Friday, June 21, 2013

We The Animals - A Gay Coming Of Age Story



We The Animals by Justin Torres

Three brothers tear their way through childhood – smashing tomatoes all over each other, building kites from trash, hiding out when their parents do battle, tiptoeing around the house as their mother sleeps off her graveyard shift. Paps and Ma are from Brooklyn – he's Puerto Rican, she's white – and their love is a serious, dangerous thing that makes and unmakes a family many times.

Life in this family is fierce and absorbing, full of chaos and heartbreak and the euphoria of belonging completely to one another. The youngest brother narrates, and we're wrenched from the intense familial unity felt by a child to the profound alienation he endures as he's institutionalized by his family for being gay, and then witness as he's ultimately propelled at escape velocity towards his future.

Add your review of "We The Animals" in comments!

1 comment:

ivanova said...

I loved this book! It was quite dark but also hopeful. It's been about two years since I read it, but the way I remember it, officially it's "not for teens" because of some graphic sex.