Alligator Tears
A Memoir in Essays
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5.0 • 5 Ratings
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- $1.99
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- $1.99
Publisher Description
A darkly comic memoir-in-essays about the scam of the American Dream and doing whatever it takes to survive in the Sunshine State—from the award-winning author of High-Risk Homosexual
“Relatable, funny and deeply heartfelt, this memoir is one not to miss.”—Today
“Edgar Gomez is a young writer of deep talent and enormous grace.” —James McBride, New York Times bestselling author of The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store
A THEM AND ELECTRIC LIT BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • SALON AND BOOK RIOT BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR (SO FAR)
In Florida, one of the first things you’re taught as a child is that if you’re ever chased by a wild alligator, the only way to save yourself is to run away in zigzags. It’s a lesson on survival that has guided much of Edgar Gomez’s life.
Like the night his mother had a stroke while he and his brother stood frozen at the foot of her bed, afraid she’d be angry if they called for an ambulance they couldn’t afford. Gomez escaped into his mind, where he could tell himself nothing was wrong with his family. Zig. Or years later, as a broke college student, he got on his knees to put sandals on tourists’ smelly, swollen feet for minimum wage at the Flip Flop Shop. After clocking out, his crew of working-class, queer, Latinx friends changed out of their uniforms in the passenger seats of each other’s cars, speeding toward the relief they found at Pulse nightclub in Orlando. Zag. From committing a little bankruptcy fraud for the money for veneers to those days he paid his phone bill by giving massages to closeted men on vacation, back when he and his friends would Venmo each other the same emergency twenty dollars over and over. Zig. Zag. Gomez survived this way as long as his legs would carry him.
Alligator Tears is a fiercely defiant memoir-in-essays charting Gomez’s quest to claw his family out of poverty by any means necessary and exposing the archetype of the humble poor person for what it is: a scam that insists we remain quiet and servile while we wait for a prize that will always be out of reach. For those chasing the American Dream and those jaded by it, Gomez’s unforgettable story is a testament to finding love, purpose, and community on your own terms, smiling with all your fake teeth.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Heartbreaking and hilarious, Edgar Gomez’s memoir explores sexuality and race in working-class America with wisdom and wit. He begins by documenting his childhood in Miami and Orlando on the knife-edge of poverty, pulled between his Puerto Rican dad and Nicaraguan mom. We follow him as a gay teen who, inspired in part by Pretty Woman, starts experimenting with sex work while still in high school. During his college years, we see his attempt to break out of the minimum-wage world as a queer beauty influencer. Masterful at modulating his tone, Gomez wrings laughter and tears from it all. As withering as his wit can be, he ultimately doubles down on hope, offering us heartfelt insight and unflinching honesty all along the way.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Gomez follows up High-Risk Homosexual with a triumphant and bracing account of growing up queer, poor, and Nicaraguan in Florida. In 10 dazzling essays that return again and again to his fear that his mother would find out he's gay and disown him, Gomez details his immigrant family's desperate attempts to keep the American dream from slipping out of their grasp. Gomez's mother was a Nicaraguan refugee who tried to keep Gomez and his brother afloat by working as a barista at an airport Starbucks after their addict father abandoned them. With each attempt the family made to overcome debt and improve their lives, they were thwarted by cruel twists of fate—a home break-in, a friend's betrayal that got Gomez expelled from high school, his mom's stress-induced stroke—that set them back even further. Though Gomez graduated from college and earned an MFA, his economic struggles continued, forcing him to take menial jobs and turn occasional tricks while he wrote High-Risk Homosexual. Even as he offers a pitiless, self-aware view of life on the margins, Gomez remains funny, candid, and unfailingly stylish. This delivers a welcome jolt to the coming-of-age memoir formula.
Customer Reviews
Honest
I really enjoyed this memoir. As a white, heterosexual female - I enjoyed the honesty of the author’s delivery. Reading books outside of my “typical” circle of influence allows me to open my mind and challenges me to think differently… better, about my fellow humans. I’m appreciative of the author’s honesty and I am glad to have read his book. Thank you.