Yale GALA Book Club Reading Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl by Andrea Lawlor Join us for Andrea Lawlor's LAMBDA-finalist debut novel and cult classic: Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl (2017). "In these irreverent pages, a shapeshifter gets a crash course in gender and sexuality" Oprah. Set in the 1990s. Thursday, September 15, 2022 (moved dates due to summer vacation schedules)
8:00-9:30 pm ET (Eastern Time); 5 pm Pacific Time [We send book announcements to everyone who indicates an interest in the Book Club] - if you aren't receiving these emails please send natasha@yalegala.org your details.
It's 1993 and Paul Polydoris tends bar at the only gay club in a university town thrumming with politics and partying. He studies queer theory, has a dyke best friend, makes zines, and is a flaneur with a rich dating life. But Paul's also got a secret: he's a shapeshifter. Oscillating wildly from Riot Grrrl to leather cub, Paul transforms his body and his gender at will as he crossed the country––a journey and adventure through the deep queer archives of struggle and pleasure. Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl is a riotous, razor-sharp bildungsroman whose hero/ine wends his/her way through a world gutted by loss, pulsing with music, and opening into an array of intimacy and connections. Originally published by Rescue Press in 2017, Lawlor’s LAMBDA-finalist debut novel quickly became a cult classic. Now reissued and on its way to full-fledged classic status, the book follows Paul Polydoris, queer studies major and bartender at the only gay club in a university town, through the landscape of the 1990s. From identity politics and Queer Nation to Riot Grrrl and zines, Lawlor, Fence fiction editor, hits all the right cultural notes, and Paul is an unforgettable character, slippery in the vein of Woolf’s Orlando as he shapeshifts, travels, and finally winds up his odyssey in San Francisco. (With time in NYC and places in between).
Besides your library (including inter-library loan), and retailers (e.g., Kindle edition $4.99 [direct link] or use the free Kindle app on any device; book is available from all booksellers in every format), it may be available for a FREE brief e-book loan (may be a waiting period) at OpenLibrary [direct link for Forster – may include both e-book and audiobook versions] Book excerpt at LitHub: https://lithub.com/paul-takes-the-form-of-a-mortal-girl/ Book excerpt at The Brooklyn Rail: https://brooklynrail.org/2017/09/fiction/Paul-Takes-the-Form-of-a-Mortal-Girl
4. *OPTIONAL RESOURCES* for Andrea Lawlor here: Guardian interview with Lawlor: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/apr/05/andrea-lawlor-dont-want-to-be-representative-of-a-type
Non-Binary Wiki entry Andrea Lawlor: https://nonbinary.wiki/wiki/Andrea_Lawlor
1-hour Video interview with Lawlor at Earwolf: https://www.earwolf.com/episode/andrea-lawlor/
5. Reviews
"Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl is playful, sexy, smart, and like nothing else I—or you—have ever read before."
—Carmen Maria Machado, author of Her Body and Other Parties “Restless, muscular, and playful…. A tight satisfying masterpiece.” —Eileen Myles, author of Evolution “Fast-paced and cheeky…a touchingly sweet-hearted and deeply cool book.” —Michelle Tea, author of Black Wave "I love this book in all it's ecstasy, wit, and hilarity....As rare as it is contagious." —Maggie Nelson, author of The Argonauts “Joyous and ever-changing, whip-smart and brilliantly perverse, Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl is quite simply one of the most exciting—and one of the most fun—novels of the decade.” —Garth Greenwell, author of What Belongs to You "Mixes pop culture, gender theory, and smut, but [Lawlor’s] greatest achievement is that Paul is no mere symbol but a vibrantly yearning being." —The New Yorker "One of the most buzzed-about books from last year gets a reissue. In these irreverent pages, a shapeshifter gets a crash course in gender and sexuality by inhabiting both sides of the binary and arriving precisely somewhere in the middle. Book jacket blurbs are seldom something to go on, but in this case...just look." —O, The Oprah Magazine “Bends genre as well as gender....Difficult to quote in a family newspaper.” —The New York Times “A fantasy spin an all-too-pertinent issues of gender and sex.” —Harper’s Bazaar "If anyone has ever endeavored to reclaim the canonical—specifically Ovid and Gertrude Stein—not to queer it, but to genderqueer it, it is Lawlor." —The Paris Review "With lashings of sex, music and clothes, it is filthy, sharp and clever. What’s not to like?" —Hanif Kureishi "Endlessly inventive....Magic." —Kaitlyn Greenidge, Lenny Letter “Intoxicatingly rousing…. A timelessly contemporary exposé of an antihero with a heart made of fire.” —Los Angeles Review of Books “Groundbreaking…. A fresh novel that elevates questions of sexual identity and intimacy." —Kirkus (starred review) "I'm loving Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl....It’s pulling at my little queer midwestern heartstrings." —Danez Smith, The Guardian
NOTE: Our informal group doesn’t have any set “curriculum;” we discuss the books that members nominate and that we all vote for… but ongoing themes, connected to LGBTQ+ experience – sometimes including Yale – do emerge. At discussions, each of us can bring up ANY points we want. We welcome the widest range of opinions, in a lively collegial atmosphere – Boola Boola Redux!
Yale GALA LGBTQ+ Book Club is a series of lively Zoom discussions of LGBTQ+ contemporary and classic novels, non-fiction, plays, and poetry. All alumni are welcome, of all orientations, genders, races, and points of view. We meet the third Thursday of every month at 8 pm ET via Zoom.
To register, please email natasha@yalegalaevents.org with the subject line, “Yale GALA LGBTQ+ Book Club: Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl.
SOME BOOKS TO CONSIDER FOR FUTURE DISCUSSIONS
We are NOT limited to the below recommendations but see what you think of these diverse titles. Nominate any LGBTQ+ book that interests you, contemporary or classic, whether a work of FICTION (novel, story collection), NON-FICTION (history, biography, memoir, essay collection), PLAY (or musical), or POETRY; there doesn’t need to be a Yale connection. Mention your choice, at a discussion, and I’ll add it to the following list for future group emails. We periodically, live at the beginning of discussions, take nominations and then vote as a group.
BOOKS WE’VE DISCUSSED (Complete List):
More info: http://www.yalegala.org/article.html?aid=704 |
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