Swish: A Quest Volume 1

Swish is an excellent book, well-written and moving. It is considerably darker than you might expect, given the title and the author's previous book--Derfner's life story includes a dying mother and struggles with mental illness. Nonetheless Swish is well-leavened with humor and packed with insight.

Is Swish funny? It's hilarious. Is it about life as a gay man? Yup. But that's really not the whole story. The heart of the book - for me - was about Joel's mother. His relationship with her, the way he tries to reconcile his love with the terrible things they experienced together (and that she said) broke my heart. This is a very grown-up book. It's the kind of book where no one's really that great, much less perfect, but everyone receives a fair share of compassion from our gentle narrator.

There are two basic types of reviews in this world, the; 'Oh my God, you should have seen/read the amazing characterization/acting/cinematography/special effects... you simply must go see/read this book/movie/play/production!' Yay!!! Or... the; 'I have a rather large literary stick up my yahoo and am therefore qualified to relate all the technical achievements and defects of said book/movie/production... yadda, yadda, yadda.' For myself... In the WaHoo! Department... let me just say two things. I read the book cover to cover.... and I frequently had to hold a pillow over my face so that my out-of-control laughter would not wake anyone else in the house. I am a gay man and I do live, to a certain degree, within the world that Joel Derfner describes. So I suppose that biases me a tad. But make no mistake, the humor is born, not from the triteness of the gay experience, but out of one man's incredibly resourceful coping mechanisms while living with multiple personality issues, like OCD, a pathological need to be accepted and fear of ever - under any circumstances - offending anyone... about anything. In other words... this is true courage in action. Technically speaking... as a fellow author; all I could think after finishing each and every paragraph, was how I had to go back and rework my own writing. (ever damn word and sentence) My Derfner is a literary artisan who uses words with efficiency, precision and aplomb. If all of that is a little too 'high brow' and you require a perspective a tad more mundane. Think of the character 'Jack' from TV's 'Will and Grace', only with a brain and something insightful to say. The highest praise I can think of after reading this book; "I wish Joel Derfner was a personal friend of mine." Go, Read... you won't be disappointed.

Derfner, Joel. "Swish: My Quest to Become the Gayest Person Ever", Broadway Books, 2008. Cause to Rejoice Amos Lassen When I first read about Joel Derfner's "Swish", I knew it would rank high on my list of favorite books and I am happy to say that I was correct. My copy came today and Sophie (my Jack Russell) and I sat down, ready to enjoy every line. (I am pretty sure the dog thinks I lost it as I laughed from cover to cover). Here is a book that tells it like it is and I am afraid that if I do not start reading it again that I might suffer from "Oh my God, I just finished a good book syndrome" and that depression might follow. "Swish" is not only funny; it is very intelligent as well as somewhat raunchy. Derfner is a good Jewish boy like myself and I saw so much of my own life in the book that I, at times, felt as if I was reading my own memoir and not his. The book is a collection of essays dealing with all aspects of gay life from casual dating and sex to camp to cheerleading to musical theater. Derfner takes a close look at gay life and does so with a satire that has the reader laughing out loud. The book is honest and well written and I may get cussed out for saying this but it does for the 2000's what Larry Kramer did for the 60's and 70's in "Faggots". It's a book about the way we live and the way we love. Not many books hit me the way "Swish" does because not many people are willing to tell it as it is. I knew I was in for a fun ride when I read Derfner's forward. However as I read further I found a great deal of truth especially as the author explores gay identity. This is a book by a gay men about a gay man and written for gay men and everyone else. "Swish" is a book that you will want your straight friends to read so they can understand you better. But be careful--if you lend it to your gay friends, you may not get it back. I have another copy on the way, just in case.

This memoir is truly an occasion to be savored--complete with the after-good-book letdown and weeks-long depression. His bawdy, and extremely intelligent humor makes his essay collection downright delightful--so much so that I read the book with the jacket prominently displayed, just on top of my nose, while I rode the subway. And Nabokov and myself aside, I know no one with such a command for beautiful words that have unjustly fallen out of usage! If the humor's not enough for you, Joel's book is bursting with profound insights that explore the vagaries of being a gay man today, the universal weirdness of relationships and dating, and the raw--and enlivening--terrain of being an artist. Joel is truly a literary soulmate, and SWISH is a book I will come back to and read for years to come.