A while back I was strolling through the stacks at my local library looking for the latest Ryan La Sala novel when I was stopped in my tracks by “Big Gay Wedding” by Byron Lane. I didn’t need to look any further, I’d get Ryan’s book another time, “Big Gay Wedding” was coming home with me.
Barnett returns home to his mother’s farm with a surprise, he’s getting married. Chrissy is a very structured, hard working woman who’s life is thrown into chaos once Barnett’s fiancé and his high-class parents show up. “Big Gay Wedding” is one of the funniest novels I’ve ever read. Not only did it make me laugh out loud throughout, it had touching parts that made me cry pages later.
“Big Gay Wedding” was so amazing, Byron’s debut novel, “A Star Is Bored,” was my next read. “A Star Is Bored” is about Charlie, a down on his luck journalist who becomes the personal assistant to the quirky actress Kathi Kannon. It’s loosely based on Byron’s experience as Carrie Fisher’s personal assistant. It’s good but a bit too based-on-a-true-story for me. I couldn’t read it and not think of Carrie and her mom Debbie Reynolds.
I now subscribe to his Substack, Byrontology, to keep up with his career. It’s there I learned about “Am I Severely Depressed Or Do I Just Need Taco Bell,” his personally designed, printed, folded and stapled fifteen-page chapbook that’s signed and pesonalized. I love every indie aspect of it, like zines back in the day. His musings are there to enlighten and inspire.
If you’re looking for a burst of insight, some fictionalized behind-the-scenes Hollywood dirt or a whole lot of belly laughs, Bryon is worth checking out, in my gay opinion.
