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snazel's review against another edition
Tries to walk a fairly delicate line between funny and heartfelt and doesn't quite nail it. Or perhaps I just wanted stories to be longer than a sentence. Hm.
baklavopita's review against another edition
2.0
It was just okay. The anecdotes seemed superficial and bland, most conforming to people's awareness in their sexuality being directly linked to recognition of gay stereotypes. I thought it would be more moving. Only one or two anecdcotes fit that bill.
jsjammersmith's review against another edition
5.0
Personally, I knew I was Queer while reading John Bunyan's Religious Allegory Pilgrim's Progress, specifically when Christian is wrestling with the demon Apollyon. I'm not sure if it was the wrestling or the Christian Allegory, I just remember for whatever reason suddenly stopping, looking up, and thinking, "Oh my god I'm gay." I was only half-right (I'm bisexual), but still this real sense of conviction is still something of a mystery to me, and if the reader wants my full coming out story I've shared a link to my site White Tower Musings below:
https://jsjammersmith.wordpress.com/2016/05/16/bunyan-and-bechdel-and-the-writers-coming-out-story/
When I Knew is also part of my story because I remember being six years old and spotting the book in my local Barnes & Noble and being shocked and repulsed by the pink tie worn by the boy on the cover. I knew that the pink tie meant he was gay and being gay was "wrong." My what a little closet-case I was. When I found the book 22 years later I knew that pink meant gay, and by this time gay was no longer something to be repulsed by. Gay was Great, gay was beautiful, gay was fun and so I bought the book.
My stories here serve as both review and insight into this collection, because the book itself is structured exactly the same way. The reader given story after story, feeling after feeling, impression after impression of a wide variety of gay people writing about when they knew they were gay. There is some weakness of this book as bisexuals, pansexuals, transgenders, and asexuals are absent from the collection, but this absence is not a slight so much as it is just part of the methodology. Most of the people speaking are from previous generations and so the nuances of contemporary LGBTQ existence is going to be absent.
Still this book is a delight, and every story in this book is a delight. Some will break the reader's heart, while others will leave them laughing, and, if they're someone like me, they might begin to wonder about their own "moments" and wonder if they really wanted to see Brokeback just because they wanted to be an ally, or if they really wanted to read a 16th century religious allegory just for the "story."
https://jsjammersmith.wordpress.com/2016/05/16/bunyan-and-bechdel-and-the-writers-coming-out-story/
When I Knew is also part of my story because I remember being six years old and spotting the book in my local Barnes & Noble and being shocked and repulsed by the pink tie worn by the boy on the cover. I knew that the pink tie meant he was gay and being gay was "wrong." My what a little closet-case I was. When I found the book 22 years later I knew that pink meant gay, and by this time gay was no longer something to be repulsed by. Gay was Great, gay was beautiful, gay was fun and so I bought the book.
My stories here serve as both review and insight into this collection, because the book itself is structured exactly the same way. The reader given story after story, feeling after feeling, impression after impression of a wide variety of gay people writing about when they knew they were gay. There is some weakness of this book as bisexuals, pansexuals, transgenders, and asexuals are absent from the collection, but this absence is not a slight so much as it is just part of the methodology. Most of the people speaking are from previous generations and so the nuances of contemporary LGBTQ existence is going to be absent.
Still this book is a delight, and every story in this book is a delight. Some will break the reader's heart, while others will leave them laughing, and, if they're someone like me, they might begin to wonder about their own "moments" and wonder if they really wanted to see Brokeback just because they wanted to be an ally, or if they really wanted to read a 16th century religious allegory just for the "story."
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