From Entertainment Weekly writer and former Out magazine editor Lester Fabian Brathwaite, Rage is a darkly comedic exploration of the meaning of Blackness, queerness, and the American Dream when creative anger seems to be the best response to inequality.

One romantic gem had greeted Lester Fabian Brathwaite a dating app with: "You into race play?" Being young, queer, gifted, and Black, Les has found that his best tool for navigating American life was gallows humor. If you don't laugh, you cry--or, you summon your inner rage. With biting humor, Les's book Rage interrogates all the ways that systemic racism and homophobia have shaped our society. All to pose that proverbial question: Can a gurl live?

His book Rage is one part cultural critique, one part memoir, one part live grenade. Les dives deep into depictions of queer life from Ru Paul's Drag Race to The Birdcage (Robin Williams was a snack in Versace), and explores our cultural understanding of Black genius through stories of Lauryn Hill and Nina Simone. He navigates his tragic-comedic love life alongside the ideals he had formed from binging (straight, white) Hollywood depictions. And his misadventures in queer dating has at least provided ample material for side-eyeing the gay men who expose their own misogyny and internalized homophobia with statements like "masc for masc" on their profiles.

Les's witty voice, coupled with his searing social commentary on topics such as dating, rejection, racism, sexuality, identity, and more, offers an increasingly divided world an engaging and original read.

BIO

Lester Fabian Brathwaite is a staff writer at Entertainment Weekly and, for some sadistic reason known only to him and his therapist, has been a professional writer for almost fifteen years. He has contributed to The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, and The Advocate, among other publications, and has also served as senior editor for Out magazine. Rage is his first book.

REVIEWS

“Recently a friend remarked, ‘It is not enough for me to be Black. I have to know everything there is about being white.’ He might well have said the same about being gay. Well, turnabout is overdue and in Rage you will discover that class in glorious, hysterical, heartbreaking session. Watch out! Here comes the truth.” -- Harvey Fierstein, actor, playwright, and New York Times bestselling author of I Was Better Last Night

“Wickedly genius and filled with canonical vengeance, Rage’s viciously heart-open essays will leave you smirking in every waiting room—when they don’t make you laugh so hard you wet your pants. Lester Fabian Braithwaite’s debut collection is the insightful intellectual take on global expatriate queer Americana that the 21st-century needs.” -- Shayla Lawson, author of National Books Critics Circle Award Finalist This is Major and How to Live Free in a Dangerous World

“With a singular sense of humor, Brathwaite demands the necessary space for Blackness and queerness to thrive in a society that refuses to make it. Appropriately critical of the predominantly white spaces that make up the entertainment industry, what’s most refreshing is Braithwaite’s willingness to self-critique. He demonstrates a critical understanding that it’s not enough to simply recognize the problems with how media influences our perceptions of ourselves, we must also interrogate our role as media consumers. Equal parts raw and hilarious, Rage is a timely manifesto for those who are tired of waiting for change and are ready to furiously create it.” -- Hari Ziyad, bestselling author of Black Boy Out of Time

"He sprinkles wit and humor in his critique and begs us to laugh with him… he engages in a thought-provoking critical discourse about how perceptions of masculinity are, in part, a product of the media… An honest exploration into Black queer identity.” -- Kirkus, starred review

[H]  Tiny Reparations Books  /  September 10, 2024

0.96" H x 8.23" L x 6.23" W (0.84 lbs) 288 pages