Mercedes General : Queer Mojo : 9781608642991 : 1608642992 : 19 Mar 2024 : Mercedes General is a series of linked short stories following the exploits of writer Kent Mortenson and his husband, architect Spencer Michalek as they negotiate a life together from their first meeting as boys. Defying anyone who steps between them, they take on the challenges of growing up a couple-including battles with their families, pedophiles, protestors at their senior prom, and unwanted attention for starting an AIDS hospice during the early part of the epidemic. "Tender and incisive, Wheeler's stories meditate on mortality and loss in ways both discomfiting and consolatory. Spanning forty years, Mercedes General is also a queer coming-of-age collection that muses on death and fragility in a manner nothing short of revelatory. Never succumbing to the maudlin or the macabre, Wheeler's collection charts the painful journey from the uncertainty of adolescence to the hard-earned cynicism of adulthood."