Palmetto Rose

ISBN-13: 9789004392205 / Angielski / Twarda / 2018 / 164 str.

J.E. Sumerau

Opis

Within academic and literary marketplaces that rarely mention bisexual, non-binary, polyamorous, or working-class experiences and perspectives, Palmetto Rose offers to a chance to take a walk with members of each of these groups in the context of Atlanta in the early 2000's.

Imagine engaging in sexual intimacy with someone you care about for the first time after surviving the loss of a serious, committed, loving relationship. In Palmetto Rose , this is where we find a bi+, gender fluid narrator affectionately called Kid by their loved ones. After five years trying to numb and escape the pain of losing their first love to a tragic accident, Kid begins to wake up, grieve, and try to rebuild their life in Atlanta, Georgia. Through their eyes, we watch as they seek to make sense of grief, pursue the possibility of a college education, and embark on their first serious romantic relationship since they were a teenager. In the process, we spend time with their chosen family of friends who navigate relationships, graduate programs, and developing careers. As the story unfolds, these friends face the ups and downs of early adulthood alongside the ways their individual and shared pasts find voices in their current endeavours, future plans, and intertwined lives. Although many characters in this story originally appeared in Cigarettes & Wine , Homecoming Queens , or Other People's Oysters , Palmetto Rose may be read as a stand-alone novel.Palmetto Rose may be used as an educational tool for people seeking to better understand growing numbers of openly bisexual, transgender, and poly people; as a supplemental reading for courses across disciplines dealing with gender, sexualities, relationships, families, the life course, narratives, emotions, the American south, identities, culture, and / or intersectionality; or it can, of course, be read entirely for pleasure.

Recenzje

"Sumerau disrupts dominant ideas around gender and sexualities in a language more accessible than academic publications, thus students can more easily connect and engage with this fictional work. Using this novel in teaching and learning provides opportunities for students to foster critical thinking by drawing meanings from the text. The novel, and its supplementary classroom activities, would be effective for communicating complex ideas in undergraduate courses dealing with gender, sexualities, and identities. This novel could also be valuable to arts and humanities scholars seeking to experiment with different ways of telling research narratives." - Art/Research International: A Transdisciplinary Journal

"Honestly written and full of hope for anyone who has loved and lost. You can't help but fall in love with Palmetto Rose's narrator as you learn about their efforts to come back from losing their first love. The reader will gain a glimpse into the narrator's early adulthood - their struggles with intimacy, their resilience, and the rich family of choice that helps them through it all. The relationships articulated in these pages offer a model for navigating poly love, friendship and disappointment with a commitment to patience and care. An engaging read for all who dare envision the expansive possibilities of family." - Katie Acosta, Ph.D., Georgia State University and author of Amigas y Amantes: Sexually Nonconforming Latinas Negotiate Family

"In Palmetto Rose, Sumerau continues the compellingly complex story of the narrator we meet in their first novel, Cigarettes & Wine. Palmetto Rose explores the lives, loves, and losses of a diverse range of queer young adults living in the south, generating a narrative rich in detail and description that provides a much-needed portrayal of the ways that individuals in polyamorous relationships navigate relationships with one another and with their metamours." - Brandy Simula, Ph.D., Emory University

"This was a perfect read for me - much like the "Perfect Palmetto Rose." Sumerau's novel reintroduces us to "Kid" whose fluid gender identity and bisexuality interact with characters who are deeply immersed in friendships that are also fluid-and ever-changing. Readers can't help but notice the ease in which Sumerau weaves discussions of polyamory, asexuality, queer and transgender identities into Kid's everyday interactions. The reader is (happily) forced to dismiss taken-for-granted assumptions about gender and sexuality because Kid does - Kid guides the reader through the life of their friends - sometimes of discrimination and tragic loss, but more often lives about love and new friendships. Kid is at times disparaging about their educational abilities all the while they teach us, the reader, more about gender and sexuality fluid relationships than any other character I have met." - Andrea Miller, Ph.D., Webster University

"In Palmetto Rose, Sumerau shares the story of young adults navigating romantic relationships and life on their own in Atlanta, Georgia. We follow the characters as they discover how their previous individual and collective experiences impact their current relationships and worldviews. Sumerau beautifully captures the complications of early adulthood for characters defying gender and sexual binaries in the early 2000s. This novel, similar to Sumerau's other works, highlights the stories of bisexual, genderfluid, transgender, and poly people that are often missing from mainstream fiction. Palmetto Rose also serves as a great supplemental text for courses addressing gender identities, sexualities, religion, families, culture, and the South." - Mandi N. Barringer, Ph.D., University of North Florida

"Prepare to be unreachable for at least a day because once you start Palmetto Rose, you won't be able to put it down. In a much-anticipated sequel to Cigarettes & Wine, Sumerau thrusts us back into the world of Lena, Abs, Kid, and their family of choice in Atlanta in the years after the loss of a beloved member of the family. We follow Kid as they reconnect to their past and begin the process of healing and finding new love within and beyond themselves. Bursting with poetic prose and multifaceted new characters, Palmetto Rose marks what will be some of the best queer fiction and sociology of the year. Palmetto Rose continues Sumerau's legacy of writing heart wrenching and warming tales of young adulthood that double as an indispensable tool for teaching in the social sciences, art, and humanities." - Lain A. B. Mathers, Doctoral Candidate, University of Illinois Chicago

Spis treści

Preface
Acknowledgements

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25

Suggested Classroom or Book Club Use
About the Author

O autorze

J. E. Sumerau is an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Tampa. Their writing focuses on sexualities, gender, religion, and health in relation to societal patterns of violence and inequalities. They are also the author of five previous novels - Cigarettes & Wine , Essence , Homecoming Queens , That Year , and Other People's Oysters (with Alexandra C.H. Nowakowski).