Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Book Shelf: 'Eating My Feelings' by Mark Brennan Rosenberg and 'Intolerable' by Kamal Al-Solaylee

A couple more gay memoirs have come to my attention:


First up is Mark Brennan Rosenberg's "Eating My Feelings: Tales of Overeating, Underperforming and Coping With My Crazy Family" is a collection of essays about his struggles with weight and body image, both as a kid in the 1980s and as a gay man in NYC in the 2000s. He will embark on a national book tour beginning Aug. 14 with the first stop at Word Bookstore (126 Franklin St) in Brooklyn. "Eating My Feelings" is available for pre-order now HERE. More info HERE.


The other is "Intolerable: A Memoir of Extremes," Kamal Al-Solaylee's Lammy-nominated memoir of growing up gay in the Middle East:, and the trials and tribulations of his once-prosperous family:
In the 1960s, Kamal Al-Solaylee’s father was one of the wealthiest property owners in Aden, in the south of Yemen, but when the country shrugged off its colonial roots, his properties were confiscated, and the family was forced to leave. The family moved first to Beirut, which suddenly became one of the most dangerous places in the world, then Cairo. After a few peaceful years, even the safe haven of Cairo struggled under a new wave of Islamic extremism that culminated with the assassination of Anwar Sadat in 1981. The family returned to Yemen, a country that was then culturally isolated from the rest of the world.

As a gay man living in an intolerant country, Al-Solaylee escaped first to England and eventually to Canada, where he became a prominent journalist and academic. While he was enjoying the cultural and personal freedoms of life in the West, his once-liberal family slowly fell into the hard-line interpretations of Islam that were sweeping large parts of the Arab-Muslim world in the 1980s and 1990s. The differences between his life and theirs were brought into sharp relief by the 2011 revolution in Egypt and the civil war in Yemen.
Order HERE.

2 comments:

Ben Nevis said...

These two books are one reason I really like this blog. It exposes me to books I might never find or even know to look for. Thanks again.

Billy said...

I agree with Ben above! I have bought so many books because of your recommendations.