Book Review: America's Boy by Wade Rouse

I read a pre-publication copy of this book early last year, a memoir about a fat, gay misfit growing up in the Missouri Ozarks. Basically, it's Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer set in rural America, where Rudolf really is gay (and not just Herbie, his elf-dentist friend). Fifteen years ago, I suspect this book would have made a real splash. But in the intervening years, we've read and watched variations on this same story so many times, not to mention stories of far more outlandish gay childhoods of David Sedaris and Augusten Burroughs, that I confess the book didn't strike me as all that fresh. That said, America's Boy is well-written, sometimes funny, sometimes touching. If you're a fan of memoirs, I'd definitely encourage you to pick up a copy. (And since I dawdled so long in writing this review, I can happily report that it's coming out in paperback in March!)