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How We Fight For Our Lives
263 pages
A haunting, beautifully poetic coming-of-age memoir that explores the fierce sacrifices required to forge a Black, queer identity.
What it feels like
Written in a series of striking vignettes, this memoir reads with the steady, rhythmic flow of a blues song. The prose, crafted by an award-winning poet, is bracingly honest and deeply beautiful, immersing the reader in an intimate and haunting atmosphere. It traces a tumultuous emotional arc, moving through the vulnerability of boyhood and the grief of fractured family dynamics toward a powerful realization of self. The narrative sits at the complex crossroads of race, queerness, and power, exploring the profound sacrifices we make to carve out our own identities. Readers who appreciate soul-baring, lyrical reflections on love, grief, and the fierce fight to become oneself will find this an unforgettable, deeply moving experience.
- Mood
- haunting
- intimate
- tumultuous
- soul-baring
- Tone
- honest
- vulnerable
- powerful
- reflective
- Pace
- steady
- Themes
- race and queerness · power and vulnerability · love and grief · coming-of-age · family dynamics
- The writing
- Written by an award-winning poet, the prose is beautiful, powerful, and vignette-driven, flowing like a river and a blues.
- The arc
- Moves from a haunted, tumultuous boyhood to a powerful realization of self through the sacrifice of former identities.
- Who it's for
- Readers seeking a bracingly honest, poetic coming-of-age memoir about the intersections of Black and queer identity.
Content notes
- grief
- family conflict
About the book
From award-winning poet Saeed Jones, How We Fight for Our Lives— One of the best books of the year as selected by The New York Times; The Washington Post; NPR; Time; The New Yorker; O, The Oprah Magazine; Harper’s Bazaar; Elle; BuzzFeed; Goodreads; and many more.
“People don’t just happen,” writes Saeed Jones. “We sacrifice former versions of ourselves. We sacrifice the people who dared to raise us. The ‘I’ it seems doesn’t exist until we are able to say, ‘I am no longer yours.’”
Haunted and haunting, How We Fight for Our Lives is a stunning coming-of-age memoir about a young, black, gay man from the South as he fights to carve out a place for himself, within his family, within his country, within his own hopes, desires, and fears. Through a series of vignettes that chart a course across the American landscape, Jones draws readers into his boyhood and adolescence—into tumultuous relationships with his family, into passing flings with lovers, friends, and strangers. Each piece builds into a larger examination of race and queerness, power and vulnerability, love and grief: a portrait of what we all do for one another—and to one another—as we fight to become ourselves.
An award-winning poet, Jones has developed a style that’s as beautiful as it is powerful—a voice that’s by turns a river, a blues, and a nightscape set ablaze. How We Fight for Our Lives is a one-of-a-kind memoir and a book that cements Saeed Jones as an essential writer for our time.
Description from Open Library.
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