You're Pretty Gay

by Drew Pisarra

A collection of short fiction by emerging talent, Drew Pisarra evoking manifestations of eros, amor, and agape that gleefully defy, refuse, subvert, and annihilate the expectations of the heteronormative, cisnormative, any-normative world.

Genres: Fiction

90 pages, Paperback

Published June 25, 2021

About the author

Drew Pisarra once toured his monologues on both coasts and even had a ventriloquist act but has since retired from the world of dummies. His poetry has been called "brazen and lusty and often amusing" by "The Washington Post" while his short stories have been described as "thematically complex and often disturbing" by "The Empty Closet."

He is also the recipient of grants/commissions from Cafe Royal Cultural Foundation, Curious Elixirs: Curious Creators, Portland Art Museum, P.I.C.A., Brooklyn Arts Exchange, and Imago Theatre. Additionally, he was a featured poet at The Whitney Biennial 2022, as part of a two-day reading marathon hosted by A Gathering of the Tribes.

Reviews

[Keith Thomson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. Short pieces are sometimes just as impactful as a full length work. These works have humor, absurdity and wit reminiscent of David Sedaris but, when written in first person, they also delve into autobiographic, reflective and contemplative territory.

The book is titled "You're pretty Gay" and there are a few moments about the author's sexuality and disposition that take an intimate tone. For instance in "Flashes of the Future": "I don't think that I realized I wasn't just gay or 'perverted by longing' (as my pastor once put it) until after my senior year in high school. By "just" he's letting us know that this is more than a sexual revelation, though there are moments throughout of casual dating and "risky" escapades. He embraces that he is "different' or "queer" (as some may call it) and takes us on his adventures in both reality and surreality.

The writing flows easily and is often "literary." I found myself savoring some fine turns of phrase on a few occasions.

I highly recommend this book. It's a quick read and one that lingers. I look forward to reading more.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Buckle up; Drew's driving.

Drew Pisarra's done it again.

Like his poems (read my review of Infinity Standing Up) but not like them at all, Drew Pisarra takes the reader on all sorts of adventures in his prose--some flights of fancy ("Arctic Chill"), some riveting documentary ("What Bugs Me"), often dark but never without some dry tongue-in-cheek humor (even if it is, at times, self-deprecating; Pisarra makes a "read" sound like glowing praise).

This volume of short fiction is certainly binge-worthy, but I implore you, rear reader: savor it. Read one story at a time, maybe even read some out of order, but you won't want to be finished too early.

PS Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Video, whoever's in charge of this stuff: make this collection into a series--PLEASE!

[Joseph Dante · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of short fiction is entertaining, quizzical, and unexpected. I never really knew where we were going to land by the time each story concluded. The common thematic element here seems to be the questioning of what is “real” and if that question is even important. These stories take delight in the absurd. For example, in “Granny,” a grieving family has a funeral for a grandmother’s chair and not the grandmother herself. It’s darkly funny at first, but then turns poignant. You are often questioning what is happening as a reader along with the narrators themselves. Often, as the narrator is telling their story, there is a “maybe this is happening, but maybe it isn’t” moment. Because of this, there seems to be a sense of liberation here in terms of the storytelling element, but the narrators involved also feel occasionally frustrated by being on such unstable ground (especially in regards to the unreliability of memory and time) and how this affects who they are.

“Who am I going to be?” seems to be the other recurring question here. When I learned the writer has a background in performance, this made sense to me. What is “real” is constantly shifting and malleable. I think the thematic concerns can be encapsulated by this quote from the story “Flashes of the Future”:

“Life itself seemed to be a performance that was constantly unfolding in front of this hidden audience that couldn’t see, think, sense, or care. It blinked. It knew. And I knew too. There was the moment and nothing more” (56).

My favorite stories in the collection were in the middle, especially “Fatherland,” “Shadow of Myself,” and “Flashes of the Future.” Since the stories are so short, I did occasionally find myself wanting more. However, since a lot was done in such few pages, I found myself taking my time. Fans of the late Zach Doss (Boy Oh Boy) will appreciate this collection I think. Doss also had a background in theater and experimented with the elasticity of realism.

[Kendall · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh.

I am not the target audience for this one.