I can already hear some of you muttering something to the effect of 'not much of a queer at all.' But I read the book, and I'm taking my responsibility of introducing him and his books. In case you're still confused, the queer is Michael Thomas Ford, and the series is called "My Queer Life".
Ford is a cranky, opinionated writer-who-hates-writing who is usually funny, sometimes insightful, and always has a snide comment or three about everything ranging from serious subjects (the marriage thing, human cloning, porn on the internet, etc.) to the frivolous (adult education, Martha Stewart, shopping, etc.) and everything in between.
There are four books (thus far, I hope) in the series "My Queer Life" ("Alec Baldwin Doesn't Love Me", "That's Mr. Faggot to You", "Its Not Mean if its True" and "The Little Book of Neuroses."). They are equally funny, and it is not essential to read them in order, but it would be my suggestion to do so, as in the later books, there are references to occurrences in first book. Besides... I can almost promise on Victor Hugo's grave that once you read one of the books, you'll have to rush out and buy the rest of the series. (Or, if you're a poor college student like myself, spend the precious few hours of free time you allotted for studying Statistics, sitting in one of those big comfortable chairs in Barnes & Nobles sipping tea and reading Ford's books.
You'll quickly be drawn into Ford's world, get to know his circle of friends, and I can guarantee you'll want to play with his much written about Black Lab, Roger. The real appeal of Ford's series, at least in my opinion, is that he's a regular guy, with neurotic fixations like the rest of us. His friends and their adventures seem oddly similar to an experience we might have. There was more than one occasion when I found myself thinking, "Holy shit, that is so something me and MY crack-head group of friends would do." Anyone who has ever been owned by an animal will see Roger's characteristics in not only your animals, but in yourself.
Ford also discloses the ugly truth about writers. You know, that when it comes down to it, a lot of us are lazy bitches who have no idea how books or columns get finished. I know my column is almost always late getting in. (I would like to pause in gratitude to Dena for this one;)
My friend Josh was the one who insisted I read the series. After weeks of procrastinating, and playing the "But Joshy, I'm a broke college student!" line quite well, I finally relented and I couldn't thank him enough. And now I'm spreading the word. So go forth, readers young and old, queer or straight or somewhere in between, and go to Barnes & Nobles, have some tea, and read Ford's books.
I shall conclude with a quote, something which I think sums up Ford's work quite nicely:
Theres no deep cosmic secret about being gay. Theres no arcane experience embedded deep within the hearts of our gay souls just waiting to be revealed to the rest of the world. What being gay means is that we have a way of looking at life that is different from the way other people who do not go through life as gay people look at life. And for many of us, that means recognizing that the most positive way to deal with everything the world throws at you is to laugh at it. Have you learned nothing from Harvey Fierstein?
~ Michael Thomas Ford, in "That's Mr. Faggot to You"
Thank you, and goodnight. I now have much neglected homework to attend to.
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