From Publishers Weekly
The tacky environs of the Missouri Ozarks in the 1970s set in relief a budding gay sensibility in this funny, affecting, overripe memoir. Wearing his mother's bikini and pearls to a mock beauty pageant at age five, winning office in his high school's Future Homemakers club, feigning romantic interest in a string of female beards, Rouse was hopelessly out of step with the redneck masculinity urged on him by taunting classmates and despairing relatives. Fortunately, he had a charmingly offbeat family, led by two warmhearted grandmothers, who accepted him as he was (without asking too many questions) and left him with a trove of glowing memories. The plight of a queer soul fighting for life in rural America is familiar literary terrain, and Rouse renders it as a duel between flamboyant camp and white-trash kitsch. He amplifies his inner turmoil with a weepy confessional tone, obsessing about his compulsive overeating, body issues, hair issues and gross bathroom issues, and sobbing endlessly over emotional travails. In the end, the narrative lapses into a clichéd coming-out melodrama. But when Rouse looks away from the mirror to the people around him, the book comes alive with tender portraits of kitsch and kin. Photos. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Booklist
Growing up in 1970s Granby, Missouri, a tiny Ozarks town where "trailers outnumber homes and teeth," isn't easy when you're a boy like Wade, who dreams of being crowned "Miss Sugar Creek." As a result, his childhood is a search for places and things that make him feel safe: the smell of coffee, his grandparents' lofty feather bed, and--best of all--the family cabin on Sugar Creek, where he can relax and be himself. Rouse's affectionate, episodic evocation of his loving, extended, and slightly eccentric family is engaging but a bit predictable until the unthinkable happens: his older brother is killed in a motorcycle accident, and life for the survivors becomes darker, more dangerous, and--for readers--more interesting as Wade, who has always defined himself by his family, must find himself and come to terms with his homosexuality. "I have outed myself to myself," he writes, and "for once it's not about the past." Michael Cart
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
阅读这本书的过程,与其说是在“看故事”,不如说是在进行一场智力与情感的双重角力。它对情节的推进处理得极其高明,很多关键性的转折点并非通过戏剧性的外部事件完成,而是通过人物内心微妙的转念和潜意识的流动来实现的,这要求读者必须全神贯注地捕捉那些字里行间流动着的暗流。作者仿佛是一位高明的魔术师,他将我们带入一个看似寻常的场景,然后不动声色地改变了我们对所有既有设定的理解。我欣赏这种对读者智商的尊重,它从不直接给出答案,而是铺设好所有的线索,让读者自己去完成最后的拼图。特别是书中关于某些社会现象的隐喻,处理得含蓄而有力,没有生硬的说教,却让人在不寒而栗中获得了深刻的洞察。这本书的篇幅不短,但阅读过程却惊人地迅速,因为它强大的内在引力让人难以停下,仿佛被一种无形的力量牵引着,必须知道下一页将揭示怎样的真相。
评分这本书的整体调性是内敛而深远的,它不像某些热门作品那样追求强烈的感官刺激,而是专注于挖掘人类精神世界中最幽微、最难捉摸的情感涟漪。作者的文风有一种独特的韵律感,即使在描述最平淡无奇的日常场景时,也充满了音乐般的节奏感,读起来朗朗上口,但其内涵却远比表面看起来要厚重得多。我特别留意到,书中对环境的描写常常与人物的心境形成一种奇特的互文关系,景色的阴晴圆缺,往往是角色内心波动最直观的投射。这种高度的艺术化处理,让文本的层次感极大地丰富起来。这本书给予读者的不仅仅是一个故事,更是一种看待世界、理解他人的全新视角和工具。它像一剂慢性的强效药,初读或许觉得味道略苦,但随着时间推移,其带来的思想上的启发和情感上的共鸣将持续发酵,成为文学记忆中难以磨灭的一部分。
评分坦白说,我并非一个轻易被情节驱动的读者,我更看重的是作者如何搭建起一个可以供人沉思的“容器”。而这本书,恰恰提供了一个极具张力与韧性的容器。它的叙事结构并非传统的“起承转合”,更像是一张精心编织的网,线索分散,却又在不经意间收紧,将所有看似无关的碎片最终聚合为一个震撼人心的整体。在语言运用上,作者展现出一种近乎古典的严谨和现代的锐利,他能用一个精准到位的比喻,瞬间点亮一个晦涩难懂的情感内核,这种“一语中的”的功力令人叹服。我尤其沉浸于其中对于时间感和记忆片段的探讨,它挑战了我们对线性时间的固有认知,让过去、现在与未来在文字的迷宫中交错盘桓,读起来需要极高的专注度,但回报是丰厚的——你会发现自己对“存在”这个概念有了新的理解。这本书需要的不是快速翻阅,而是细细品味,像品鉴陈年的佳酿,每一口都有新的层次和回味,其深度足以支撑多次重读,每次都会发现新的隐藏的宝石。
评分这部作品无疑是一次精神上的探险,它将读者带入了一个充满迷雾与反思的境地。作者的笔触细腻得令人惊叹,仿佛能透过纸页触摸到人物内心的纹理。叙事节奏的掌控堪称一绝,时而如山间溪流般潺潺细语,细致入微地描摹生活中的琐碎与光影;时而又如暴风雨前的沉寂,酝酿着即将到来的情感冲击。我尤其欣赏其中对于“成长”这一主题的解构,它没有采用传统的、线性的颂歌式描绘,反而更像是一面破碎的镜子,折射出个体在面对复杂世界时,那种既渴望融入又本能抗拒的矛盾心理。那些看似不经意的对话,实则蕴含着深刻的哲学思辨,迫使我不得不停下来,反复咀嚼其中的深意。书中构建的世界观宏大而又扎实,每一个场景的设置,无论是喧嚣的都市一隅,还是静谧的乡村小径,都充满了无可替代的氛围感,仿佛我已经身临其境,呼吸着那里的空气,感受着岁月的流逝。读完合上书页的那一刻,心中涌起的不是完结的轻松,而是一种久违的、被深度触动后的回甘,那感觉复杂、深沉,难以言喻,仿佛完成了一次漫长而艰辛的内在旅程。
评分这部作品给我最大的冲击来自于它对人性灰色地带的坦诚描摹。它避开了简单粗暴的“好人”与“坏人”的二元对立,而是深入挖掘了角色们在道德困境中的挣扎与选择。那些主人公们,他们并不完美,甚至时常做出令人费解的决定,但这恰恰是其魅力所在——他们如此真实,如此贴近我们日常生活中所见的芸芸众生。作者的笔触中没有审判,只有一种近乎慈悲的理解,他用冷静的旁观者的视角,记录了人类面对压力、诱惑和失落时最本能的反应。这种对“不完美”的拥抱,极大地拓宽了我对文学作品可以承载主题广度的认知。此外,本书的氛围营造极其成功,无论是心理上的压抑感,还是环境带来的疏离感,都通过精准的细节堆砌起来,形成了强烈的沉浸体验。读罢掩卷,我感觉到自己被轻轻地推到了一个更广阔的视角之下,得以审视自身行为逻辑中的盲点,这是一种非常宝贵且难得的阅读体验。
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