BEFORE THE STORM

WATCH: Mom Helps Eight-Year-Old Marty Maguire Into Drag In New “American Psychonaut” Book Trailer

http://youtu.be/FSaVlC_oLNI

Above, author Marty Maguire long before his self-described quarter-life crisis, getting a helping hand from mom in what he now recognizes as his very first time in drag. It’s “cute,” he says of the footage of his “old self,” which begins around the 53-second mark. “The rest is depressing.”

Maguire’s first drag show is bookended by narrative from American Psychonaut, his first memoir released by Thought Catalog this week. It’s a gay coming of age tale of the events before June 2010, when his insanity was made official upon his admittance to the UCSF Psychiatric Ward:

American Psychonaut is a short memoir that delivers a play-by-play, first-person account of the events of June 11th, 2010. Before that day, there were several clues that I was a bit crazy. Once my roommate said I was. Not to my face (I was reading his emails). Another time an ex-friend, who happened to be a doctoral student in neuroscience, called me “demented” (I was reading through his instant messages). But at long last, after over a decade of mental anguish, on that fateful June 11th, 2010 my insanity was officially consecrated and in not exactly the most subtle of fashions.

Think ‘Boy, Interrupted’ written by a wannabe David Sedaris, the male version of Lena Dunham, the white Richard Wright, the Asian J.D. Salinger, a gay Eminem, or the poor man’s Jonathan Franzen.

To make a brilliant memoir even better, several anecdotes have been realized in a series of photographs by Christopher Turner (who happens to be Armistead Maupin’s husband) starring notable Randy Blue porn star Diego Sans (yum!).

Check them out below, and check out American Psychonaut, now available on Amazon.

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