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A review by gilmoreguide
The House of Impossible Beauties by Joseph Cassara
3.0
(2.5)
"Passing is an art form, darling. It's a craft. And just like any craft, the artistic ideal is always impossible to achieve. We can try and try and try as hard as possible to pass as a woman, but if I'm a biological man, I can only go up to a certain point. The rest is all imagination."
John Cassara pumps up the beat from the very beginning of his debut novel, The House of Impossible Beauties. It's 1980 in New York City and Angel is tired of living in her boy body. She's sixteen and has been hiding herself from everyone (most especially her mother) until she finally meets Dorian, the living legend of queens in the ballroom scene. Like that, Angel flips the switch, leaving behind the body she was given to dress as the woman she knows she is. When she meets Hector, an older man who wants to be a dancer, they decide to start their own house-a place where other young men can live and be emotionally supported as they venture into the world of the drag. The novel follows their lives for the next decade as they try and make space for themselves in a world that does not accept them.
Initially in The House of Impossible Beauties, the shift from given names (male) to female makes for the illusion of a much larger cast and can be confusing. Once the sequins settle the novel centers around Angel, the mother of the house Xtravaganza and the three 'children' who live with her: Venus, a pre-op transsexual; Juanito, a young queen who wants to rule in the ballroom, and Daniel, the young man who falls in love with Juanito. Angel and Hector provide them with a home-a place to sleep, eat, and have the security their original families did not provide.
The rest of this review is at The Gilmore Guide to Books: http://gilmoreguidetobooks.com/2018/03/the-house-of-impossible-beauties/
"Passing is an art form, darling. It's a craft. And just like any craft, the artistic ideal is always impossible to achieve. We can try and try and try as hard as possible to pass as a woman, but if I'm a biological man, I can only go up to a certain point. The rest is all imagination."
John Cassara pumps up the beat from the very beginning of his debut novel, The House of Impossible Beauties. It's 1980 in New York City and Angel is tired of living in her boy body. She's sixteen and has been hiding herself from everyone (most especially her mother) until she finally meets Dorian, the living legend of queens in the ballroom scene. Like that, Angel flips the switch, leaving behind the body she was given to dress as the woman she knows she is. When she meets Hector, an older man who wants to be a dancer, they decide to start their own house-a place where other young men can live and be emotionally supported as they venture into the world of the drag. The novel follows their lives for the next decade as they try and make space for themselves in a world that does not accept them.
Initially in The House of Impossible Beauties, the shift from given names (male) to female makes for the illusion of a much larger cast and can be confusing. Once the sequins settle the novel centers around Angel, the mother of the house Xtravaganza and the three 'children' who live with her: Venus, a pre-op transsexual; Juanito, a young queen who wants to rule in the ballroom, and Daniel, the young man who falls in love with Juanito. Angel and Hector provide them with a home-a place to sleep, eat, and have the security their original families did not provide.
The rest of this review is at The Gilmore Guide to Books: http://gilmoreguidetobooks.com/2018/03/the-house-of-impossible-beauties/