The Tooth Fairy

March 10, 2014
Chase (Winkie) hasâdeliberately or notâwritten a memoir for the Twitter age. Constructed of almost entirely of arch single sentences interspersed on rare occasions with some longer paragraphs, he reflects on his family, coming-of-age, sex and his sexual identity, and even someone else's lost luggage. The prose consists of "stray happy memories to counterbalance" difficult episodes from his life. His twee-dious style and content could generate a few knowing smiles from fans, but readers unfamiliar with Chase may find it hard to relate to. When he writes, "Even now, some combination of dread, embarrassment, and longing stops me after each sentence, and I have to take a breath," he is being nakedly honest. But his highly personal feelings, insights, and breakthroughsâparticularly in regards to understanding his brotherâreveal his insecurities, not universal truths, making it hard for the reader to connect with the memoirist. Likewise, when describing common issues such as aging/dying parents Chase mainly discusses playing "couples counselor" to his folks, and his taking sides. When he focuses on one subject, rather than flits around multiple characters and events Chase shows the strengths of his gimmicky format. However, the few touching parts here are far greater than the whole.

December 15, 2013
Fragments come together to reveal a life. Novelist and memoirist Chase (Winkie, 2006, etc.), who chronicled his brother's death from AIDS in The Hurry-Up Song (1995), constructs this book--partly a documentary of his life, partly a meditation on living--in the form of "aphorism-like statements" which, "when added one to another, might accrue to make some larger statement that will placate despair." The passages, most not longer than a sentence or two, contain random observations; journal entries; remembered dreams; overheard remarks; and bits of conversations with Chase's partner, therapist, parents, co-workers and friends. He records losing his baby teeth, rewarded by a dime from the tooth fairy--a rare happy memory of his boyhood. His parents' contentious marriage, he writes, resulted in his "crippling inner turmoil as an adult." Emotional turmoil has been fueled, too, by his struggle to admit his homosexuality, "The odd nature of the closet, the open secret, not only to others but to oneself." Lost "in the forest" of his feelings, he engaged in an affair with an emotionally fragile woman. "But this isn't merely a story of sexual confusion," he admits, "rather of self-doubt, which is bigger." He doubts, above all, his ability to love and to be loved: "As the reader may have noticed, I like to mingle love with panic, self-doubt, and conjecture." Chase writes movingly of his parents' serious health problems and deaths and his brother's tragic last years. He recounts travels to Rome and Egypt with his partner and reflects on the emotional impact of 9/11. Ellipses are as forceful as words: "[L]et the white space between these sentences stand for what couldn't be seen then; or what can't be remembered now...." Coherence is a contrivance of any life story, Chase implies in his candid and insightful memoir; some truths may be shared in words, others hidden between the lines.

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February 1, 2014
In his acclaimed first novel, Winkie (2007), Chase pushed the envelope of literary fiction with a post-9/11 satire about a sentient teddy bear accused of terrorism. In this equally groundbreaking memoir, Chase looks back on his past and recent life using bite-size paragraphs in the hope, he says, that aphorism-like statements, when added to one another, might accrue to make some larger statement that will placate despair. In eight sections bearing titles such as As If and The Condition of Leftover Baggage, Chase groups his snapshot memories around such recurring themes as the state of his long-term same-sex partnership, a visit with aging parents at his California boyhood home, and his impressions of New York City. There are longer, touching collections of observations about a doomed heterosexual relationship before Chase came to terms with being gay, and sad, funny memories of his older brother, who succumbed to AIDS. Although Chase's unusual rhetorical framework takes getting used to, the grander life portrait emerging from the puzzle pieces is breathtaking and often heartrendingly poignant.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)