sorry i keep crying during sex
a memoir
-
-
5.0 • 1 Rating
-
-
- $14.99
Publisher Description
A powerful, provocative, and genre-bending literary memoir that grapples with victimhood, recovery, and resilience
In the before, Jesse James Rose is happy. She has a beautiful boyfriend with melty glacier eyes, she’s on a euphoric journey of gender exploration, and New York City is perfect.
In the after, she’s single, making dinner for her grandfather, and wondering if he’s going to forget her name today. Except, in the before, her first-grade music teacher led her into a dark room to show her something he shouldn’t have. And in the after, she’s finding healing and comfort in coming into her own, even as her grandfather declines.
In the before, she was fine, more or less. But in the after, she has to reckon with whatever the hell restorative justice really, truly means.
Following the aftermath of an assault, and the heartache of caring for a grandfather with Alzheimer’s, sorry i keep crying during sex tells a captivating story of identity, recovery, grief, survivorship, and transness. Through lists, theatrical scripts, flashbacks, and Grindr DMs, Jesse James Rose’s genre-defying memoir is raw and hysterically funny, and takes readers on the wild ride of overcoming the struggles of a trans twentysomething.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Rose debuts with a heartbreaking and genre-bending exploration of grief, trauma, and gender identity. In blunt prose, she wades through a flood of memories, volleying from scenes of caring for her immobile grandfather in the present to recollections of sometimes-awful, sometimes-transcendent hookups and the dissolution of a major romantic relationship. Along the way, Rose supplements straightforward prose sections with Grindr transcripts, fictional screenplay snippets, and themed lists. A "List of People I Want to Meet" includes "The Twitter gay I followed last night (yum)"; a "List of Reasons My Rape Doesn't Count" includes "He didn't leave my body in a ditch." Such fluid transitions between heavy and light abound, with Rose's internet-indebted humor counterbalancing frank episodes of suicidal ideation and sexual violence, while her moving descriptions of gender euphoria (which induces a state of "patching up her heart, fixing their brain, being lovable, not crying") provide genuine pathos. The book's magpie structure could be off-putting in lesser hands, but James always roots the proceedings in bracing honesty. The emotional intensity and sexual candor won't be for everyone, but open-minded readers will be wowed—especially if they're grappling with their own self-definition.
