books

Short and scrawny, Matthue Roth doesn't take up too much space. Traumatized at 15 by a friend's sexual assault, he subverts his straight-male privilege by adopting feminine speech patterns and wearing girly tees over tzitzit. He doesn't take up too much space in his own memoir, either. For one thing, Yom Kippur a Go-Go (Cleis Press) covers only his early 20s; for another, he spends almost as much time detailing the lives of his friends — Orthodox yuppies, their crush-worthy daughters and fierce tranny basketball players alike — as on his own job woes and food issues. Knowing when to be brash and when to blend in has made him a sharp observer of the resonances between the worlds he inhabits.

Yom Kippur a Go-Go skips over Roth's sorta secular Northeast Philly childhood and his apostate years at Central High, beginning only once he's embraced Orthodoxy and anarchy. He moves to San Francisco, where he falls in with a queer crowd, enjoys the agony and the ecstasy of a semi-chaste relationship with a 19-year-old polyamorous lesbian stripper, and writes a lot of funny, sexy and sweet poetry — all without losing his faith.

Recently betrothed, Roth should only be further buzzed by bringing his supportive family to his hometown book release reception. There's something fabulous about a hipster poet publishing a glossy, engaging memoir at 27, when he's still spazzy and overanalytical and genuine. Roth may not be too imposing in the physical world, but he has enough chutzpah to get him over.

Matthue Roth, Thu., Oct. 27, 6 p.m., $10-$20, Gershman Y, Room 200, 401 S. Broad St., 215-446-3021, www.gershmany.org.