Queer Chronicles: The Flaming of Atlanta

Rating:
Summary: Hysterical Fun
Review: Forget Sex and the City and dive into Queer Chronicles, or as I see it: "Sex and the Southern Guy". Frank Blocker's alter ego, Kenneth, does it all and journalizes in prose that is both hyper-witty, incredibly detailed, eccentric, ironic, but most of all, just plain FUN. Atlanta's wild and gay 90s comes to vivid life; I especially enjoyed references to cruising at the "Homo Depot", the many and varied sideways glances towards "the EX", and a vivid recounting of turbulent events at the Atlanta Olympics. Plenty of political slant here -- Blocker/Kenneth has an opinion about EVERYTHING and is not shy about sharing! Bravo, Kenneth.

Rating:
Summary: Growing Up with Kenneth
Review: This book was a great, fun read! Fast paced and as funny or funnier than Bridgett Jones (sorry Helen).

At the start of "The Flame" I was feeling kind of like "Oh blah, blah, blah another book about an angry, pushy, flamed out gay man. Another diary format too. ACK! Why did I buy this?" But I very quickly got hooked on Blocker's quips and Kenneth's almost daily adventures. So much so that I found myself saying... "What the heck was he doing the last (insert number of days here) days???!!? Doesn't he know I need that information???!!??" whenever there was a break in days.

What I liked best was how I felt about Kenneth by the end of the book. While I started out not too flattering ("angry, pushy, flamed out gay man") by the last page I could see Kenneth's growth and transition from one dimension into three. It's really nice that Blocker doesn't rest on the typical stereotypes. At least not for long!!!