"Over the Top" by Jonathan Van Ness

I hadn't watched "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" since its initial season starring Carson Kressley, etc. (which Wikipedia helpfully reminds me was back in 2003 -- yikes!). 

So I had no idea who Jonathan Van Ness was until my co-host for the book club within the Childless Collective (formerly Gateway Women, then Lighthouse Women) private community suggested his memoir, "Over the Top," for our next discussion.  

That didn't bother me, since I wasn't familiar with Retta or Grace Dent either before I read their memoirs for the same  group, and I enjoyed both of those books (Grace Dent's especially). I hadn't heart of Viv Albertine before a friend raved to me about her book -- with the irresistible title of "Clothes Clothes Clothes Music Music Music Boys Boys Boys" --  and it turned out to be one of the best books I'd read that year. 

I knew I was going to like Jonathan right off the bat when he announced, in the author's note at the beginning, that 

Some names and identifying details have been changed to protect the privacy of individuals. In those instances, original names have been replaced with Russian aliases because I'm obsessed with the Romanovs, thanks to the animated classic Anastasia. And don't even get me started on Russian gymnastics.

Then, a few pages later, he confessed to another obsession: figure skating. :)  As a kid, he made up his own skating routines on the living room carpet.  I did the same thing when I was as a kid. Longtime readers of this blog will know that I have been a figure skating fan for most of my life -- it's the one sport I will watch for hours on end on TV.  (But I am not sure I have confessed to a similar lifelong obsession with the Romanovs, fuelled by reading the book "Nicholas and Alexandra" by Robert Massie when I was about 11 -- first the Reader's Digest Condensed Books version and later the paperback that was a tie-in to the 1971 Oscar-winning movie.)  I was amused when I realized that many of the pseudonyms Jonathan uses here are the names of Russian figure skaters and coaches. ;)  

There are a lot of laughs in this book -- but also a lot of pain. As a pre-schooler, Jonathan was molested by a teenaged male babysitter. Growing up in Quincy, Illinois, in a prosperous family, he was bullied relentlessly by his schoolmates because he was (as he describes himself in the initial pages) "extremely flamboyantly jubilant and oh so gay." His parents divorced when he was a young boy, and then his mother, who he describes as his best friend, got married again, to her high school crush. As an adult, his pain and self-loathing manifested itself in addictions to sex and drugs. He dropped out of college and eventually wound up in beauty school. His connections as a hairdresser in upscale salons in Los Angeles eventually led him to acting, comedy and the reboot of "Queer Eye" in 2018. Along the way, he learned how to love himself.      

I found myself shaking my head a lot while reading this book, as I often do when I read about the excesses of addiction -- but I also loved Jonathan's exuberant spirit and sense of humour. (And as a figure skating fan, I LOVED the epilogue! lol)  

Overall, I enjoyed this book, but yes, it might have meant more to me if I'd seen Jonathan on "Queer Eye."  Maybe I'll dust off my Netflix subscription and check it out! 

4 stars on Goodreads and StoryGraph. 

This was Book #37 read to date in 2023 (and Book #1 finished in October), bringing me to 82% of my 2023 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 45 books. I am (for the moment, anyway...!) 3 books ahead of schedule. :)  You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2023 tagged as "2023 books."