Dangerous When Wet
by Jamie Brickhouse, 2015.
Another memoir, that I think I picked up the same day as Charles Blow's memoir. Like Blow, he grew up in the South and was born about the time I was. But nothing about the two memoirs remind me of the other.
Jamie was born in Texas to an all-loving mother he dubs "MamaJean." In the beginning of the book he acknowledges that this book is mostly about the relationship between him, her, and his other loves: boys and booze. Yes, he is homosexual, and growing up gay in the 1980s, when the fear of AIDS was everywhere, was something she had to learn to accept. He had started drinking at a young age, and his progression deeper into alcoholism was something she would NOT accept.
There's lots of amusing stories here--some funny, some simply sordid--but the outcome of the story is generally good: his relationship with his partner, Michael Hayes ("Michahaze") survives; he discovers that he's HIV positive but is able to control it with drugs (and hide the fact from MamaJean); he goes to rehab, and --after several attempts--stays sober.
But in the end, MamaJean dies. We pretty much know that going in, but it's still an emotional story.
Another memoir, that I think I picked up the same day as Charles Blow's memoir. Like Blow, he grew up in the South and was born about the time I was. But nothing about the two memoirs remind me of the other.
Jamie was born in Texas to an all-loving mother he dubs "MamaJean." In the beginning of the book he acknowledges that this book is mostly about the relationship between him, her, and his other loves: boys and booze. Yes, he is homosexual, and growing up gay in the 1980s, when the fear of AIDS was everywhere, was something she had to learn to accept. He had started drinking at a young age, and his progression deeper into alcoholism was something she would NOT accept.
There's lots of amusing stories here--some funny, some simply sordid--but the outcome of the story is generally good: his relationship with his partner, Michael Hayes ("Michahaze") survives; he discovers that he's HIV positive but is able to control it with drugs (and hide the fact from MamaJean); he goes to rehab, and --after several attempts--stays sober.
But in the end, MamaJean dies. We pretty much know that going in, but it's still an emotional story.