Saturday, September 13, 2008

Book Review of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to My Sexual Orientation


4 Stars out of 5 stars

Andy Stevenson – a nerdy, nineteen-year-old, college student from Detroit, Michigan – is so deep in the closet that he is seemingly the only one who doesn’t know he is gay. He uses a sarcastic wit to keep family and schoolmates at a safe distance, which works so perfectly well that he is still a virgin with no hope of overcoming his embarrassing deficiency.
But his luck is seemingly about to change when he is asked to accompany his alcoholic Grandmother on a six day trip to California to celebrate her brother’s 50th wedding anniversary. Andy envisions thousands of bikini-clad, sun-bronzed women desperate to make love to him, and can’t wait to hit the famous beaches. In his mind, all he has to do to lose his cherry is to first lose his Grandmother…
Once in L.A., the reality of SoCal babes turns disastrous for Andy until Jordan, Andy’s sexy gay cousin, strikes up a flirty conversation and ends up kissing Andy on the lips at the anniversary party. That explosive kiss starts a chain reaction of comical faux pas that eventually force Andy to reevaluate everything he thinks he knows about himself.

Kage Alan paints a hilarious yet touching picture of a teenager coming to terms with his sexuality. This story is a breezy romp, an entertaining and intelligent look at a young man’s struggle with coming to terms with his sexuality. I seldom laughed out loud, but I found something interesting, witty and humorous on nearly every page. It made me chuckle, it made me roll my eyes, it made me remember that time (oh so many decades ago) when I experienced similar feelings of confusion.

The one minuscule criticism I experienced was that the story is a tad predictable, but that didn’t stop me from being totally engaged until the very last page. Often, I would sit down intending to reading 10 or 20 pages, and end up reading 60 or 80. It’s fast, it’s funny, and it’s the perfect book to keep you smiling during a long weekend at the beach. I truly didn’t want it to end. Lucky for me, I already have the sequel on the top of my to-be-read list.

But by all means, pick up a copy and judge for yourself. You won’t be sorry you did.

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