Drag Queen: 9

With titles like Rodi's (Fag Hag, Closet Case), subtlety is certainly not an issue; his latest gay-themed romp proves no exception. As Mitchell Sayer's Mame-ish mama sets out to join a Tibetan convent (in Wisconsin), she tells her lawyer son that he has a twin brother. Upright, uptight Mitch discovers that brother Donald is--drum roll, please--a drag queen, singing at Chicago's Tam-Tam Club as Kitten Kaboodle, the Doyenne of Despair. So begins a sporadically madcap tale of Boy Meets Brother, Boy Loses Brother, Boy Gets Brother--and (temporarily), Boy Becomes Brother. Unfortunately, for every amusing one-liner and vignette (a department-store cosmetics demo by a Middle European emigre is a gem), there's a misfire or a bit of heavy-handed philosophizing. Though this novel's parts are better than its whole, the story's gentle sweetness makes it hard to dislike. Ultimately, readers who can appreciate such drag names as Tequila Mockingbird, May Oui and Barbarella Fitzgerald will be tickled lavender by these escapades; others may believe, like one of Mitch's boyfriends, that ``the only good queen is one who's been anointed... in Westminster Abbey.'' (Nov.)