The Tragedy of Miss Geneva Flowers

Well, it's interesting how I came across this book. I was at my grandparents over the summer and there wasn't a whole lot to do, so I read. A lot. Anyhow, I was looking for a book of this genre, for a change of pace, and came across Dance, Recover, Repeat (which I cannot personally recommend, seeing that I haven't read it yet, but I've heard it's good). This book was included in a "related books" list, so I checked it out. After reading an excerpt online, I decided it would be worth the money... hopefully. I purchased it on a Friday night, and finished it the next morning before breakfast. I couldn't put it down! Though the plot appears painfully bland, it captures teenage life perfectly. Babcock also has a wonderful way of writing which makes you feel as if you know the characters personally, and in a way, you do. I don't usually get emotional while reading, but this book goes through the happiest and saddest of times, and even I was reaching for a Kleenex every now and then. Anyhow, I personally thought it was an extraordinarily good book and feel slightly disheartened that it was over so fast.

A dazzling display of prose. Joe Babcock captures a teenaged perspective with surprising detail. In a genre fraught with glamorized sexing, drugging, and debauchery The Tragedy Of Miss Geneva Flowers sheds some much needed light on an important part of gay culture that is so often taken for granted. A surprisingly well written fast paced read that takes us on a wide array of fabulous misadventures, as we follow Erick, who is a realistic breath of fresh air, compared with many gay books with protagonists that seem unnaturally wise for their age or just a little too uninhibited for real life. Erick is a well thought out fully realized depiction of what its like to try to find a place in a world that is often more confused with what to do with young gay people than even they themselves are. This book is worth your time.

I can see why it won a lambda literary award, because this novel defies catagorization and is so wonderfully unpredictable and disturbing and unique. As someone who is from Minneapolis I thought it accurately reflected life in that city in the halcyon days of 1990. I thouroughly enjoyed it.

Probably the most exciting thing a reader (or a book reviewer) can discover is a new literary voice. Over the years, for me, these have included such now familiar gay writers as Ethan Mordden, George Whitemore and Felice Picano. I'm thrilled to add Joe Babcock to this list. Babcock's The Tragedy of Miss Geneva Flowers is a remarkable achievement for a first novel. A native of Minneapolis, Babcock relates the saga of Erick Taylor, a sixteen-year-old Catholic School student who, like all other teenagers, has parents (his overcoming a personal tragedy) who don't understand him. Struggling with coming out, Erick quits school and gets a job at the Uptown Mall, working at a sunglasses franchise. His boss is Chloe, a self-described "grandiloquist' drag queen." With a new wardrobe, platform shoes and a new hair color, Chloe helps Erick toward the path to find himself. Like many impressionable people of his generation, Erick's journey includes experimentation in drugs, sex and drag, including addiction to crystal meth. A huge jolt of reality in Erick's relationship with Chloe leads him toward his responsibilities to himself and those he loves.The angst-filled teen and young adult novel have been with us for a half-century, with J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye the best known. Still, the world Babcock'sErick Taylor leads us into is far removed from Holden Caulfield's. So vividly painted are Babcock's portraits of "breaking a window," and the world of the young middle-class crack addict, that he not only voices his experiences, but, for many readers he educates us as well. The realism Babcock presents goes beyond the usual movie-of-the-week style of other, similarly-themed novels. The Tragedy of Miss Geneva Flowers is also told from the point of view of a young gay man, which strengthens its purpose.As stated previously, it's a pleasure to discover a compelling first novel, and Joe Babcock's self-published first novel, The Tragedy of Miss Geneva Flowers is the most exciting thing I've read since Stephen McCauley's The Object of My Affection in 1987. I should relate that while McCauley's follow-up works are disappointing, Joe Babcock's exceptional talent leads me to believe that his next book will be as vivid an eye-opener as his excellent first effort.Reviewed by Steven LaVigne in White Crane Journal

The Writer's Digest International Self-Published Book grand prize award winner, Tragedy Of Miss Geneva Flowers by Joe Babcock and published by Closet Case Books, is a thoughtful and reflective novel arising from the theme of what it is like to grow up as a young homosexual man in America. Sixteen-year-old Erick Taylor dreams of being star, has problems with his Catholic school and its bullies, and is uncertain about his personal identity and future. When Erick meets a drag queen, he is drawn into the world of gay nightlife in Minnesota -- yet threatening consequences await his inexperienced exploration. A powerful novel of struggle, risk, and steep prices paid by those who are different from most others, The Tragedy Of Miss Geneva Flowers is almost impossible to put down.