The Day I Stopped Being Pretty
The Day I Stopped Being Pretty, chronicles the life of a young, black gay male who awakes and finds himself in the emergency room after a failed suicide attempt. After regaining consciousness, he begins to reflect on the events of his life that led him to attempting to take his life. His story is told in gritty and raw flashback, focusing on the men who shaped him into the man he has become, beginning with the first man he ever loved, his father.\ His story addresses, the discovery of his...
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The Day I Stopped Being Pretty, chronicles the life of a young, black gay male who awakes and finds himself in the emergency room after a failed suicide attempt. After regaining consciousness, he begins to reflect on the events of his life that led him to attempting to take his life. His story is told in gritty and raw flashback, focusing on the men who shaped him into the man he has become, beginning with the first man he ever loved, his father. His story addresses, the discovery of his burgeoning sexuality, his life filled with low-self esteem, which leads him to seek love in the arms of many to compensate for the love he never received from his father. During the course of his life, we see his battle with substance abuse, physical abuse and sexual activities that lead to his eventual HIV diagnosis. After he shares the path that led him to his own self-destruction, he realizes in the face of death, the love that he has sought in many others, has always been in the one place he never looked, within himself. This raw and gritty story spans twenty-seven years of the lead character, as he faces racism, homophobia, rape and coping with being HIV positive. It is a story that shows the face of growing up black, living gay and loving positive. The Day I Stopped Being Pretty is one that shows triumph over adversity and the ability to find the love we all search for, self love.Kirkus ReviewsA gritty look at what it's like to be young, black, gay, alienated and diseased. Light-skinned with cascading curls, African-American Lofton had been described as "pretty" for as long as he could recall. It wasn't easy being a pretty boy, and once he realized he was gay, he found it even harder to feel comfortable in mainstream society. His skin color and homosexuality complicated every aspect of his life. After being sexually hyperactive as a young man, Lofton was diagnosed with HIV in 1993. That prompted him to launch a nonstop hunt for the treasures of love, health and acceptance. A freelance writer, former P.R. flack and gay activist, Lofton pulls no punches in his debut. In one instance he describes his father as a "cock hound," in another he characterizes his stepmother as "a female version of Verdine White of Earth Wind & Fire" (anyone who's seen Verdine knows that's a harsh dig). He has no problem relating his sexual history in explicit detail, from how he learned to masturbate to near-pornographic accounts of trysts with lovers. This honesty is at once impressive and painful, most notably when he unflinchingly discusses his suicide attempt and a sexual assault at the hands of a stranger he had invited into his house. Stories like his don't necessarily end neatly, and neither does the book, but Lofton's work within the gay community and to raise AIDS awareness speaks for itself. Similar in content to Shawn Decker's outstanding My Pet Virus: The True Story of a Rebel Without a Cure (2006), Lofton's memoir isn't quite as engaging a read, but it's fiercely compelling in its own way. Dark and difficult, but sometimes life is like that, and sometimes we need to be reminded.
\ Kirkus ReviewsA gritty look at what it's like to be young, black, gay, alienated and diseased. Light-skinned with cascading curls, African-American Lofton had been described as "pretty" for as long as he could recall. It wasn't easy being a pretty boy, and once he realized he was gay, he found it even harder to feel comfortable in mainstream society. His skin color and homosexuality complicated every aspect of his life. After being sexually hyperactive as a young man, Lofton was diagnosed with HIV in 1993. That prompted him to launch a nonstop hunt for the treasures of love, health and acceptance. A freelance writer, former P.R. flack and gay activist, Lofton pulls no punches in his debut. In one instance he describes his father as a "cock hound," in another he characterizes his stepmother as "a female version of Verdine White of Earth Wind & Fire" (anyone who's seen Verdine knows that's a harsh dig). He has no problem relating his sexual history in explicit detail, from how he learned to masturbate to near-pornographic accounts of trysts with lovers. This honesty is at once impressive and painful, most notably when he unflinchingly discusses his suicide attempt and a sexual assault at the hands of a stranger he had invited into his house. Stories like his don't necessarily end neatly, and neither does the book, but Lofton's work within the gay community and to raise AIDS awareness speaks for itself. Similar in content to Shawn Decker's outstanding My Pet Virus: The True Story of a Rebel Without a Cure (2006), Lofton's memoir isn't quite as engaging a read, but it's fiercely compelling in its own way. Dark and difficult, but sometimes life is like that, and sometimes we need to be reminded.\ \
