“Frank and funny and entirely original, Yuska Lutfi Tuanakotta takes us into the club scene in Jakarta, a lover’s house in San Francisco, and the tattered relationships of his friend Ario, a fellow Indonesian. But beyond the humor is a clear-eyed look at the politics of place and the traces of melancholy that endure. This book unforgettably maps the contours of desire against a complex geography of gender, race, and identity.”
MARILYN ABILDSKOV
Author of The Men in My Country
“By turns wry, heartbreaking, haunted and affecting, Gentlemen Prefer Asians is about much more than just gentlemen or Asians. It’s about love in the age of globalization and marriage equality, the memories that walk with us through life, religion, politics, family, and the kinship of friends. Yuska Lutfi Tuanakotta shows himself to be a careful, astute observer of human nature. This book is a joy to read.”
KAYA OAKES
Author of The Nones Are Alright and Radical Reinvention
“Yuska Lutfi Tuanakotta’s Gentleman Prefer Asians is an incredible work of beauty, humor, and complexity. Tuanakotta’s writing is intimate yet objective and the truths of immigration via marriage for three gay Asian men are told with honesty, while at the same time Tuanakotta’s work serves as testimonial to the history of gay rights and visibility in two places that are considered home. With lyrical prose, clever pop culture references, heart-wrenching origin stories, and thoughtful frankness, Gentleman Prefer Asians is a powerful, glitter-fueled, black nail polish gay-Indonesian odyssey through two continents. It is the testimony of friendship, chosen family, love and survival in a new world of legal same-sex marriage and the privileges and permanent decisions that come with that. Tuanakotta’s writing makes me put my hand to my heart and feel and receive and witness.”
MELIZA BAÑALES
Author of Life is Wonderful, People Are Terrific
“Full of wit, sexiness, and heart, Yuska Lutfi Tuanakotta’s Gentlemen Prefer Asians traces the lives of three Indonesian gay men in Jakarta and California as they strive to weave identity and community, birth-nation and belonging, autonomy and intimacy. Written in sharp, snappy scenes, with piercingly clever dialogue and keen descriptions of people and place, and completely up to the minute around the nature of law and love, Gentleman Prefer Asians invites its readers into an inter-national dance of desire and destiny. Yuska Lutfi Tuanakotta’s book is vital reading for all of us interested in charting the transcontinental course of love and self-summoning. It’s an important book – and it’s delicious fun to read.”
DAVID GROFF
Author of Clay
In Gentleman Prefer Asians, Yuska Lutfi Tuanakotta provides us with a beautiful, challenging, and insightful series of vignettes that tell takes of immigration, sexuality, race, belonging, and love. It is a moving window into the lives of persons who live between multiple worlds, finding joys and sorrows, challenges and triumphs.
TOM BOELSTORFF
Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Irvine
Author of The Gay Archipelago: Sexuality and Nation in Indonesia
and A Coincidence of Desires: Anthropology, Queer Studies, Indonesia
“Rarely do the lives of Indonesian gay men get depicted in the English language with such wit, eloquence, and humor – and the fact that this is a non-fiction book makes it an even more captivating read. Yuska juggles bittersweet personal accounts and insightful bits about being gay and Indonesian (and on foreign soil, searching for a new home) with a sincere and sensitive observation, which sometimes hit a little too close to home.”
RIZAL IWAN
Indonesian Writer
Gentlemen Prefer Asians is a nonfiction book about three gay Indonesian men living in Los Angeles, each one is married to an American man. It tells stories of growing up and living as a gay person in Indonesia, the current LGBTQ conditions in both Indonesia and the US (namely Los Angeles), green card marriages, gender and sexual identities, open relationships, and critique on religion.
Although Gentlemen Prefer Asians deals with binational marriages and immigration and the risks that come with them, in its core, it’s a study of memories and how they affect the characters’ decisions.
Yuska Lutfi Tuanakotta was born and raised in Jakarta, Indonesia and came to the US in 2011 to pursue dance and creative writing. He graduated from Saint Mary’s College of California with two MFAs in fiction and nonfiction writing.
He was a Lambda Literary Foundations 2014 fellow in nonfiction.
Yuska lives and works in Los Angeles.
Gentlemen Prefer Asians: Tales of Gay Indonesians and Green Card Marriages is Yuska’s debut nonfiction book.