No One is Looking at You

What happens when no one is watching-or when you think no one is?In this razor-sharp, tenderly comic collection, James Magruder charts the evolving landscape of queer identity with heartbreaking honesty and wicked charm. The first half, Origin Stories, follows a group of closeted young men fumbling toward self-knowledge at Cornell University in the late '70s and early '80s-when disco was dying, Reagan was rising, and love still had to hide in the shadows.

Fast forward forty years to Parting Shots, where Roger Hauf, a tenured professor of dramatic literature and full-time observer of human folly, offers up the hard-won wisdom of a man who's seen it all-and admits he still doesn't have it figured out. Roger knows his students tune him out, but maybe you'll listen when he tells you: everyone should chase love across an ocean at least once, the right dance belt changes everything, and-spoiler alert-high school never really ends.

Smart, sexy, and unafraid to look longing in the eye, No One Is Looking at You is a glorious reminder that while we're all just trying to make it through the scene, the performance is always personal.