Audiobook8 hours
Boys and Oil: Growing Up Gay in a Fractured Land
Written by Taylor Brorby
Narrated by Greg D. Barnett
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
5/5
()
About this audiobook
From a young, gay environmentalist, a searing coming-of-age memoir set against the arid landscape of rural North Dakota, where homosexuality "seems akin to a ticking bomb."
"I am a child of the American West, a landscape so rich and wide that my culture trembles with terror before its power." So begins Taylor Brorby's Boys and Oil, a haunting, bracingly honest memoir about growing up gay amidst the harshness of rural North Dakota, "a place where there is no safety in a ravaged landscape of mining and fracking."
In visceral prose, Brorby recounts his upbringing in the coalfields; his adolescent infatuation with books; and how he felt intrinsically different from other boys. Now an environmentalist, Brorby uses the destruction of large swathes of the West as a metaphor for the terror he experienced as a youth. From an assault outside a bar in an oil boom town to a furtive romance, and from his awakening as an activist to his arrest at the Dakota Access Pipeline, Boys and Oil provides a startling portrait of an America that persists despite well-intentioned legal protections.
"I am a child of the American West, a landscape so rich and wide that my culture trembles with terror before its power." So begins Taylor Brorby's Boys and Oil, a haunting, bracingly honest memoir about growing up gay amidst the harshness of rural North Dakota, "a place where there is no safety in a ravaged landscape of mining and fracking."
In visceral prose, Brorby recounts his upbringing in the coalfields; his adolescent infatuation with books; and how he felt intrinsically different from other boys. Now an environmentalist, Brorby uses the destruction of large swathes of the West as a metaphor for the terror he experienced as a youth. From an assault outside a bar in an oil boom town to a furtive romance, and from his awakening as an activist to his arrest at the Dakota Access Pipeline, Boys and Oil provides a startling portrait of an America that persists despite well-intentioned legal protections.
Related to Boys and Oil
Related audiobooks
Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Inland Island Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMink River Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Holding Fire: A Reckoning with the American West Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMill Town: Reckoning with What Remains Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This Body I Wore: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Autobiography of a Transgender Scientist Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5High-Risk Homosexual: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fire Island: A Century in the Life of an American Paradise Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Is It Hot in Here: Or Am I Suffering for All Eternity for the Sins I Committed on Earth? Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Family Outing: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Confessions of the Fox: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5No Country for Eight-Spot Butterflies: A Lyric Essay Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Tomboyland: Essays Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRelinquished: The Politics of Adoption and the Privilege of American Motherhood Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Risk it Takes to Bloom: On Life and Liberation Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Another Appalachia: Coming Up Queer and Indian in a Mountain Place Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Moonstone: The Boy Who Never Was: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Queer Ducks (and Other Animals): The Natural World of Animal Sexuality Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Summer Fun Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Transgender Issue: Trans Justice Is Justice for All Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5None of the Above: Reflections on Life Beyond the Binary Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRed Paint: The Ancestral Autobiography of a Coast Salish Punk Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Two Trees Make a Forest: In Search of My Family's Past Among Taiwan's Mountains and Coasts Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Tales of Two Americas: Stories of Inequality in a Divided Nation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Skid Road: On the Frontier of Health and Homelessness in an American City Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Tale of Two Omars: A Memoir of Family, Revolution, and Coming Out During the Arab Spring Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Natural: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Southernmost Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Candelaria: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
LGBTQIA+ Biographies For You
The Marble Faun of Grey Gardens: A Memoir of the Beales, The Maysles Brothers, and Jacqueline Kennedy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Capote: A Biography Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Naturally Tan: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bi: The Hidden Culture, History, and Science of Bisexuality Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5In the Form of a Question: The Joys and Rewards of a Curious Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Talking to My Angels Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Roxane Gay & Everand Originals: Built for This: The Quiet Strength of Powerlifting Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Karma: My Autobiography Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5In the Dream House: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5You're That Bitch: & Other Cute Lessons About Being Unapologetically Yourself Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Chronology of Water: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pageboy: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I Have Something to Tell You: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Book of Pride: LGBTQ Heroes Who Changed the World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Deaf Utopia: A Memoir—And a Love Letter to a Way of Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Natural Mother of the Child: A Memoir of Nonbinary Parenthood Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Creep: Accusations and Confessions Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Miss Memory Lane: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unbearable Lightness: A Story of Loss and Gain Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Leg: The Story of a Limb and the Boy Who Grew from It Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Girls Can Kiss Now: Essays Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Greedy: Notes from a Bisexual Who Wants Too Much Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Outrages: Sex, Censorship, and the Criminalization of Love Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Roxane Gay & Everand Originals: My Year of Psychedelics: Lessons on Better Living Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Spoiler Alert: The Hero Dies: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Other Four-Letter Words Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Mercury and Me Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Black on Black: On Our Resilience and Brilliance in America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Baggage: Tales from a Fully Packed Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Moby Dyke: An Obsessive Quest To Track Down The Last Remaining Lesbian Bars In America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Burst of Light: and Other Essays Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for Boys and Oil
Rating: 4.75 out of 5 stars
5/5
4 ratings1 review
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Poignant, beautifully written story by a highly promising young author. I devoured this book very quickly, and loved every minute of it.