;uly 2.2004 ’ JUSt Mit37
c^YNDIN
REVIEWS
D ress Y our F amily
in C orduroy and
D enim
by David Sedaris; Little,
Brown and Co., 2004;
$24.95 hardcover
avid Sedaris, per
haps more than any
other contemporary
author, has figured out
how to successfully
mine his pain—the ore
he extracts is solid gold.
The closest thing the
intelligentsia has to a
rock star, Sedaris
attracts thousands of
devoted fans to his per
sonal appearances,
many of whom have
been following his
antics since 1992’s
“SantaLand Diaries.
His latest collection,
Dress Your Family in
Corduroy and Denim,
provides another set of enjoyable essays in
cisively detailing his misspent youth and con
tinued mistreatment by the world around him.
Sedaris is an astute observer, but what he
does most brilliantly is shine a spotlight on the
flaws and foibles of those he encounters, partic
ularly his family. He describes himself as “a
friendly junkman building things from the little
pieces of scrap 1 find here and there.” It can’t
be easy for them (“More and more often," he
writes, “their stories begin with the line, ‘You
have to swear you won’t repeat this’ ”), but the
Sedarises are among the most original charac
ters to emerge from literature in years.
Sedaris always allows his vulnerability to
show through his ironic veneer, but now he is
also more open about being gay than in the
past. “You should look at yourself...really look
at yourself," his mother tells him in the first
essay as he stuffs Halloween candy into his
mouth rather than share it. And look at him
self he does—in an intimate and revealing way.
- Of course, the more honest Sedaris is, the
funnier he is, such as: “They rarely make
movies about long-term couples, and for gixxl
reason; Our lives are boring.... Look, they’re
opening their electric bill!”
Much of what we learn is unsettling, such
as his fear of being accused of pedophilia or the
pain that he and his family cause each other:
“I haven’t had a chance to clean,” his sister
Tiffany tells him when he visits, “but the lie
feels uncomfortable and so she corrects herself.
‘What I meant to say is that I don’t give a fuck
what you think of my apartment. I didn’t really
want you here in the first place.’ ” Ouch.
Sedaris is a masterful essayist with a keen
observer’s eye, and his newfound queer sensibil
ity is sure to delight and touch you.
—Floyd Sklaver
D
T he E nd of G ay
and the D eath of
H eterosexuality
by Bert Archer ;
Thunder’s Mouth Press,
2004 edition; $14.95
softcover
I
would be tempted,
in a different time
and place, to pro
claim Canadian Bert
Archers 2000 book
END
gay
BERT ARCHER
The End of Gay and the
Death of Heterosexuality,
just published in paper
back in the United
States, an absolutely
essential read for any
one in the sexual
minorities community.
Archers claim that
sexual identity is a
onetime political
necessity that has now
become more hin
drance than help has
been and continues to
be controversial, but
it’s refreshingly galva
nizing. Being taken out
of our comfort zones
can, even if we’re
inclined to disagree, at
least reaffirm one’s
thoughts and feelings,
and Archer is, for the
most part, non-
confrontational in tone
(despite his title).
In Archer’s view, even if the exclusively gay
and straight labels do apply to a significant num
ber of people in practice, they’re too limiting to
truly open people’s sexual consciousness. He
backs this up by making a convincing case that
the homosexual as a "type” and homosexuals as
a “group” was an idea consolidated and shaped
by heterosexuals well before gay liberation, cre
ating a false gay/straight, us/them binary.
He offers well-researched and enlightening
viewpoints from both earlier and more radical
contemporary gay lib movements, quoting
1970’s Woman-ldentified Woman Manifesto (“In
a society in which...sexual expression is
allowed to follow feelings, the categories of
homosexuality and heterosexuality would dis
appear”) and pre-op Pat Califia (“Gay male
and lesbian culture is obsessed with purity of
identity.... This creates a lavender breed of
segregationism.”).
It’s an interesting, informative, thought
provoking read. I just wish I could say it was all
more relevant and useful than it is.
Part of Archer’s attempt to moisten some of
the dry data he’s working with is to give us
plenty of insights into his own personal experi
ences, which are those of a middle-class,
private-college-educated Gen-Xer living in a
major metropolitan area (Toronto) in the ’90s.
This got me thinking: Doesn’t my reading
this book and appreciating its subtlety and flu
ency constitute a rather closed conversation?
This well-researched, enthusiastically written
book about the history, subtleties and viability
of sexual identity hardly extends to those still
struggling with the basic acknowledgment and
acceptance of same-sex desire.
In addition to his unintentional insularity,
Archer is a little too optimistic; he simply dis
regards the mixed-at-best signals our culture
has been sending lately, where the newspaper
reports a gay-bashing one week and the great
advancements in same-sex partner workplace
benefits the next.
The End of Gay is astute enough and is, in
fact, well worth reading, but it’s too utopian to
be all that applicable in our current United
States of Dubya’s Evergreen Approval Rating,
where it seems increasingly likely those of us
concerned with sexual liberty and equality will
find ourselves in more urgent need of a united
political front than finely modulated queer
theory.
—Christopher McQuain JH
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