How we fight for our lives : a memoir

by Jones, Saeed,

Format: Print Book 2019
Availability: Available at 7 Libraries 7 of 17 copies
Available (7)
Location Collection Call #
Baldwin Borough Library Biography and Memoir BIOGRAPHY JON
Location  Baldwin Borough Library
 
Collection  Biography and Memoir
 
Call Number  BIOGRAPHY JON
 
 
CLP - Knoxville Non-Fiction Collection PS3610.O6279 Z46 2019
Location  CLP - Knoxville
 
Collection  Non-Fiction Collection
 
Call Number  PS3610.O6279 Z46 2019
 
 
CLP - Main Library Second Floor - Non-fiction PS3610.O6279 Z46 2019
Location  CLP - Main Library
 
Collection  Second Floor - Non-fiction
 
Call Number  PS3610.O6279 Z46 2019
 
 
Green Tree Public Library Biography 92 JONES
Location  Green Tree Public Library
 
Collection  Biography
 
Call Number  92 JONES
 
 
Moon Township Public Library Biography B JONES Saeed
Location  Moon Township Public Library
 
Collection  Biography
 
Call Number  B JONES Saeed
 
 
Northland Public Library Biography B JONES
Location  Northland Public Library
 
Collection  Biography
 
Call Number  B JONES
 
 
South Park Library Biographies 305.896 JON
Location  South Park Library
 
Collection  Biographies
 
Call Number  305.896 JON
 
 
 
Unavailable (10)
Location Collection Status
Bethel Park Public Library Biography CHECKED OUT
Location  Bethel Park Public Library
 
Collection  Biography
 
Status  CHECKED OUT
 
 
CLP - Downtown First Floor - Non-Fiction Collection CHECKED OUT
Location  CLP - Downtown
 
Collection  First Floor - Non-Fiction Collection
 
Status  CHECKED OUT
 
 
CLP - East Liberty Non-Fiction Collection CHECKED OUT
Location  CLP - East Liberty
 
Collection  Non-Fiction Collection
 
Status  CHECKED OUT
 
 
Cooper-Siegel Community Library Biography ON HOLDSHELF
Location  Cooper-Siegel Community Library
 
Collection  Biography
 
Status  ON HOLDSHELF
 
 
Monroeville Public Library Non-fiction CHECKED OUT
Location  Monroeville Public Library
 
Collection  Non-fiction
 
Status  CHECKED OUT
 
 
Mt. Lebanon Public Library Non-Fiction CHECKED OUT
Location  Mt. Lebanon Public Library
 
Collection  Non-Fiction
 
Status  CHECKED OUT
 
 
Penn Hills Library Non-Fiction CHECKED OUT
Location  Penn Hills Library
 
Collection  Non-Fiction
 
Status  CHECKED OUT
 
 
Sewickley Public Library Biography CHECKED OUT
Location  Sewickley Public Library
 
Collection  Biography
 
Status  CHECKED OUT
 
 
Shaler North Hills Library Biography CHECKED OUT
Location  Shaler North Hills Library
 
Collection  Biography
 
Status  CHECKED OUT
 
 
Whitehall Public Library Biography Collection CHECKED OUT
Location  Whitehall Public Library
 
Collection  Biography Collection
 
Status  CHECKED OUT
 
 
Summary
From award-winning poet Saeed Jones, How We Fight for Our Lives --winner of the Kirkus Prize and the Stonewall Book Award--is a "moving, bracingly honest memoir" ( The New York Times Book Review ) written at the crossroads of sex, race, and power.

One of the best books of the year as selected by The New York Times ; The Washington Post ; NPR; Time ; The New Yorker ; O, The Oprah Magazine ; Harper's Bazaar ; Elle ; BuzzFeed ; Goodreads ; and many more.

"People don't just happen," writes Saeed Jones. "We sacrifice former versions of ourselves. We sacrifice the people who dared to raise us. The 'I' it seems doesn't exist until we are able to say, 'I am no longer yours.'"

Haunted and haunting, How We Fight for Our Lives is a stunning coming-of-age memoir about a young, black, gay man from the South as he fights to carve out a place for himself, within his family, within his country, within his own hopes, desires, and fears. Through a series of vignettes that chart a course across the American landscape, Jones draws readers into his boyhood and adolescence--into tumultuous relationships with his family, into passing flings with lovers, friends, and strangers. Each piece builds into a larger examination of race and queerness, power and vulnerability, love and grief: a portrait of what we all do for one another--and to one another--as we fight to become ourselves.

An award-winning poet, Jones has developed a style that's as beautiful as it is powerful--a voice that's by turns a river, a blues, and a nightscape set ablaze. How We Fight for Our Lives is a one-of-a-kind memoir and a book that cements Saeed Jones as an essential writer for our time.
Published Reviews
Booklist Review: "Because memories evolve over time, grow fuzzy or distorted, and occasionally disappear, a compelling memoir must improve upon dry facts with poetic embellishment. As such, Jones, author of the poetry collection, Prelude to Bruise (2014), is well-suited to write in this nebulous genre. In quick, impactful chapters, Jones recounts his experiences growing up gay and Black in the South, the only child of a single mother who's Buddhist, a practice which complicates the relationship with his assiduously Christian grandmother. As he figures out how to negotiate these relationships, Jones draws poignant parallels between two important figures, James Byrd, Jr., a Black man killed by three white men in a truck, and Matthew Shepherd, a gay man murdered by a pair of straight men. An uncomfortable, defining moment of the memoir occurs when Jones accompanies a straight white man back home after a party and an altercation ensues, which Jones renders with gut-wrenching clarity and surprising sympathy. Jones' unabashed honesty and gift for self-aware humor will resonate with readers, especially those in search of a story that resembles their own.--Diego Báez Copyright 2010 Booklist"
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Publisher's Weekly Review: "Poet Jones (Prelude to Bruise) explores sexual identity, race, and the bond between a mother and child in a powerful memoir filled with devastating moments. As a gay African-American boy growing up in Texas, Jones struggled to find his way. In 1998, at age 12, "I thought about being gay all the time," he writes, but at home the subject was taboo. Here, Jones candidly discusses his coming of age, his sexual history, and his struggle to love himself. He describes engaging in destructive behavior in college, including repeated relations with a sadistic, racist man, and their encounters graphically illustrate how sex and race can be used as weapons of hate. Jones writes that, at that grim time in his life, he appeared to others to be a happy young man: "Standing in front of the mirror, my reflection and I were like rival animals, just moments away from tearing each other limb from limb." Jones beautifully records his painful emergence into adulthood and, along the way, he honors his mother, a single parent who struggled to support him financially, sometimes emotionally, but who loved him unconditionally until her death in 2011. Jones is a remarkable, unflinching storyteller, and his book is a rewarding page-turner. (Oct.)"
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Additional Information
Subjects Jones, Saeed.
African American authors -- Biography.
Gay authors -- United States -- Biography.
Autobiographies.
Publisher New York :Simon & Schuster,2019
Edition First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition.
Language English
Description xii, 192 pages ; 22 cm
ISBN 9781501132735
1501132733
9781501132742
1501132741
Other Classic View