THE TRAGEDY OF MISS GENEVA FLOWERS

Winner of the Lambda Literary Foundation's Best Self-Published Novel award, Babcock's energized debut tells the coming-of-age story of teenager Erick Taylor, who, like his heterosexual classmates, struggles with issues of adolescence, peer pressure and sex. Exasperated by constant harassment in his rural Minnesota Catholic high school, Erick cuts class, dons six-inch platform shoes, paints his fingernails and flees to his only haven: the home of 26-year-old "grandiloquist" drag queen Chloe. Working together at the mall only invigorates Erick's infatuation with Chloe as the summer months finds him going blonde, smoking pot and becoming a regular at Screwdriver, Golden Valley's only gay bar—anything to escape the clutches of his "decent Christian" parents, who remain devastated by the death of their other son, Tommy, and dismayed by Erick's behavior. After a hot affair with a local boy sours, a whirlwind of drugs births Miss Geneva Flowers, Erick's drag persona. But even Chloe's AIDS diagnosis fails to prevent Erick from dissolving into a narcotic-fueled stupor, until a loving boyfriend and the harsh light of reality finally force him to grow up. Overindulgent drug use and the rambling first-person narration are thankfully offset by poignant revelations and heartfelt emotion in the closing pages of this mixed but promising debut. (May)