baby be-bop

Title: Baby Be-Bop by Francesca Lia Block

Genre: GLBT

Annotation: The spirits of his ancestors visit sixteen-year-old Dirk McDonald in order to help him resolve his anxiety about his homosexuality.

Review: Why, even today, must gay youth feel so "different," so stigmatized, as though they must keep hidden away their intimate desires and future hopes? This question becomes even more vexing when you consider that most of us only want to love and be loved in return; gay adolescents are, in fact, not so different from straight ones. Rather, social stigma creates anxiety and fear for many gay youth. Francesca Lia Block tackles these issues head on in Baby Be-Bop and provides GLBT adolescents with a colorful message of hope. The story revolves around sixteen-year old Dirk McDonald, who wonders if his caretaker grandmother Fifi will be able to accept his sexual identity if and when he tells her about it. Dirk fears that she'll only consider it a phase. Dirk also worries about being authentic and strong. He doesn't want his sexuality to weigh him down, and he doesn't want to be hurt for being gay. As Dirk is muddling through these feelings, he meets Pup Lambert, a rambunctious teen from a dysfunctional family. They soon become fast friends, but Dirk begins to develop romantic feelings for the clearly heterosexual Pup. After some tension, Dirk tries to tell Pup how he feels, but Pup scorns his coming out attempt and the two become estranged. Afterwards, Dirk manufactures another identity and a fake id to go along with it, and he delves into the gothic punk rock scene in Los Angeles. He goes out almost every night to unhappy clubs where the patrons are dressed in threatening attire and thrash to loud, angry music. It is obvious to the reader that Dirk is trying to punish himself for being gay, or identify with a subculture that eschews the traditional pop culture. As Dirk is leaving one of these establishments, he makes a derogatory comment about a swastika tattooed on another patron of the club, and that man along with several accomplices attack Dirk and beat him, all the while calling him a "faggot."

Dirk is fortunate enough to make his way home, where he collapses in his bed. What follows in the next few chapters is some of the best writing in the book. While Dirk is in a dreamlike state, he is visited by his great grandmother, his father and his mother, all of whom are deceased. The relatives recount their life stories to Dirk, who is stunned to realize that he's never asked his grandmother about any of them. Storytelling is a recurrent theme in the book; it is symbolized by a golden genie lamp that Fifi gives Dirk to tell his secrets to on his sixteenth birthday. "Telling your story is touching. It sets you free." Each character has a special narrative, and the description of their lives almost reads like a fairy tale. At one point, Dirk even tells his father that he's gay. The language is rich and luxurious at times, popping with colorful imagery and whimsical elements (such as fairies). In addition to his ancestry, Dirk gets a glimpse of his future, one that will involve a young man named Duck Drake who is a strong young surfer from Santa Cruz. At the very end of the book, we find that Dirk coming out of his deep sleep only to find himself in a hospital with Fifi watching diligently over him. She had been the one retelling their family stories to him; in effect Dirk came out to his grandmother while he was in this hallucinatory state.

Books like Baby Be-Bop are very important for gay youth struggling with their sexual identities. Block should be commended for writing a very accessible, short book that delivers some incredibly powerful messages. Moreover, Baby Be-Bop is a prequel to a series of other books that have positive gay characters. Among the more salient of Block's themes is love, "any love that is love is right." Block successfully shows how important it is to remain connected to one's past in order to find one's future, and narrative is one surefire method of ensuring these connections.