Applause for Hagen

I have to say that I absolutely loved Hagen's book "The Edmonton Queen". When I went through the U of A bookstore to pick up my outrageously expensive text books, I paused when I grabbed this one. I remained completely speechless as I read the back, looked at the cover and flipped through it. I had no idea how this book would fit into any class, even one exclusively about Edmonton literature. I had never known that Edmonton had this underground scene that was so colourful and explosive. Then again, if you look through the rest of my posts, I seem to have no idea about most of the going-ons in Edmonton... it's becoming a reoccurring theme.

Reading the book was really quite jarring. Some parts were hysterically funny, while other parts were painfully sad. The experiences that Hagen describes are far and away something I would have never pictured happening in Edmonton. The city to me seems kind of vanilla, so it was amazing to hear that there is real sense of diversity. I read books all the time, both fiction and non-fiction, but reading a book that's then expanded on  by the author who lived through the experiences and knows everyone else in the book is almost surreal. When I read biographies or "true stories", they still have a sense of fiction about them because there's no personal attachment to the story. So, having Darrin come in was a really neat experience. He should be honored to know that he is the most famous person I've ever met. This experience just trumps the time when Josh Classen went shopping where I work and I was the lucky cashier that got to ring him through. He was really polite.

When Darrin came in and spoke to the class to expand on his book as well as offer more insight to the gay community, I was once again surprised. Hearing about the bus tours, and his many plays made that part of the city really stand out and seem closer. I've never experienced anything in these communites first hand in Edmonton, but simply knowing that there are diverse communities scattered around really changes my view of the city. I've been guilty of simplifying the city and not giving it enough credit for being something close to an actual metropolis. I guess this goes to show to not judge a book by its cover (cliche!), because this book really made a change in the way I see Edmonton.