Fag Hag (Plume Fiction)

Rating:
Summary: Lousy, maddening, and pointless.
Review: 'Fag Hag' is the story of a woman who is in love with her gay best friend, though he doesn't seem likely to change his sexual preferences any time soon. She makes a career out of ruining any relationships he begins, so that she can save him for herself, but when his latest boyfriend seems as though he's going to be in it for the long haul, she goes off the deep end. That is to say, she *would* be going off the deep end, except we've read everything leading up to it and knew after the first page that she was beyond all help.

Here is a book in which the only draw is an unlikeable, shallow, mindless and narcissistic main character who has somehow managed to freeze her mental development at the age of twelve and make it as a temporary secretary in Chicago. It has been a long time since I've read a book where I detested the heroine so thoroughly. I've met women who seem suspiciously similar, and could appreciate a satirical novel exploring this type of person, but this isn't it, folks. It's a long slog through a phony, unbelievable story, told with the subtlety of a sledgehammer blow to the head, from the first paragraph about her "cheap" and "gaudy" makeup to a closing Christmas dinner that ties up every plot thread with one copout after another.

The basic tenet of satire is that it must be making fun of reality. 'Fag Hag' makes fun of characters who were born to be made fun of, with so many obvious setups and payoffs that it feels less like a book than a shooting gallery. None of this is funny, or much of anything else except uncomfortable, with a tone so mean-spirited that it dies immediately. The plot is also "satirical," a ludicrous thing involving miraculous inheritances, precocious little girls from the projects, surveillance equipment, kidnapping, and a robbery/break-in which is neither a robbery nor a break-in, for reasons not worth explaining.

I can see what Robert Rodi is going for here, I think. What he is describing is not an unusual phenomenon--a plain girl latching herself onto an attractive gay man, becoming his best friend, and harboring a hidden but painfully obvious hope inside--but a book about such a thing needs sensitivity, whether it's satire or not. No doubt Rodi had inside knowledge and was driven to write about it, but on the basis of the book he might as well have visited a gay bar for five minutes and then pounded this out before going to bed.

Too bad, because with the right approach and style, and a plot we could believe, this might have amounted to something. Instead we have this, a crude, unfunny hate letter of a book. Better luck next time.

Rating:
Summary: Lousy, maddening, and pointless.
Review: 'Fag Hag' is the story of a woman who is in love with her gay best friend, though he doesn't seem likely to change his sexual preferences any time soon. She makes a career out of ruining any relationships he begins, so that she can save him for herself, but when his latest boyfriend seems as though he's going to be in it for the long haul, she goes off the deep end. That is to say, she *would* be going off the deep end, except we've read everything leading up to it and knew after the first page that she was beyond all help.

Here is a book in which the only draw is an unlikeable, shallow, mindless and narcissistic main character who has somehow managed to freeze her mental development at the age of twelve and make it as a temporary secretary in Chicago. It has been a long time since I've read a book where I detested the heroine so thoroughly. I've met women who seem suspiciously similar, and could appreciate a satirical novel exploring this type of person, but this isn't it, folks. It's a long slog through a phony, unbelievable story, told with the subtlety of a sledgehammer blow to the head, from the first paragraph about her "cheap" and "gaudy" makeup to a closing Christmas dinner that ties up every plot thread with one copout after another.

The basic tenet of satire is that it must be making fun of reality. 'Fag Hag' makes fun of characters who were born to be made fun of, with so many obvious setups and payoffs that it feels less like a book than a shooting gallery. None of this is funny, or much of anything else except uncomfortable, with a tone so mean-spirited that it dies immediately. The plot is also "satirical," a ludicrous thing involving miraculous inheritances, precocious little girls from the projects, surveillance equipment, kidnapping, and a robbery/break-in which is neither a robbery nor a break-in, for reasons not worth explaining.

I can see what Robert Rodi is going for here, I think. What he is describing is not an unusual phenomenon--a plain girl latching herself onto an attractive gay man, becoming his best friend, and harboring a hidden but painfully obvious hope inside--but a book about such a thing needs sensitivity, whether it's satire or not. No doubt Rodi had inside knowledge and was driven to write about it, but on the basis of the book he might as well have visited a gay bar for five minutes and then pounded this out before going to bed.

Too bad, because with the right approach and style, and a plot we could believe, this might have amounted to something. Instead we have this, a crude, unfunny hate letter of a book. Better luck next time.

Rating:
Summary: Hilarious satire
Review: Don't take the subject matter too seriously. Most fag hags don't go to these extremes. But who among us can't relate to the general theme? Hilariously satirical, often politically incorrect, a quick read requiring little to no commitment.

Rating:
Summary: Natalie: Get a life!
Review: I enjoyed this book, but I found myself frustrated with Natalie and her blind descent into madness. But then, maybe that's the point -- we are often the last to realize we've gone over the edge. Even so, Natalie's actions seemed too much over the top, even for a genre in which over the top is the norm. Still, it is well-written and funny, and I'd probably read other books by Rodi.

Rating:
Summary: One of the first and still one of the best
Review: I read this book years ago. Just when I was starting to get tired of the overly P.C. humorless writings that the gay community was being subjected to. This book was a godsend both then and now. It could be a Psychological essay on the type of girls who become fixated on gay men used in classes at Ivy League schools if it wasn't so damn funny.

Natalie loves Peter, She loves hanging out with him, going to clubs, watching movies, and she knows if she can keep breaking up his relationships by subtle sabotage he will one day realize that all of those men can't make him happy, only she can. Read on while she slips farther and farther from reality, especially when Peter meets perhaps the "one". I've enjoyed all of Mr. Rodi's books but for character depth, humor, and re-readability this one is still my favorite.

Rating:
Summary: One of the first and still one of the best
Review: I read this book years ago. Just when I was starting to get tired of the overly P.C. humorless writings that the gay community was being subjected to. This book was a godsend both then and now. It could be a Psychological essay on the type of girls who become fixated on gay men used in classes at Ivy League schools if it wasn't so damn funny.

Natalie loves Peter, She loves hanging out with him, going to clubs, watching movies, and she knows if she can keep breaking up his relationships by subtle sabotage he will one day realize that all of those men can't make him happy, only she can. Read on while she slips farther and farther from reality, especially when Peter meets perhaps the "one". I've enjoyed all of Mr. Rodi's books but for character depth, humor, and re-readability this one is still my favorite.

Rating:
Summary: Rodi's first - but not his best
Review: I've read all but one of Robert Rodi's books (Drag Queen). This one isn't as good as Closet Case but still entertaining. Natalie is the title character, a fat girl in love with the perfect Peter, who can't seem to keep a boyfriend. She's happy living her life with him, until he meets a right-wing libertarian....

Like most of his books, the main characters who are straight are less than admirable, while the gay ones have only a few flaws. But don't let that turn you off - this book is still an amazingly funny work. Very easy to picture everything in your mind, quick page-turner, lots of fun to read.

Rating:
Summary: Occasionally witty but ultimately racist
Review: No one seems to mention how Natalie takes in a little Black girl to raise as part of conquering her suburban blues. That very act alone and the stereotypes are insulting. Or perhaps thsi is how White people think ALL people who are Black would be? I doubt it but thats the first major flaw.
The second is the lack of depth Peter shows to Natalie. i fthey were totally together and he was a shave dumber you could understand all of her manipulations working. But him having some smarts makes everything seem like a set-up for her insanity which is ultimately contrived and silly. She suddenly gets money when she needs to bug his place, her kidnapping and imprisonment of Peter and Lloyd's militia rescue...all a bit trite.
Lets not even touch the wilding Latino gang that she gives a freebie to in order to maintain the gay one's machismo in the gang. It's sickening. All the races are stereotypes and disgusting while Peter and Lloyd could fly with angel wings if teh book oepned too fast.
Also the concept that there is no play from the inner workings of their relationship. Using Natalie as the ploy ultimately wear sthin because everything is from her eprspective, which is warped and some things that need to be explained become inexplicable.
The whole pity over certain kinds of women clutching to gay men is attacking and pathetic too because it never supposes genuine relationships of human beings, just gay to straight, lose rto winner, man to woman. This book is misogynistic is truth as all of the women are settlers or fools, even Natalie's boss who has a gay husband, or downtrodden Black girls with thug boyfriends.
The problem with gay literature is that it has only so many veins because the writer pushes the whole gay thing. Satire/lark, coming out story, fetish clique insights or lurid drama with gay sex. Even the sex scene in this book is incomprehensible. Why write about people, including gay people, if they're just going to be caricatures.

The one star saving grace of this whole book is Lloyd's realistic arguments, his thoughts. Though not necessarily agreeable to all, it shows some depth. Unfortunately so much work went into Lloyd and Natalie as polarities that they stretch to the point of unrealistic.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful, over-the-top satire
Review: Robert Rodi has been compared to Armistead Maupin (author of "Tales of the City") and the comparison sure is apt with "Fag Hag." Like Maupin, Rodi has an eye for detail, which he uses to skewer and satire the good and bad of contemporary urban gay life. And Rodi (like Maupin) also has compassion for even his unsavory characters. In this book, Natalie (think Natalie on "The Facts of Life" for a rough mental image) is the classic "fag hag" in love with her best pal: a gay man, Peter, who will never be able to return her secret desire. A manipulative woman on a Bette Davis/Joan Crawford scale, Natalie resorts to more and more desparate measures to snare her man, or at least keep him for herself. But her work becomes more challenging when Peter falls in love with Lloyd, a libertaarian intellectual "survivalist." One of the funniest scenes in the book occurs when Lloyd turns his rational, Socratic conversational approach on a bitter, wisecracking queeny gay man, who has no idea how to respond.... I was a little disappointed by the ending, but otherwise this is an enjoyable, funny read. Gay male readers (and the women who love them) will get the most out of this book, but most anyone with a sense of humor should be able to appreciate the (decidely politically incorrect) satire here.

Rating:
Summary: Slightly contrived but gorgeous nonetheless.
Review: With all the melodrama in this book, it would make a perfect film for Lifetime! Imagine a tinge of Fatal Attraction, only without the precursory affair between the two leads. It was almost frightening to read, since you can imagine people in the real-world who are just like Natalie. Not a good book to give a potential stalker! :-) Definitely worth the read!