PERFORMING ARTS

Lyrics of My Life: My Journey with Family, HIV, and Reality TV

by Branden James
Cleis. Sept. 2020. 256p. ISBN 9781627782920. pap. $18.95. TV
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Though fans may be hoping to hear more about opera singer James’s time on America’s Got Talent, this memoir focuses only briefly on that period. Instead, this is an intimate, unvarnished, and lengthy look at the entirety of his life—from the struggles he faced as a young person growing up in antigay church culture and the effects this had on his relationships with his family, to his path to becoming a student and performer and his relationships with influential friends and partners, to his life with an HIV diagnosis. James admits to embellishing the truth in his younger years but notes that with insight from his husband, Australian cellist James Clark, he no longer needs to do so. At times, musical or medical terms are used that may be unclear to the general reader.
VERDICT Look elsewhere for finely crafted prose. Look here for, at times brutal, honesty about a life still being lived
Reviewed by Courtney Pentland, Omaha, NE , Jul 17, 2020
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