I Am Not Myself These Days

I recent read "I Am Not Myself These Days" by Josh Kilmer-Purcell, a memoir about his life in the 1990s living in New York. By day, he worked in advertising. By night, he was Aqua, a drag queen who had clear breasts with a goldfish swimming in each one. Kilmer-Purcell drank huge amounts of alcohol in these years. It was interesting to learn about the process involved in Josh becoming Aqua - all of the makeup, grooming, clothing, wigs, etc., that were involved. The memoir is also about Josh's relationship with Jack, a male escort who was addicted to crack cocaine. As you might expect, the combination of drag and a drug addict boyfriend make for some interesting stories. Kilmer-Purcell is most effective at dialogue, and many of the conversations he recounts in the book are fascinating. I also enjoyed the book since Kilmer-Purcell grew up in Oconomowic, Wisconsin, just a bit west of Milwaukee, so we're both gay Wisconsinites. The book showed me that my life in the 90s was way, way more square, vanilla, and boring than his, but I wouldn't trade places with him for anything. An effective memoir, although I've never been a huge fan of movies or books with lots of illegal drug use.

6 of 10.