“THINK JAMES Bond, But With Exquisitly Tacky Gold Sequins.”
Quite the cover statement to whet the reader’s appetite! What a delicious treat this book is. While I love a good auto/biography, the stylistic framework of Queer Musings of a One-time Boy Skater is something I don’t engage with enough. It’s very free-spirited, sometimes even “stream-of-conscious” in its delivery, but everything is written thoughtfully and coherently without losing creative uniqueness.
I often saw a lot of myself reflected within these pages: youth, gay, male, Canadian, mental illness, and figuring sh!t out. There are great reminisces and life lessons to be had wrapped in one. Joe Bainbridge has done himself proud; the raw emotion, pop culture references, and great camp humour mix seamlessly together. That this book discusses the stereotyping of gender roles in the participation of sports is both necessary and well-received.
Living authentically is rarely easy for LGBTQ youth, especially with the difficulty of navigating life being queer in small-town Ontario, but this book, this author’s contribution to art and queer culture, shows it’s ultimately VERY worth it.
Queer Musings of a One-Time Skater Boy is available for purchase at amazon.ca and amazon.com. For more information about this author, follow Joe Bainbridge on Instagram.
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