Sweet Tooth by Tim Anderson

It's the late eighties, and Tim Anderson is a typical high-schooler growing up in the South, specially Raleigh, North Carolina.  Typical that is, except for two things.  First, Tim is gay and hasn't told anyone yet.  He is trapped in the South, sure that there is an accepting, happy gay world out there somewhere if he can just get out and get to it.  Second, on a church trip to summer camp, Tim gets extremely sick and is rushed to the hospital where he is diagnosed with Type I diabetes.

How Tim handles these two facts are the basis for this humorous memoir.  Tim uses the format of starting each chapter with a recounting of a diabetic episode.  He is prone to low sugar plunges where he must have something sweet to counteract the effects.  After each of these tales, he talks about a different part of his life growing up.

Tim talks about going to high school, feeling like an outcast.  He talks about big high school parties with lots of drinking and drugs.  He starts at a small college, sure that it has a large gay population, then transfers a year later to a bigger one.  He studies a year abroad.  Throughout it all, he searches for acceptance and romance.  The reader learns about his life as well as about diabetes.

Anderson is the author of Time In Tokyo: The Gaijin Diaries.  He also writes young adult historical fiction under the name T. Neill Anderson and blogs at seetimeblog.blogspot.com.  His account of his life will find two audiences.  Those who also have diabetes will enjoy reading about how he learns to manage his illness.  Young gay adults struggling with coming out about this central truth of their lives will like reading about Tim's struggles and how he managed to end up with a successful life that is satisfying.