Let me the first to admit that there have been times that I have indeed judged a book by its cover. Don't shake your head like that, I know you have all done it once or twice as well. With this delightful novel it was the cover and the title that really caught my while book shopping one fine day. I was browsing the $1 book section at a delightful little used bookstore in midtown Manhattan. A favorite past time of mine to be sure but with this particular run I was feeling less than enthusiastic. The selection seemed to be thin, and I just wasn't finding what I was looking for nor anything that I wasn't looking for. Until I came across something called Whores of Lost Atlantis by Charles Busch. I saw the title first and then pulled it off the shelf and saw the cover. At first I was just going to take a picture and send it to a friend who I thought would appreciate it as much as I did. But then I read what it was about and I got hooked. Let me give a little background, I have recently become kind of obsessed with drag queens and the whole drag world. Blame it on a truly great film 'To Wong Fu Thanks For Everything, Julie Newmar' Starring, John Leguziamo, Wesley Snipes and of course Patrick Swayze all as utterly fabulous drag queens. With a very special appearance by none other than RuPaul. Who is one of the most fabulous people in the world in my opinion. Anyway I saw it again a few months ago and just decided the hour plus was not enough to fulfill my drag queen craving. And so my roommate and I decided to venture into RuPaul's Drag Race. We were instantly in love. We have been faithful fans ever since. In fact we just finished the latest season and we are currently in withdrawal.
With the love and utter fascination I have for drag queens these days I am obviously on the lookout for anything related. With that in mind (and a rather strange sense of humor) I went book browsing at one of my favorite used bookstores. I came across a title in the $1 book section called Whores of Lost Atlantis and the title alone intrigued me so I pulled it off the shelf. When I saw the cover of a man in drag I got even more excited and so opened it up to read the synopsis. And when I read what it was about, an actor living in New York trying desperately to make his career finally take off by taking a bunch of his actor friends and doing a play where he plays a woman, I was hooked and knew that it was the book for me. And I was correct.
A semi-autobiographical novel about a young man named Julian, an actor who until recently has spent most of his time traveling around doing his one man show to great applause. Now he is yet another out of work actor going from temp job to temp job trying to make rent. He has a tight knit group of very loyal, very kind friends (most of whom are also out of work actors) all of whom are very convinced of their own brilliance and just need a way to show the world. When he meets a rather stuck up, annoying performance artist and is invited to her show at a tiny theater on the Lower East Side called the Golgotha he becomes overwhelmed with a certain knowledge. He suddenly knows that this is what he has to be doing, independent off the wall wonderful theater in a place like Golgotha. He gathers together his group of friends and during one day at a temp job writes the script for 'Whores of Lost Atlantis,' a play that is sexy, well put together and most importantly has him in the starring role as Milena the whore who has been dragged to Atlantis as a slave and then plots to overthrow the kingdom and rule.
Along the way he meets some interesting characters that are inexplicably drawn into his world, finds himself beginning to find a certain type of fame and slowly finding his dreams coming true. With the ups and downs of popularity Julian finds himself wondering who he is, what is real and what is the act and if he makes a better Judy Garland or Sarah Bernhardt? It's quite a ride especially when you bring into it a love triangle, a mysteriously sexy man that takes over Julian's world, a vengeful rival who makes it her mission to ruin Julian and his band of players. I loved every minute of it.
The author Charles Busch is a playwright and he has a unique voice for fiction writing. He is hilarious, every page, every chapter, every mishap had me laughing out loud. He also brought into it the harrowing truth of men watching their friends and lovers die of AIDS and what it was like to try and survive those losses. It was put together very well the story flowed and all I wanted was to find out what happened next. I always enjoy finding new authors with unique voices and Charles Busch was a truly great surprise.
The story was wonderful and kept things interesting. Being in love with New York and theater, the fact that this all took place right at the beginning of the art scene on the Lower East Side was really exciting for me. Watching it unfold from the inside was delightful and left me wanting more knowledge. It was a fascinating tale that had me reaching for the book whenever I had the time. And the characters, where to start with them?! They were all hilarious and awesome and three dimensional. I felt like with anyone of them, Julian, his magician friend, the hard ass woman who does his wigs or the slightly off his rocker male stripper, I could be great friends and have strange and sometimes dark adventures. The characters made the book, the story was great, the writing was good, but these characters were the whip cream on top (I don't like cherries very much so the whip cream is the top). It's hard to describe them but they are characters that you don't want to miss.
This book is hilarious and weird and fun and full of characters that I couldn't get enough of. It is a book that will probably not appeal to many people I know that but I still have to recommend it because I loved it. And what better way to show my love for a book then to try and spread it around to all my faithful readers. Whores of Lost Atlantis by Charles Busch has become one of those books, you know? One of those books that I loved and will always remember fondly but I probably won't go back to simply because the magic of that first read is just too good. But with that said I highly recommend it for anyone looking for a magical first read of a great and rather strange book. But I find that there are times when strange and funny are just what the doctor ordered. So my friends happy reading.
No comments:
Post a Comment