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Diary of a Misfit: A Memoir and a Mystery



by
Casey Park

Edition
Hardcover edition
Publisher
Penguin Random House
Imprint
Knopf (Adult)
ISBN
9780525658535
POTENTIALLY SENSITIVE AREAS
Discrimination: Gender Identity , Drugs/Alcohol/Tobacco: Drug Use/Abuse , Language: Strong Language , Sexual Content: Strong Sexual Content/Themes , Violence: Domestic/Physical Abuse , Violence: Sexual Assault/Rape Reference/Discussion
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Part memoir, part sweeping journalistic saga: As Casey Parks follows the mystery of a stranger's past, she is forced to reckon with her own sexuality, her fraught Southern identity, her tortured yet loving relationship with her mother, and the complicated role of faith in her life.

When Casey Parks came out as a lesbian in college back in 2002, she assumed her life in the South was over. Her mother shunned her, and her pastor asked God to kill her. But then Parks's grandmother, a stern conservative who grew up picking cotton, pulled her aside and revealed a startling secret. "I grew up across the street from a woman who lived as a man," and then implored Casey to find out what happened to him. Diary of a Misfit is the story of Parks's life-changing journey to unravel the mystery of Roy Hudgins, the small-town country singer from grandmother’s youth, all the while confronting ghosts of her own.

For ten years, Parks traveled back to rural Louisiana and knocked on strangers’ doors, dug through nursing home records, and doggedly searched for Roy’s own diaries, trying to uncover what Roy was like as a person—what he felt; what he thought; and how he grappled with his sense of otherness. With an enormous heart and an unstinting sense of vulnerability, Parks writes about finding oneself through someone else’s story, and about forging connections across the gulfs that divide us.

POTENTIALLY SENSITIVE AREAS
Discrimination: Gender Identity , Drugs/Alcohol/Tobacco: Drug Use/Abuse , Language: Strong Language , Sexual Content: Strong Sexual Content/Themes , Violence: Domestic/Physical Abuse , Violence: Sexual Assault/Rape Reference/Discussion

Details

Format

Print

Page Count

368

Trim Size

9 1/2" x 6 1/2"

Dewey

B

AR

0: points 0

Genre

Nonfic

Scholastic Reading Counts

0

JLG Release

Oct 2022

Book Genres

Autobiography/Biography

Topics

Casey Parks. Lesbians. LGBTQ. Gender identity. Sexuality. Self-actualization (psychology.) Investigative reporting. Rural South. Louisiana.

 


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Praise & Reviews

The Horn Book

Raised in the rural South, Park came out as a lesbian in 2002; her mother promptly shut her out, and her pastor asked God to kill her. But her tough, conservative grandmother confided that she had grown up across the street from a woman who lived as a man and asked Park to find out what happened to the person she knew as Roy. A Washington Post reporter, Park used investigative skills to chase down Roy's story, which she blends here with memoir as she examines her own sexuality and her fraught relationship with mother. Winner of a 2021 J. Anthony Lukas Work-In-Progress Award.

Praise & Reviews

The Horn Book

Raised in the rural South, Park came out as a lesbian in 2002; her mother promptly shut her out, and her pastor asked God to kill her. But her tough, conservative grandmother confided that she had grown up across the street from a woman who lived as a man and asked Park to find out what happened to the person she knew as Roy. A Washington Post reporter, Park used investigative skills to chase down Roy's story, which she blends here with memoir as she examines her own sexuality and her fraught relationship with mother. Winner of a 2021 J. Anthony Lukas Work-In-Progress Award.

Grades 11 & Up
Adult Crossover Nonfiction Plus
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For the more advanced high school reader who is ready for adult reading and enjoys nonfiction, our ACN Category is a great choice. With more sophisticated and challenging themes, these books open up new worlds for teen readers. Help them experience a new world monthly with the 14 books in ACN.


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14 books per Year
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Interests
Diversity,Mature Readers,LGBTQ+,Nonfiction,Biographies,History
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Adult Crossover Nonfiction Plus
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$309.26 per Year

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