"Head-tossing, high-strung comedy....theatrical flair and outlandish humor....superhumanly snappy....gallows humor with sprightly flair...artfully acerbic.” --Janet Maslin, The New York Times

"Teacher, freelance writer and first-time author Leleux proves he’s already a master of the snappy one-liner and the improbably hilarious in this rollicking, bitter-sweet (emphasis on the bitter) coming-of-age memoir. Featuring a larger-than life mother addicted to shopping and surgical makeovers, Leleux admits to having “tilted” the story so that it “reads better (as in funnier, or happier) than it was lived”; still, it’s a rocky trip that obviously required a highly evolved sense of humor to get through (fortunately, Leleux makes himself as big a target as his extravagant mother). Beginning with his father’s abandonment when Leleux was 17, the author traces the erratic aftermath in the home of his desperate mom, whose plan to remarry rich leads her to pursue a risky and exorbitant series of surgical enhancements, turning inside-out Leleux’s hope that “the end of marriage [would be] only the beginning of plastic surgery and happy new lives.” In the meantime, Robert meets and unexpectedly falls in love with Michael Leleux, learning for the first time that he’s gay and, further, that his mom has already known. Not for the timid, this laugh-out-loud tale of dysfunction and discovery is a compulsively readable treat; any fan of Augusten Burroughs or David Sedaris owes it to themselves to pick it up." --Publishers Weekly (starred review)

This hilarious, heartbreaking memoir is a pure joyride for the reader. --Susan Larson, The Times Picayune

Leleux's story is a joyful read. Like David Sedaris, he...cheekily dispenses bons mots about everyday life. --Rocky Mountain News

“What I’d like to be doing right this minute is sitting on a porch swing, with a big glass of iced tea, listening to Robert Leleux spinning stories of his Texas boyhood and laughing, laughing, laughing until we both were crying. Short of that, I’ll just reread The Memoirs of a Beautiful Boy, marveling at how much humor he has wrung out of a painful adolescence growing up gay and with what skillfully broad strokes he has breathed life into an impossible mother whose unwavering love for her son is the one saving constant in her self-obsessed universe. When reading David Sedaris leaves you wanting more, remember the name Robert Leleux.” --Elizabeth Forsythe Hailey, author of A Woman of Independent Means

"The Memoirs of a Beautiful Boy is, in a word, just that: beautiful. It is also hilarious and heartwarming. Robert Leleux, whose talent is as big as his home state of Texas, is more than a survivor. He is, with this glory of a book, triumphant." --Kevin Sessums, author of Mississippi Sissy

"Reader, stand back! Here's Robert Leleux, the funniest young writer to appear in who knows when, with a maelstrom of a mother straight out of hell and Neiman Marcus, talking his way into the affections of readers everywhere with a wicked tongue tempered -- barely -- by a big generous heart." -- Mark Doty, author of Dog Years, Firebird, and Heaven's Coast

"Robert Leleux, growing up with weekly nail appointments at Neiman's and bravely wearing paisley pants in East Texas, has taken a childhood that was alternately chaotic, horrendous and hilarious and turned it into a brilliant memoir. Thank God for all of us that his honey-ham glazing days are behind him and Leleux can take his rightful place alongside Augusten Burroughs, David Sedaris and, yes, even his mama Jessica's beloved Truman Capote." --Celia Rivenbark, author of Don't Dress Your Six Year Old Like a Skank, We're Just Like You, Only Prettier, and Bless Your Heart, Tramp

"I never really thought much about having a gay son until I read The Memoirs of a Beautiful Boy and laughed out loud so often I thought I'd better keep this book on hand in case I ever need to cure myself of a terminal disease. When I finished the book, I missed Robert Leleux's company so much, I wished he were my own son so I could call and hear his answer to, 'So, sweetie, how was your day?'" --Beverly Donofrio, author of Riding in Cars with Boys

"The Memoirs of a Beautiful Boy lures--delights--and surprises." --Liz Carpenter, author of Unplanned Parenthood, Getting Better All the Time, and Ruffles and Flourishes (she is a Texas legend: a journalist, public speaker, political insider, and former top aide to LBJ and press secretary to Lady Bird Johnson)

“Readers of the memoir have seen it all over the past few years: alcoholism, sexual abuse, eating disorders, narcissistic parents. Into this crowded exercise in mass therapy screams Robert Leleux's account of the years following the break-up of his parents' marriage, The Memoirs of a Beautiful Boy (St. Martin's, Jan. 8). Hysterical, horrifying and completely quotable, Leleux opens with a note, freely admitting to embroidering, conflating and improving where necessary, because after all, “a hat's not a hat, 'til it's tilted.” It was Texas in the mid-1990s, they didn't know about restraint. When Leleux's father walks out, his mother embarks on an intensive course of plastic surgery designed to find another rich husband. Robert and his mother have found men to love and their own versions of happiness. This is a spectacular debut; fans of David Sedaris, Augusten Burroughs and Josh Kilmer-Purcell will love it.” --Michael Barnard, Galley Talk, Publishers Weekly

"The text is lush with simile, verdant with metaphor and generally permeated with writerly flair. Though the author calls it a memoir, it reads more like a comic novel with considerable theatrical panache." --The Kirkus Review

"A hilarious and generous reflection on the struggle for family and home." --Out Magazine

“A father abandoning his wife and gay son, then leaving them destitute could be material for a truly sad, sad story. In The Memoirs of a Beautiful Boy by Robert Leleux, this scenario is the impetus for a hilarious and tender journey of a gay boy and his absolutely fabulous mother, Jessica, who tries to find a rich husband to replace the one that left. It is an outrageous, raunchy ride, filled with pages of bend-over funny writing. --In Los Angeles Magazine

”The Memoirs of a Beautiful Boy [is] the utterly beguiling book-length debut by a young writer with voice enough for three boys....Leleux's book wears its heart on its sleeve. It is unapologetically witty, irreverent, a romp on paper...” --The Philadelphia Inquirer

“The Memoirs of a Beautiful Boy is a funny-faced, sad-eyed beauty of a book--this generation’s Breakfast at Tiffannys’.” --The Washington Blade

"[Robert Leleux is] flamboyant. Gifted with wit. A Truman Capote type, only taller, prettier and a big old softie." --The Austin American-Statesman

“There are mothers, Southern mothers, and Southern mothers of gay boys; add “East Texan” to the latter category, and you have the fixins of an outsized, outrageous memoir. This one, by Mother’s beautiful son, best friend, and confidante, tears, as they say, a new one in the annals of outrageous memoir, right from the beginning, with Daddy’s Dear John explanation of his departure (in this Cliff Notes version of the author’s lush 74-word sentence), “because Mother was crazy, and because she’d driven me crazy in a way that perfectly suited her own insanity.” Trust me. Read this one.” --Lavender Magazine

"[The Memoirs of a Beautiful Boy] is...quotable fun....mark your favorite hilarious one-liners, then steal them to improve your...repartee." --Instinct Magazine

"[Robert Leleux] finds a glossy spirit of wit that seems to serve as a magical armor, deflecting slings and arrows and giving [The Memoirs of a Beautiful Boy] a cantering, lyrical quality....the voice and the life come together in a marvelously unified whole." --Edge Boston

"Robert Leleux [is] more quotable than a Golden Girls episode." --insideOut Nashville

“In The Memoirs of a Beautiful Boy...the one-liners and pop culture references come...fast and furious.” --Nashville Scene

“The Memoirs of a Beautiful Boy is a wonderful book--tender, funny and intelligent....Leleux is possessed of remarkable wit and timing.” --The Houston Press

"If David Sedaris and Augusten Burroughs combined their talents, they might come up with something to match Robert Leleux’s mesmerizing memoir.” --BarnesandNoble.com

“Southern-fried Sedaris? Barbecued Burroughs? If you're going to be gay in Texas, it's probably best to have a sense of humor. Believe us, Leleux has a wicked one. Want to talk about your sordid, dysfunctional, and totally hilarious childhoods? Then y'all have come to the right memoir. --B&N (Discover Great New Writers Program)

"[Molly] Ivins' subversive wit...in The Memoirs of a Beautiful Boy, Leleux's funny, smartly written coming-of-age story." --The Houston Chronicle

"The Memoirs of a Beautiful Boy...skims the cream for pure entertainment value; and whips up a rollicking tale about the trials of loving his gold-digging, wig-wearing Southern belle of a mother." --The Advocate

"The Memoirs of a Beautiful Boy...is both...wickedly funny and tender." --The Seattle Times

“This memoir of a gay boy growing up in Petunia, Texas is funny, occasionally poignant, and impossible to put down.” --Booksense (Booksense pick)

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