The Tragedy of Miss Geneva Flowers

Rating:
Summary: The best book I have ever taken a chance on...
Review: A wonderful surprise...purchased at a pride festival right from the author on a whim...I was so pleased by how well written, the content, and the purpose. The book actually brought tears to my eyes.

Rating:
Summary: Great first book!
Review: I read this book as part of a (gay) book club, and all of us enjoyed the book--it held interest through the plot and the character development. The author is exceptionally good in getting the reader into the main character's mind. I actually learned quite a bit about a teenager coming out in the Twin Cities, and all of the obstacles there are. Additionally, I was most impressed about the realism contained in the author's description of currently popular pharmaceuticals...educational!

Highly recommend this book--it grows on the reader. Hope Joe Babcock writes more!

Rating:
Summary: it will make you laugh, turn you on, and let you cry...
Review: If the Modern Library ever decides to re-publish another gay coming -out story. Eric Taylor's should be the one told to the world. But there should be a warning on the inside cover : "This is NOT just another 'Best little Boy in the World'.."

Although the book seems to come across as another coming of age story at first, before you know it; you are inside Eric's head seeing the world from his "fierce" eyes. Joe Babcock paints a picture not-so-perfect of what it is like to be 17 and have already seen it and lived it all; love, sex, drugs and the awful little illusion called death. He portrays the epitome of our society and its lack of breathing space and understanding of the gay teenager, but he does it with STYLE and techno music playing in the background. Spend some alone time with Miss Geneva Flowers, you are going to LOVE her, girl! You might even start dressing fiercely ... one of the very few books that left me content!

Rating:
Summary: The best book I have ever taken a chance on...
Review: Probably the most exciting thing a reader (or a book reviewer) can discover is a new literary voice. Over the years, for me, these have included such now familiar gay writers as Ethan Mordden, George Whitemore and Felice Picano. I'm thrilled to add Joe Babcock to this list. Babcock's The Tragedy of Miss Geneva Flowers is a remarkable achievement for a first novel.

A native of Minneapolis, Babcock relates the saga of Erick Taylor, a sixteen-year-old Catholic School student who, like all other teenagers, has parents (his overcoming a personal tragedy) who don't understand him. Struggling with coming out, Erick quits school and gets a job at the Uptown Mall, working at a sunglasses franchise. His boss is Chloe, a self-described "grandiloquist' drag queen." With a new wardrobe, platform shoes and a new hair color, Chloe helps Erick toward the path to find himself. Like many impressionable people of his generation, Erick's journey includes experimentation in drugs, sex and drag, including addiction to crystal meth. A huge jolt of reality in Erick's relationship with Chloe leads him toward his responsibilities to himself and those he loves.

The angst-filled teen and young adult novel have been with us for a half-century, with J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye the best known. Still, the world Babcock's
Erick Taylor leads us into is far removed from Holden Caulfield's. So vividly painted are Babcock's portraits of "breaking a window," and the world of the young middle-class crack addict, that he not only voices his experiences, but, for many readers he educates us as well. The realism Babcock presents goes beyond the usual movie-of-the-week style of other, similarly-themed novels. The Tragedy of Miss Geneva Flowers is also told from the point of view of a young gay man, which strengthens its purpose.

As stated previously, it's a pleasure to discover a compelling first novel, and Joe Babcock's self-published first novel, The Tragedy of Miss Geneva Flowers is the most exciting thing I've read since Stephen McCauley's The Object of My Affection in 1987. I should relate that while McCauley's follow-up works are disappointing, Joe Babcock's exceptional talent leads me to believe that his next book will be as vivid an eye-opener as his excellent first effort.

Reviewed by Steven LaVigne in White Crane Journal

Rating:
Summary: A Pleasure to Discover
Review: Probably the most exciting thing a reader (or a book reviewer) can discover is a new literary voice. Over the years, for me, these have included such now familiar gay writers as Ethan Mordden, George Whitemore and Felice Picano. I'm thrilled to add Joe Babcock to this list. Babcock's The Tragedy of Miss Geneva Flowers is a remarkable achievement for a first novel.

A native of Minneapolis, Babcock relates the saga of Erick Taylor, a sixteen-year-old Catholic School student who, like all other teenagers, has parents (his overcoming a personal tragedy) who don't understand him. Struggling with coming out, Erick quits school and gets a job at the Uptown Mall, working at a sunglasses franchise. His boss is Chloe, a self-described "grandiloquist' drag queen." With a new wardrobe, platform shoes and a new hair color, Chloe helps Erick toward the path to find himself. Like many impressionable people of his generation, Erick's journey includes experimentation in drugs, sex and drag, including addiction to crystal meth. A huge jolt of reality in Erick's relationship with Chloe leads him toward his responsibilities to himself and those he loves.

The angst-filled teen and young adult novel have been with us for a half-century, with J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye the best known. Still, the world Babcock's
Erick Taylor leads us into is far removed from Holden Caulfield's. So vividly painted are Babcock's portraits of "breaking a window," and the world of the young middle-class crack addict, that he not only voices his experiences, but, for many readers he educates us as well. The realism Babcock presents goes beyond the usual movie-of-the-week style of other, similarly-themed novels. The Tragedy of Miss Geneva Flowers is also told from the point of view of a young gay man, which strengthens its purpose.

As stated previously, it's a pleasure to discover a compelling first novel, and Joe Babcock's self-published first novel, The Tragedy of Miss Geneva Flowers is the most exciting thing I've read since Stephen McCauley's The Object of My Affection in 1987. I should relate that while McCauley's follow-up works are disappointing, Joe Babcock's exceptional talent leads me to believe that his next book will be as vivid an eye-opener as his excellent first effort.

Reviewed by Steven LaVigne in White Crane Journal

Rating:
Summary: A powerful novel of struggle, risk, and steep prices
Review: The Writer's Digest International Self-Published Book grand prize award winner, Tragedy Of Miss Geneva Flowers by Joe Babcock and published by Closet Case Books, is a thoughtful and reflective novel arising from the theme of what it is like to grow up as a young homosexual man in America. Sixteen-year-old Erick Taylor dreams of being star, has problems with his Catholic school and its bullies, and is uncertain about his personal identity and future. When Erick meets a drag queen, he is drawn into the world of gay nightlife in Minnesota -- yet threatening consequences await his inexperienced exploration. A powerful novel of struggle, risk, and steep prices paid by those who are different from most others, The Tragedy Of Miss Geneva Flowers is almost impossible to put down.