tibetan convent (in Wisconsin), she tells her lawyer son that he has a twin brother. Upright, uptight Mitch discovers that brother Donald is--drum roll, please--a drag queen, singing at Chicago's Tam-Tam Club as Kitten Kaboodle, the Doyenne of Despair. So begins a sporadically madcap tale of Boy Meets Brother, Boy Loses Brother, Boy Gets Brother--and (temporarily), Boy Becomes Brother. Unfortunately, for every amusing one-liner and vignette (a department-store cosmetics demo by a Middle European emigre is a gem), there's a misfire or a bit of heavy-handed philosophizing. Though this novel's parts are better than its whole, the story's gentle sweetness makes it hard to dislike. Ultimately, readers who can appreciate such drag names as Tequila Mockingbird, May Oui and Barbarella Fitzgerald will be tickled lavender by these escapades; others may believe, like one of Mitch's boyfriends, that ``the only good queen is one who's been anointed... in Westminster Abbey.''
