Harvey Fierstein

 I resisted Harvey Fierstein's memoir because I didn't know much about HF. I hadn't liked the Michael Urie revival of "Torch Song," and I thought the book for "Newsies" was OK and not spectacular.

But the critic Adam Feldman said Fierstein's memoir is not to be missed--and, with those instructions, I went to the bookstore.

I think it's useful to compare Fierstein's book with another recent memoir, "Wandering through Life," by Donna Leon. Like Fierstein, Leon is a world-famous writer. But Leon's book is a flop. It's sort of charming, but it's coy. It reveals nothing about Leon--and it doesn't even address "professional highs," the things it would be (ostensibly) fun to talk about. We learn basically nothing about Leon's writing career.

By contrast, Fierstein delivers. He speaks candidly about his alcoholism and his suicide attempt. He is pitiless and funny; when recalling a breakup, he says, "This was good news, in a way, because it meant I could spend more time with my one true love, the bottle." Fierstein digs into his brutal coming-out story; he remembers taking explicit photos for a friend, then watching his parents' reactions. (Mom sort of disowns the kid; Dad sweetly asks if a trip to a hetero brothel might help to uncover "winds of change." HF feels great tenderness for his father, in this moment.)

HF also has a grand time while mocking himself. He describes his atheism, and he takes us back to a press interview, where a reporter asks, "What happens if you die and you're in heaven? You find yourself at the pearly gates....What do you say?" HF shrugs and replies: "Wrong again!"

The cherry on top is all the industry gossip, anyone's initial reason for wanting to buy the book. HF unloads on Arthur Laurents--who once used an awards ceremony as an opportunity to berate his friend, Shirley MacLaine. (There is photographic evidence of the dressing-down.) HF lashes out at Ellen DeGeneres, for having failed to be openly gay on a ballsier timeline. And HF suggests that "La Cage" is maybe not that great--maybe not worthy of its victory over "Sunday in the Park."

I'm loving this book.