How I Learned to Snap

Subtitle: A Small Town Coming-out and Coming-of-age Story

Author: Kirk Read

Sub-Genre: Narrative - sexual issues, coming out

How many Pages: 228

What does it say about itself: "In his salty, laugh-out-loud memoir, gay and precocious Kirk Read will show you how it's done. Read comes of age in Pat Robertson's hometown as the youngest son in a large military family. Evan at his most rebellious, he keeps both his tart sense of humor and dignity intact while embracing sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll. How I learned to Snap is a much a hilarious call to action as it is a touching call to acceptance."

My thoughts: It's funny, when I buy these books I read the back blurb to help make a choice but after reading the books I tend to be like "What?" This memoir is humorous but I wouldn't call it laugh-out-loud. There is an expectation with coming out stories that there will be a lot of external problems in the process. Surprisingly there are very few external issues in this particular story. The book sets up that there will be, flaunting that Kirk is from Pat Robertson's hometown, and that his father is a former Military man. Even in the moments you feel that something bad is going to happen it seems to twist into something less problematic, or even a positive experience. It is refreshing to see a coming out story that isn't all about being beaten up every day after school to come home to abusive parents who don't accept their child's homosexuality. This is more the story of the rebellious teenager that is Kirk Read rather than the homosexual Kirk Read.

Grades: (all scores out of 5)
Quality of the Writing: 3
Entertainment: 4
Compelling: 3
Total 11/15 - 73% - C