Summary of Casey Parks's Diary of a Misfit

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 I went home to help my grandmother with an old friend of mine, Roy, who ended up being an abusive asshole. I learned a lot about myself, and the fucked-up system we live under.

#2 I was scared and my mom offered me cigarettes. I went inside and found my grandma smoking a cigarette. The only thing I knew about her childhood friend was that he had been abusive, but she did not let go of my hand. -> I went home to help my grandmother with an old friend of mine, Roy, who ended up being an abusive asshole. I learned a lot about myself and the fucked-up system we live under.

#3 I went home to help my grandmother with an old friend of mine, Roy, who ended up being an abusive asshole. I learned a lot about myself and the fucked-up system we live under.

#4 I went home to help my grandmother with an old friend of mine, who ended up being an abusive asshole. I learned a lot about myself and the fucked-up system we live under.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Sep 9, 2022
• ISBN: 9798350001761

IRB Media

With IRB books, you can get the key takeaways and analysis of a book in 15 minutes. We read every chapter, identify the key takeaways and analyze them for your convenience.

Book preview

Insights on Casey Parks's Diary of a Misfit

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 8

Insights from Chapter 9

Insights from Chapter 10

Insights from Chapter 11

Insights from Chapter 12

Insights from Chapter 13

Insights from Chapter 14

Insights from Chapter 15

Insights from Chapter 16

Insights from Chapter 17

Insights from Chapter 18

Insights from Chapter 19

Insights from Chapter 20

Insights from Chapter 21

Insights from Chapter 22

Insights from Chapter 23

Insights from Chapter 24

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

I had returned to Louisiana in 2009 to film a podcast about the South, but instead I found out about Roy. I knew his story would get me a new job.

#2

I visited Louisiana to interview my grandma’s neighbors about Roy, but when I got there, I was scared to interview anyone in Louisiana. I was wearing a boyish haircut, didn’t wear makeup, and four flannel shirts looked hopelessly gay.

#3

I had to find strangers who would talk about Roy, and my mom suggested I ask her sister Cindy, who had been married three or four times. I didn’t look like anyone in my family, but I did resemble Cindy.

#4

I knew my mom had grown up poor, but I didn’t know what was so bad about being a Carter. She explained that people would not put their money in her hand because she was a Carter.

#5

I wanted to study my mom like I did people I wrote about. I wanted to dig into her past and ask her all the probing questions I didn’t mind asking strangers, but I was too nervous to look at her for long.

#6

I had accumulated twenty thousand dollars of debt in my name. I had never asked my mother to pay back what she had stolen, and she had never tried to pay back what she had stolen. Instead, she had sent half of her newspaper checks to credit card companies.

#7

I visited Delhi to interview Rufus, the town’s new police chief. He was Black, and the first African American police chief the town had ever had.

#8

I was working on a story about Roy Hudgins, and I wanted to talk to people in his town to find out more about him. I met with Rufus Carter, the chief of police, who agreed to help me.

#9

I was nervous about meeting Ann McVay, my mom’s friend, because I knew she’d been in love with my mom’s boyfriend Cam Milton, who killed himself two weeks before their senior prom.

#10

Ann and Tommy were friends of Roy’s. They told me they had never been on video before. They laughed when I asked if they thought I was crazy for doing this. They told me that Roy had spent most of the 1970s with them, drinking coffee and talking about the Bible.

#11

When I met Roy, I felt a sinking guilt every time I heard myself say her. I didn’t think of Roy as a her, but as a he. I was unsure of how to address Roy, so I used the pronouns she and he.

#12

I had spent seven years thinking about Roy, but I’d never once seen