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The House of Impossible Beauties: A Novel

door Joseph Cassara

LedenBesprekingenPopulariteitGemiddelde beoordelingAanhalingen
265999,647 (3.26)2
NAMED A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2018 BY Buzzfeed - The Wall Street Journal - The Millions - Southern Living - Bustle - Esquire - Entertainment Weekly - Nylon - Mashable. A gritty and gorgeous debut that follows a cast of gay and transgender club kids navigating the Harlem ball scene of the 1980s and '90s, inspired by the real House of Xtravaganza made famous by the seminal documentary Paris Is Burning. It's 1980 in New York City, and nowhere is the city's glamour and energy better reflected than in the burgeoning Harlem ball scene, where seventeen-year-old Angel first comes into her own. Burned by her traumatic past, Angel is new to the drag world, new to ball culture, and has a yearning inside of her to help create family for those without. When she falls in love with Hector, a beautiful young man who dreams of becoming a professional dancer, the two decide to form the House of Xtravaganza, the first-ever all-Latino house in the Harlem ball circuit. But when Hector dies of AIDS-related complications, Angel must bear the responsibility of tending to their house alone. As mother of the house, Angel recruits Venus, a whip-fast trans girl who dreams of finding a rich man to take care of her; Juanito, a quiet boy who loves fabrics and design; and Daniel, a butch queen who accidentally saves Venus's life. The Xtravaganzas must learn to navigate sex work, addiction, and persistent abuse, leaning on each other as bulwarks against a world that resists them. All are ambitious, resilient, and determined to control their own fates, even as they hurtle toward devastating consequences. Told in a voice that brims with wit, rage, tenderness, and fierce yearning, The House of Impossible Beauties is a tragic story of love, family, and the dynamism of the human spirit.… (meer)
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1-5 van 9 worden getoond (volgende | toon alle)
A gangbuster start about life for the GLBTQ community of the 1980’s from a latino perspective with a strong focus on transsexuals. We are thrown a bunch of delectable characters with a minimal plot. This felt like the basis for the Ryan Murphy series “Pose”. The novel includes stuff about “Houses”, sex change surgery, and AIDS. Without a compelling story to drive the narrative forward, the reader gets lost. This debut novel by Joseph Cassara runs out of steam heat at the midway point and never recovers. ( )
  GordonPrescottWiener | Aug 24, 2023 |
Three and a half stars. Before you read this book, I highly recommend watching the glorious documentary "Paris is Burning." The book is based off of it. The book flap lays this out, as well. I'm so glad the author was upfront about it; I gave a well-deserved one-star, one-sentence review to an author who tried to put a little-known movie into novel form and insist it was her own work. The author's choice hit quite a nerve with me as the movie is my favorite. Hers, too, apparently. No one has called her out professionally yet.
Cassara doesn't do that at all. His deep respect for the "Paris is Burning" documentary, the time period, and gravity of what was going on leaps off of every page. I tried to read the book as a novel for the first hundred pages, and it dragged in parts and meandered in others. I realized fifty pages later that this book is a series of interconnected vignettes and was probably just -marketed- as a novel. It's a heavy book, both in weight and content, as it should be. I thought it would frame the AIDS crisis a little differently, but I do mean that in a small way, and I'm being mildly petty. (NOTE 10/22/18: I have no idea what I was referring to.) I'm so glad this book was written and published. ( )
  iszevthere | Jun 23, 2022 |
This book started out so well, and then it just...flatlined. The narrative bounced around a bunch of characters and became confusing. Nothing happened, either plot- or character-wise. A story basically retelling the real-life 1980s NYC drag scene should never be described as boring, but that's what happened. ( )
  hissingpotatoes | Dec 28, 2021 |
An extravagant look into one particular House from the Harlem Ball Scene of the 1980's, Cassara's debut novel focuses on the royalty that is House Xtravaganza. It was certainly an interesting choice to use names of queer trans ancestors (who can be found in the film Paris is Burning). One review asks if the author is considering paying the House survivors royalties, for the use of their names. A good question, and one I would love an answer to.

My favourite thing about Cassara is the way he writes dialogue. He writes dialogue so, so flawlessly. I can hear their voices, their tone, the back and forth of English and Spanish was just a spectacular combination.

This feels like Ru Paul's Drag Race, except it hasn't been made consumable by white cis hetero audiences. It feels authentic and like a living, breathing thing. Cassara mentions Keith Haring, a famous LGBTQ artist and activist, and I was able to pull up a non-fiction book and find Haring's work right in front of me while I read.

One complaint I read on a review here is that some of the characters are too similar. Maybe they are. Did I really care? Not at all. In fact some of the similarities between the characters helped me to understand that the author really was writing about queer culture.

It took me a long time to read because of how heavy it could be sometimes, so: trigger warnings for ALL the things. Drug use, survival sex, sexual assault, prostitution, child abuse.

I'm trying to articulate how much I love this book but I really am falling short. Cassara took away my words.


I'm still crying from the ending. ( )
  lydia1879 | Feb 1, 2020 |
I did really like this book a lot. It all felt really authentic. However, it felt a little like tragedy-porn to me. Bad thing after bad thing kept happening. Every character is faced over and over again with death and addiction and pain. You know how a lot of people felt like A Little Life was too much (I wasn't one of them)? I felt like this was too much. Too much pain heaped on to three characters, all undeserving. ( )
  Katie_Roscher | Jan 18, 2019 |
1-5 van 9 worden getoond (volgende | toon alle)
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NAMED A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2018 BY Buzzfeed - The Wall Street Journal - The Millions - Southern Living - Bustle - Esquire - Entertainment Weekly - Nylon - Mashable. A gritty and gorgeous debut that follows a cast of gay and transgender club kids navigating the Harlem ball scene of the 1980s and '90s, inspired by the real House of Xtravaganza made famous by the seminal documentary Paris Is Burning. It's 1980 in New York City, and nowhere is the city's glamour and energy better reflected than in the burgeoning Harlem ball scene, where seventeen-year-old Angel first comes into her own. Burned by her traumatic past, Angel is new to the drag world, new to ball culture, and has a yearning inside of her to help create family for those without. When she falls in love with Hector, a beautiful young man who dreams of becoming a professional dancer, the two decide to form the House of Xtravaganza, the first-ever all-Latino house in the Harlem ball circuit. But when Hector dies of AIDS-related complications, Angel must bear the responsibility of tending to their house alone. As mother of the house, Angel recruits Venus, a whip-fast trans girl who dreams of finding a rich man to take care of her; Juanito, a quiet boy who loves fabrics and design; and Daniel, a butch queen who accidentally saves Venus's life. The Xtravaganzas must learn to navigate sex work, addiction, and persistent abuse, leaning on each other as bulwarks against a world that resists them. All are ambitious, resilient, and determined to control their own fates, even as they hurtle toward devastating consequences. Told in a voice that brims with wit, rage, tenderness, and fierce yearning, The House of Impossible Beauties is a tragic story of love, family, and the dynamism of the human spirit.

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