Punch Me Up To The Gods: A Memoir

Written by Brian Broome

Narrated by Brian Broome, Yona Harvey and Robin Miles

WINNER OF THE KIRKUS PRIZE • WINNER OF A LAMBDA LITERARY AWARD • NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK • NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS' PICK • STONEWALL HONOR BOOK • NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, KIRKUS REVIEWS, LIBRARY JOURNAL, AMAZON AND APPLE BOOKS • TODAY SUMMER READING LIST PICK • ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY BEST DEBUT OF SUMMER PICK • PEOPLE BEST BOOK OF SUMMER PICK

A raw, poetic, coming-of-age “masterwork” (The New York Times)

Punch Me Up to the Gods introduces a powerful new talent in Brian Broome, whose early years growing up in Ohio as a dark-skinned Black boy harboring crushes on other boys propel forward this gorgeous, aching, and unforgettable debut. Brian’s recounting of his experiences—in all their cringe-worthy, hilarious, and heartbreaking glory—reveal a perpetual outsider awkwardly squirming to find his way in. Indiscriminate sex and escalating drug use help to soothe his hurt, young psyche, usually to uproarious and devastating effect. A no-nonsense mother and broken father play crucial roles in our misfit’s origin story. But it is Brian’s voice in the retelling that shows the true depth of vulnerability for young Black boys that is often quietly near to bursting at the seams.

Cleverly framed around Gwendolyn Brooks’s poem “We Real Cool,” the iconic and loving ode to Black boyhood, Punch Me Up to the Gods is at once playful, poignant, and wholly original. Broome’s writing brims with swagger and sensitivity, bringing an exquisite and fresh voice to ongoing cultural conversations about Blackness in America.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperAudio
• Release date: May 18, 2021
• ISBN: 9780358449843

Brian Broome

BRIAN BROOME’s debut memoir Punch Me Up to the Gods is an NYT Editor’s Pick and the winner of the 2021 Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction, the GLAAD Award for Gay Nonfiction, the Publishing Triangle Randy Shilts Award, and was voted an American Library Association Stonewall Honor Book. He is a contributing columnist at The Washington Post. Broome has been a finalist in The Moth storytelling competition and won the grand prize in Carnegie Mellon University’s Martin Luther King Writing Awards. He also won a VANN Award from the Pittsburgh Black Media Federation for journalism in 2019. Broome's film Garbage won the Audience Choice Award at the Cortado Short Film Festival and was a semi-finalist in the Portland Short Fest. His work has appeared in The Guardian, Esquire, and Men’s Health.

Reviews for Punch Me Up To The Gods

[narshkite · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I have been so lucky with my book choices in the last couple of months, drowning under a tidal wave of genius. After reading two stunningly good works of fiction I decided to move to nonfiction, reasoning that whatever novel I picked up next would not satisfy me because I had been temporarily ruined for other books (I have a short memory, I figure I will be back to fiction soon.) So I chose to pick up a work of creative nonfiction from a new writer (he came to writing in midlife, his younger years given over to drug abuse and joyless sex) assuming it would be a palate cleanser of sorts. The good news is that it did not suffer from the comparison to my recent fiction reads. The bad news is now I am ruined for both nonfiction and fiction.This book is simultaneously gorgeous and ugly, brutal really (there are some funny moments, but they are surrounded by the unfunny.) But this is not a book were we are rubbernecking, it is not tragedy porn, the book creates a space for and builds real empathy. The process is successful, in part, because Brian Broome is building empathy right alongside you. It has been an age since I have read a book that so clearly showed the difference between knowledge and wisdom. The author turned so much pain and rejection into extraordinary wisdom. This is an eagle eyed view of the reasons for and harms of the fetishization of blackness. It is also an attack on black conceptions of masculinity. He does not celebrate any aspect of this narrow definition of men's and women's "roles", and slaps us across the face with illustrations of its danger to women and men alike. And the writing is perfect. It honestly is. I am a harsh critic, I don't throw around statements like that cavalierly. It is perfect. There is nothing sensational or manipulative, the words are put together like poetry. Broom considers James Baldwin to be his idol (though he says not his favorite writer) and ends the book making his first trip outside of the US to the French town where Baldwin spent many years. Writing from the beach in Nice, Broom says he is not James Baldwin, and he is not, he is a different man raised in a different time and place. But he is equal to many comparisons to Baldwin. He says he wants to be black and queer and unafraid to share his truth like Baldwin did. That he does, and he does so with a clarity and unassailable candor and veracity. As with Baldwin, Broome forces the reader to acknowledge his rightness or to turn his back on his rightness, there is no counterargument, there is nothing theoretical, his premises are fully supported by his own experiences.I listened to the audio read by the author, and absolutely recommend it.

[donna.arnold · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Brian Broome's writing is emotional, breathtaking and full of self-awareness. This coming of age memoir will send your emotions all over the place. It's funny, innocent, sad, angry and at times very upsetting.Brian holds nothing back in his new book Punch Me Up To The Gods, he's frank and honest in his telling of his life growing up. He's a confused, young gay, black boy growing up in Ohio with the pressures to be a tough enough man from his dad and friends, from beatings, to sexual encounters to just trying to grow up, he struggles.The book flashes back and forth between his childhood, to an encounter with a black father and son on the bus, and the present day, all exceptionally woven together to tell his story.A totally gripping, page-turner and will be one of the best memoirs of the year. Write Brian Broome's name down, read his memoir, I highly recommend it.Thank you to BookishFirst, HMH publishing and especially Brian for the opportunity to read the advanced-copy of this book.

[alliepascal-876024 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

There's a literary gut punch around every page in this book. Broome is frank when it comes to his experiences with racism and colorism, with homophobia, and with physical and emotional abuse. He doesn't shy away from all of the nasty ways all manner of people excluded and abused and humiliated him. His father beat him for various minor offenses. His black peers bullied him mercilessly for not fitting in. His white peers only ever used him for entertainment. He had a tough life, but he survived to tell it.And in telling it, Broome's created a great narrative work. He's a fantastic, sharp writer. The main theme of wanting love from other people without conforming to their expectations is present throughout. There's also this recurring intermission, broken up throughout the book, called "The Initiation of Tuan." It's about a little boy that Broome sees on the bus who's on the cusp of learning what's going to be expected of him as a black boy. I always looked forward to returning to these parts; they kept the pace of the book swift and engaging. It could be argued that the last part was overly sentimental, but... I appreciated it.This is a book for outsiders, for anyone who's been othered or abused for being themselves, but I think everyone should read it.*ARC received from HMH through BookishFirst