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Summary
NAMED A RECOMMENDED BOOK OF 2018 BY Buzzfeed * The Wall Street Journal * The Millions * Southern Living * Bustle * Esquire * Entertainment Weekly * Nylon * Mashable * Libary Journal * Thrillist
"Cassaras's propulsive and profound first novel, finding one's home in the world--particularly in a subculture plagued by fear and intolerance from society--comes with tragedy as well as extraordinary personal freedom." -- Esquire
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.
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Angie and Venus Xtravaganza were key members of the New York drag ball scene made famous to outsiders by the 1991 film Paris is Burning. Cassara's debut novel imagines them as runaways fleeing impoverished, unsupportive, or abusive homes; ball circuit stars embodying the glamour they craved; loving sisters and mothers to needy gay teens and each other; and grieving, jonesing, dying women. There's also a love story between Juanito and Daniel, younger runaways whom Angel (as she's called here) and Venus take in and teach to walk a ball and work the street. Impressionistically covering the period from 1976 to 1993, the book is long on origin stories and grief, as lovers and friends die of AIDS, johns fail to keep their promises, and cocaine and crystal meth take their toll. What it lacks, besides the ball scene, which readers see little of, is the feeling that Cassara is adding something to the story. While readers who are too young to know this history may appreciate having access to a dramatic moment and some of the legendary figures who populated it, those for whom this is more familiar territory may find themselves wishing for more insight. Angel and Venus may get to tell their story here, but they largely come across the way they looked from afar: as strong yet fragile, street-smart, shade-throwing, generous, and ultimately doomed divas. (Feb.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
A first-time novelist visits queer Harlem in the 1980s.Founded in 1982, the House of Xtravaganza was the first strictly Latinx house to join New York's ballroom community, the gay subculture brought to the popular consciousness in 1990 by Madonna's "Vogue" and the film Paris Is Burning. Although Cassara is careful to note that his debut is a work of imagination, this is a story about the House of Xtravaganza, the people who created it, and the people who made it their home. Angelloosely based on Angie Xtravaganza, the first "mother" of the houseis 16 when the book starts, living in the Bronx and beginning the transition from "Angel the he" to "Angel the she." A chance encounter with the gorgeous Jaime leads to the acquisition of a silver dress and satisfying sex but, more importantly, a sense of possibility. The newly liberated Angel becomes an acolyte to (real-life) drag queen Dorian Corey, which leads Angel to an affair with Hector, who will establish the House of Xtravaganza (in both fiction and fact). The word "house" is both a nod to Paris ateliers and an acknowledgement that ball culture functioned as a home to people who were not welcome elsewhere, just as the titles "mother" and "father" have a special meaning to queer, cross-dressing, and transgender kids rejected by their families of origin. As Hector and Angel build their family of choice, the novel acquires new characters and perspectives, and it presents a wide-lens view of the joys and sorrows of a culture created by racial and sexual minorities. AIDS, of course, casts a terrible shadow over the community depicted here. But this is not, primarily, a social novel. In terms of tone and style, it's closer to Valley of the Dolls than Giovanni's Room, and this feels absolutely appropriate. Glamour is a refuge to Angel, Hector, and the kids to whom they give a home. Their stories deserve a bit of glitter.Fierce, tender, and heartbreaking. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Inspired in part by Jennie Livingston's celebrated documentary film Paris Is Burning (1991), Cassara's first novel dramatically re-creates the world of Harlem balls and the houses that revolve around them, focusing on the real-world House of Xtravaganza, the first Latino house in the ball scene. A fabulous queen named Angel is the mother of her three Xtravaganza children: teenagers Venus, a pre-op transsexual; Daniel, a butch gay; and Juanito, who wants to live like a man while he busily makes clothes for the other three. The two boys become lovers while Venus searches for a man who will love her and give her a home in the suburbs. It's the 1980s and early '90s in New York, at the height of the AIDS epidemic, which will figure largely in this often heartbreaking story of young people who support themselves by selling their bodies. Drugs, too, are part of the scene and will impact the lives of the three children. Cassara has done a superb job of reimagining a world that will be foreign and even exotic to many readers, while creating fully developed characters to populate it. The tone is singularly apposite. And although the text is sprinkled with Spanish words and phrases, they are generally understandable in context and add verisimilitude to a compassionate story, which is altogether moving and unforgettable.--Cart, Michael Copyright 2017 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
THE DAWN WATCH: Joseph Conrad in a Global World, by Maya Jasanoff. (Penguin, $18.) Jasanoff, a Harvard professor, explores how Conrad's novels grappled with Western imperialism and sought to expose its many hypocrisies. "Jasanoff does not forgive Conrad his blindness," our reviewer, Ngugi wa Thiong'O, wrote, but she offers context to his perspective, "one that still has strong resonance today" THE COMPLETE STORIES, by Clarice Lispector. Translated by Katrina Dodson. Edited by Benjamin Moser. (New Directions, $21.95.) In the strange stories across this collection, Lispector establishes herself as a truly original Latin American writer. Our reviewer, Terrence Rafferty, praised the collection, warning that it "is a dangerous book to read quickly or casually because it's so consistently delirious." THE SHADOW IN THE GARDEN: A Biographer's Tale, by James Atlas. (Vintage, $19.) Atlas has written acclaimed biographies of the writers Saul Bellow and Delmore Schwartz, and discusses the process by which artists' life stories get told. Along the way, Atlas revisits his childhood in Chicago, his formative time at Oxford (where he studied with the noted Joyce scholar Richard Ellmann) and the works of classic biographers. THE HOUSE OF IMPOSSIBLE BEAUTIES, by Joseph Cassara. (Ecco, $16.99.) A debut novel follows the gay ballroom subculture of 1980s New York, including the imagined lives of figures from the documentary "Paris Is Burning." The story centers on the House of Xtravaganza, an all-Latino ballroom in the Harlem circuit. Angel founded the house with her partner, but when the partner dies of AIDS-related complications, it falls to her to shelter the house's members from rejection and abuse, and foster a community. ALONE: Britain, Churchill, and Dunkirk: Defeat Into Victory, by Michael Korda. (Liveright, $18.95.) Korda was a child during the war, and his memories of the 1940 defeat offer a satisfying complement to the historical account. Other books may provide more robust discussions of the Dunkirk evacuation's military dimension, but Korda highlights the Royal Navy's essential, if often overlooked, role in the operation. FUTURE HOME OF THE LIVING GOD, by Louise Erdrich. (Harper Perennial, $16.99.) Evolution runs backward in Erdrich's futuristic novel; Cedar, the main character, is expecting a baby as the rights of pregnant women are under threat. The book is structured as a letter to her unborn child, chronicling the world's unraveling, with urgent climate change worries and ever-tightening martial law.
Library Journal Review
DEBUT This exceptional first novel opens in 1980 New York with 16-year-old Angel feeling trapped in her boy body. But she does something about it: she starts wearing women's clothes, which brings out the rage of her hard-drinking mami, and introduces herself to larger-than-life diva Dorian. Then there's Thomas, first introduced as a Barbie-loving boy from Staten Island and next as a runaway named Venus, who's saved from a beating by Daniel. Venus takes him home to her family of trans outsiders, which includes Angel as mother and handy-with-a-sewing-machine Juanito, with whom Daniel finds love. But all families have their problems, and this one faces more than its fair share, starting with the advent of AIDS. The writing is erotically luscious, lyrically intense, forthrightly in your face, and pitch-perfect in the dialog, and the suspense comes from wondering what's going to happen to these people. When Dorian tells friend Keith of one of his AIDS-inspired paintings, "Where is the beauty?" Keith responds, "You're telling me that I need to turn this virus into something beautiful?" Taking on the difficult lives of his characters, that's exactly what Cassara has done. VERDICT A grittily gorgeous work for readers who don't go for cozies. -Barbara Hoffert, Library Journal © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.