Dan Savage's nationally syndicated sex advice column, "Savage Love," enrages and excites more than four million people each week. In The Kid, Savage tells a no-holds-barred, high-energy story of an ordinary American couple who wants to have a baby. Except that in this case the couple happens to be Dan and his boyfriend. That fact, in the face of a society enormously uneasy with gay adoption, makes for an edgy, entertaining, and illuminating read. When Dan and his boyfriend are finally presented with an infant badly in need of parenting, they find themselves caught up in a drama that extends well beyond the confines of their immediate world. A story about confronting homophobia, falling in love, getting older, and getting a little bit smarter, The Kid is a book about the very human desire to have a family.
Reviews
"A disarmingly frank, wickedly funny account of an ultimately successful quest to adopt a baby." --People
"Very funny . . . Compelling and moving." --Newsday
"If you're looking for some "straight" talk about gay adoption, sit down with The Kid, in which writer Dan Savage candidly narrates the adoption journey as taken by him and his boyfriend, Terry Miller. He expresses himself with the honesty and irreverence familiar to the over four million readers of his nationally syndicated sex-advice column. "Savage Love.""Alternative Family - Bobbie Combs
"Savage's memoir of his experience with adoption reveals an acid tongue and a boundless heart, a savvy blending of social commentary and self-deprecating humor, with an ending so sentimental that, in comparison to the beatific vision of Daddies Dan and Terry, June and Ward Cleaver would look like Al and Peg Bundy. Known for his trenchant wit and outspoken attitude in his nationally syndicated sex advice column, Savage is the queer incarnation of Dorothy Parker and Dr. Ruth, with a little Dr. Laura Schlesinger thrown in for good measure. In The Kid, which he confesses he wrote primarily for the scads of money the publishers threw at him, his indefatigable tirades against homophobia and heterosexism are played off to delightful effect against the story of adopting baby Daryl Jude. Savage details the long and arduous adoption process that he and his boyfriend endured: the seminars with the adoption agency; the agony of waiting to be picked by a birth mother; the fears that she would change her mind and keep the baby; and the burgeoning relationship with both the birth mother and the baby's biological father, who they thought would never appear. Along the way, Savage revels in his rejection of the sanitized and homogenized model of the innocuous homosexual and blatantly exposes all of his dirty laundry, from bondage to drugs, from messy housekeeping to strained relationships with some family members. He discloses this litany of character flaws because he wants to underscore the fact that imperfect people - even if they're gay - can be good parents. A book of humor and heart and a vision of life lived fully, Savage paints a picture of an ideal home for his and his boyfriend's child in its blemished humanity and right-on queerness; it's a book that can't be put down for the same reasons."(Kirkus Reviews)
About the Author
Dan Savage's nationally syndicated column, "Savage Love," runs in twenty-eight newspapers in the United States and Canada. He is the author of "Dear Dan," an online advice column for ABCNEWS.com, and is a regular contributor to This American Life on public radio. His writing has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Travel & Leisure, Out magazine, and Poz magazine. Savage Love, a collection of his advice columns.