Another Word for Love
A Memoir
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3.9 • 7 Ratings
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
LONGLISTED FOR THE 2024 KIRKUS NON-FICTION PRIZE
A transformative memoir that reimagines the conventions of love and posits a radical vision for healing.
In Another Word for Love, Carvell Wallace excavates layers of his own history, situated in the struggles and beauty of growing up Black and queer in America.
Wallace is an award-winning journalist who has built his career on writing unforgettable profiles, bringing a provocative and engaged sensitivity to his subjects. Now he turns the focus on himself, examining his own life and the circumstances that frame it—to make sense of seeking refuge from homelessness with a young single mother, living in a ghostly white Pennsylvania town, becoming a partner and parent, raising two teenagers in what feels like a collapsing world.
With courage, vulnerability, and a remarkable expansiveness of spirit—not to mention a thrilling, and unrivaled, storytelling verve—Another Word for Love makes an irresistible case for life, healing, the fullness of our humanity, and, of course, love. It could be called a theory of life itself—a theory of being that will leave you open to the wonder of the world.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Carvell Wallace’s extraordinary memoir plumbs the depths of resilience, identity, and the meaning of love. Growing up Black and queer in an unforgiving Pittsburgh suburb, Wallace faced homelessness, bigotry, and an uncertain future. But against great odds, he made the hard-fought journey to build a life and family of his own. Wallace’s poetic, penetrating prose cuts right to the soul, whether he’s reflecting on an impoverished childhood or his path to stability as a partner and parent. We were impressed by the honesty with which he examines the pain and beauty of a life marked by profound struggle. Yet it’s Wallace’s openhearted wisdom about healing, masculinity, and human connection that lingered with us the most. The way he writes is extremely candid and at times almost philosophical—inviting us to rethink what it means to grow and to heal. Lyrical, courageous, and ultimately hopeful, Another Word for Love is an unforgettable read.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this stunning self-portrait, journalist Wallace (The Sixth Man) examines the role of love in his life. Growing up Black in the "blindingly white" suburbs of Pittsburgh under the care of his single mother, Wallace endured periods of homelessness that ignited a lifelong fear of abandonment. As a child, he learned that "to be a man" was "to be contained, held within, under control," a perspective that caused him great pain as he entered adulthood and slid into alcoholism. After his drinking precipitated his divorce from his first wife, Wallace got sober, entered a new relationship, fathered two children, and began reflecting on the developments that helped him self-actualize, from attending a queer, POC-focused sex party to learning to say "no." Early on, Wallace admits that he "can't resist weaving stories out of aching trails of hurt," but it's his directive to "turn yourself over and over and over again to the honest, divine, and wholly annihilating practice of love" that characterizes this account. The elliptical chapters don't skimp on struggle (including a harrowing, near-deadly confrontation with L.A. police), but what elevates the narrative is Wallace's capacity for forgiveness and his virtuosic—but never indulgent—prose. This profoundly compassionate volume hugs the reader tightly and doesn't let go.
Customer Reviews
Super powerful and personal, til it’s not
First half is super personal and incredibly powerful. Second half gets a bit self-consciously writerly and capital P profound, more telling the reader what to think, versus the early essays leaving room for the reader to feel their way thru. Basically the Matrix trilogy. Will seek out more from Carvell for sure.