Naturally Tan : : a Memoir

Locations
Call Number: 791.45 Fr
On Shelf At: Downtown Library

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	791.45 Fr	4-week checkout	On Shelf

"In this heartfelt, funny, and touching memoir, one of the stars of Netflix's Emmy Award-winning smash-hit Queer Eye reveals how an Englishman raised in a traditionally religious home became a fashion icon -- and the first openly gay, South Asian man on television -- simply by being Naturally Tan. Before he became famous as one of the Fab Five makeover experts, Tan France was the youngest child in his family, growing up in South Yorkshire, England. As a member of one of the very few South Asian, Muslim families living in the predominantly white community, he was routinely bullied for both his culture and his skin color. Knowing he was gay from an early age, Tan harbored that secret to avoid further racial harassment and potentially cause a rift between him and his family. It was a secret he would keep from them until finally coming out at the age of 34 -- happily married to Rob, a Mormon cowboy from Salt Lake City. With his trademark wit, humor, and radical compassion, Tan shares his journey and the lessons he's learned along the way about being a successful businessman, a devoted spouse, and self-acceptance. From navigating the gay community, to finding the love of his life, to creating a popular ladies' clothing lines for Kingdom & State and Rachel Parcell, Inc. to joining Antoni Porowski, Karamo Brown, Bobby Berk, and Jonathan Van Ness on Queer Eye as positive, representative celebrity role models for LGBTQ people, Tan followed his own path to develop his signature style and embrace life on his own terms. Full of his candid observations about US and UK cultural differences, social media behavior, celebrity encounters, behind-the-scenes realities of reality TV, and -- of course -- fashion tips, Tan gives his unique perspective on the happiness to be found in being yourself." -- Provided by publisher.

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COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Enjoyed the book, with a grain of salt submitted by Susan4Pax -prev. sueij- on June 20, 2020, 3:33pm Reading this memoir after Dovey Johnson Roundtree’s memoir _Mighty Justice: My Life in Civil Rights_ was a huge letdown. Certainly there are life, perspective, and experiential differences between a 90-something African American Civil Rights woman lawyer and a mid-30’s gay British Pakistani man in fashion, but there were parallels, too, and the differences left me wanting.

The things I really enjoyed about France’s book included that he took on some hard issues, he seems to speak with his own authentic voice (the whole book reads like it’s you and him sitting across a table, which may not be my favorite kind of thing, but it’s a stylistic choice and he kept to it consistently, which worked for him and I respect), and how well and how thoroughly France addressed growing up and being brown in the world. He addresses how race has played into his life in large and small ways, and refuses to let his success on a popular TV show overshadow that race has been a factor in how people have seen and treated him. He wants people to know, and he’s not afraid to deal with it head-on (while not making it a hit-you-over-the-head-with-it focus of the book, either). I love that he addressed mental health, taking his own journey on with honesty.

I didn’t enjoy the degree of cock-suredness that permeated the book. I strongly get the sense that if we met, I would be judged (on my hair and clothes, at the very least, is utterly clear). I get it that he’s a fashion guy, but there’s a difference to me between thinking that there are more and less appealing/flattering options, and thinking that they are flat out wrong. He also repeatedly talks about times when he was younger (from the ripe old age of 34) when he held different views, but now “knows better,” yet then tells readers why his current views are the be-all-and-end-all answers. Really? This does not appeal.

In the end, I enjoyed reading about his life journey to this point, and how he came to be who and where he is. I’ll still enjoy watching Queer Eye, though honestly, my opinion of his opinions may have gone down a touch. I think his honesty about being a brown gay man who once struggled with depression is a wonderful addition to the canon, though.

Love Tan, Good Book submitted by lgoff on August 1, 2020, 11:52am As much as I love Tan and could feel him reading to me throughout his memoir, I found his writing style to come off a bit pompous at times. With that being said, he has written a feel-good story about how he has achieved his success.