LATE BLOOMER BABY BOOMER

An essayist revisits his life and career in Southern California as a gay man from the baby boomer generation.

Milliken writes that after he got an English degree from the University of California, Los Angeles in the 1970s, he decided “to delay adulthood by pursuing a career in comedic acting and standup comedy.” Later, however, he taught high school English for 16 years. In one of the first essays, “Sassy Sissy,”which covers his childhood in suburban Southern California in the 1950s and ’60s, he writes, “As a boy my masculinity quotient was minimal to moderate at best. I was drawn to Barbie like a moth to the flame.” Milliken also touches on larger social issues, such as the effects of “white flight” (“Pomona”) and toxic masculinity (“A Father’s Love”). While at college, Milliken found work as a waiter, which he describes in the standout “The Brown Derby in Beverly Hills,” serving bygone LA glamor alongside the restaurant’s legendary Cobb salad. He writes openly about being closeted well into adulthood and delivers great sendups of the gay dating scene, as in “The Personal Ads (How Not to Meet the Man of Your Dreams)” or the raunchy “Disco Fist (1980),” whose punchline highlights Milliken’s impressive comedic timing. Several essays are dedicated to Milliken’s time teaching in South Central LA, painting vivid pictures of himself trying to relate to and control his classes, with several funny incidents; yet he tends to gloss over larger socioeconomic issues facing low-income, largely minority schools. Each essay is short and snappy, but Milliken’s writing is most engaging when he speaks honestly about addiction and body image, as in “One Hot Mess”: “Some turn to drugs, alcohol, compulsive overeating, or cosmetic surgery,” he says of dealing with stress. “I’ve done all four and more.” He writes of hoping that his essays will speak to queer people of his generation (which he affectionately dubs the “Greatest Gay Generation” for having endured “suffocating silence and intolerance”), as well as the “gay guys under 30.” At times, the collection feels scattered, but when Milliken circles back to a core idea of queer community, the stories regain their focus.

A wide-ranging collection driven by humor and insight.