Rage: On Being Queer, Black, Brilliant . . . and Completely Over It (HC) (2024)

One romantic gem had greeted Lester Fabian Brathwaite a dating app with: "You into race play?" Being young, queer, gifted, and Black, Les has found that his best tool for navigating American life was gallows humor. If you don't laugh, you cry--or, you summon your inner rage. With biting humor, Les's book Rage interrogates all the ways that systemic racism and homophobia have shaped our society. All to pose that proverbial question: Can a gurl live?

His book Rage is one part cultural critique, one part memoir, one part live grenade. Les dives deep into depictions of queer life from Ru Paul's Drag Race to The Birdcage (Robin Williams was a snack in Versace), and explores our cultural understanding of Black genius through stories of Lauryn Hill and Nina Simone. He navigates his tragic-comedic love life alongside the ideals he had formed from binging (straight, white) Hollywood depictions. And his misadventures in queer dating has at least provided ample material for side-eyeing the gay men who expose their own misogyny and internalized homophobia with statements like "masc for masc" on their profiles.

Les's witty voice, coupled with his searing social commentary on topics such as dating, rejection, racism, sexuality, identity, and more, offers an increasingly divided world an engaging and original read.