Jon Robin Baitz

There are so many books about writing about this mysterious blob called the self, there's so many books about how to write, but nothing has the singular idiosyncratic kindness and careful humanism of this transformational collection of essays about how a young boy grows up to be a full-fledged artist. I do not throw the word around lightly but I do think this will come to be regarded as a masterpiece of not just memoir writing but Queer culture in America in the last quarter of the 20th century. And into this new one. This is a book I love unconditionally, almost a photo album from within.