Manboobs

 Book 36 of my 2025 Reading Challenge

read from April 2 - 7

Manboobs: A Memoir of Musicals, Visas, Hope and Cake 

by Komail Aijazuddin

published 2024

Summary (via the book jacket)

What do you do when you're too gay for Pakistan, too Pakistani to be gay in America, and ashamed of your body everywhere? How can you find happiness despite years of humiliation, physical danger, and a legion of Brooklyn hipsters who know you only as a queer from Whereveristan? How do you summon the courage to be yourself no matter where you are?

Even as a young child in Lahore, Komail Aijazuddin knew he was different - no one else at his all-boys prep school was pirouetting off their desks, or being bullied for their "manboobs", or spontaneously bursting into songs from The Little Mermaid, Aijazuddin began to believe his only chance at a happy, meaningful life would be found elsewhere: America, the land of the free, the home of the gays. But the hostility of a post-9/11 world and society's rejection of his art, his desires, and his body would soon teach him that finding happiness takes a lot more than a plane ticket. Searching for his place between two worlds while navigating a minefield of expectations, prejudice, and self-doubt, Aijazuddin discovered - sometimes painfully, sometimes hilariously - that there are people and places he'd need to let go of to move forward.

Manboobs is a riotously funny memoir of searching for love, seamlessly blending humor, politics, pop culture, and the bravery required to be yourself. Aijazuddin confidently announces himself as an exciting new voice in humor with his moving and charming reexamination of the American dream and our search for home.

My Opinion

3 stars

Being an effeminate boy is like carrying a bomb only other people can detonate, and I spent most of my childhood hiding the trigger switch from casual arsonists.

The memoir started with a note that it's more "true than real" as he recounts memories and I like that framing.  Although the author moves quickly through his life which could feel a little surface-level, stopping to think about what he's not saying adds an extra layer.  I don't think there's a single demographic he and I share but I appreciated reading his perspective.

Circumstance had deluded me into thinking we were on the 

same side, but the truth was we were only running from the same enemy.

That statement, recounting the lack of intersectionality some of the liberals around him share, stopped me in my tracks.  If this wasn't a library book and I was a highlighting type, that definitely would've been earmarked.

If anyone reading this is interested in the marketing, I checked this book out from the library after reading about it in Bookpage.