The Family Flamboyant: Race Politics, Queer Families, Jewish Lives

by Marla Brettschneider

The Family Flamboyant is a graceful and lucid account of the many routes to family formation. Weaving together personal experience and political analysis in an examination of how race, gender, sexuality, class, and other hierarchies function in family politics, Marla Brettschneider draws on her own experience in a Jewish, multiracial, adoptive, queer family in order to theorize about the layered realities that characterize families in the United States today. Brettschneider uses critical race politics, feminist insight, class-based analysis, and queer theory to offer a distinct and distinctly Jewish contribution to both the family debates and the larger project of justice politics.

Genres: LGBT, Judaism, Nonfiction

244 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2006

Reviews

[moss · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wanted more on the transgender intersection and no mention that I recall on how intersexism interacts with these structures, plus a few editing issues and an unappealing text format, but overall a very good book that's dense with information for its size and otherwise quite thorough. Would also have liked an exploration of polyamory in the discussion critiquing marriage (beyond just anonymous casual sex) and monogamy and marriage but appreciated what was there. I will definitely share this book with queer peers planning to adopt.