a well-written, fun summer read | I Am Not Myself These Days: A Memoir (P.S.)

Outrageously unable to put down! | I Am Not Myself These Days: A Memoir (P.S.) | Josh Kilmer-purcell

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	• I Am Not Myself These Days: A Memoir (P.S.) Josh Kilmer-purcell Harper Perennial, 2006 - 336 pages average customer review:based on 67 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A Gay Love Story...

and I don't mean it in a bad way. I enjoyed the book, but the majority of it really focused on the author's relationship. Sure, there are some funny/interesting stories regarding his life as a drag queen, etc, but his relationship with his male prostitute boyfriend really was the centerpiece of the story.

Overall, it was a quick entertaining read, and (I guess as a sheltered mid-westerner) I found myself saying "People really live like that?!"

If you're looking for a literary masterpiece, look elsewhere, but this is a fun summer read that doesn't take much thinking on the reader's part.

As a side note, thanks Josh for providing the little follow-up at the end. One of my biggest pet peeves in memoirs is when you're left wondering whatever happened to many of the characters you've come to know.

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a well-written, fun summer read

Kilmer-Purcell is a better writer than Augsten Borroughs. "I Am Not Myself These Days" is well-told and endlessly facinating. The book somehow maintains a dichotomous tone that feels light and airy while telling a tale that is anything but. A very different kind of memoir.

Outrageously unable to put down!

It's hard to write a review of book that already has so many great reviews. For me the book was not only an enjoyable and exciting pastime but also an opportunity to read about a world completely foreign to me. The author's description of his life as a drag queen is not only captivating but also outrageous. It made me drop my mouth open in parts, shake my head but also laugh outloud. I'm so glad I had a chance to read this memoir and discover the world of drag queens.

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Slice of Crazy Life?

My book club chose this book, but I am glad I read it. While I would not have chosen a story that dealt so deeply with the life of a drag queen, I have to admit that I learned much about that lifestyle and one's desire to do it.

This is a glimpse of an era of Josh Kilmer-Purcell's life when he was new to New York, working at a chic ad agency, and rounding the bars at night as Aqua, an outlandish drag queen. While not expecting to find love, Jack sweeps Josh off his feet.

The first half of the book is deeply compelling and I found myself almost tearing through the pages to see what would happen. But in the second half, life simply went on in the same way. Josh/Aqua was getting drunk every night, Jack would service his S&M clients or disappear for a few days, and ad agency life went on. The end does not disappoint, fortunately.

I found it hard to believe the amount of drinking Josh did as Aqua and his ability to work days upon end without any sleep whatsoever. He wasn't doing drugs to keep himself awake, either. Jack seemed too perfectly formed. Some of his romantic overtures did not even seem consistent with his character, and when he "crashed," he did so very dramatically.

Josh's at-work partner, Laura, is apparently based on Josh's real-life friend and then-co-worker, Maya Frey (wife of "Million Little Pieces" author James Frey). So one wonders if Josh Kilmer-Purcell took a few little liberties of his own. Maybe a "Novelistic Memoir" would be a more correct description of this book.

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