★ 10/04/2021
In this crackling debut, Gomez recounts his coming-of-age as a queer man, passionately exploring what it means to celebrate one’s identities and to make space for joy in the most unlikely places. “In a world desperate to erase us, queer Latinx men must find ways to hold on to pride for survival,” he writes, “but excessive male pride is often what we are battling, both in ourselves and in others.” In essays packed with dry wit and searing cultural insight, Gomez blows open this paradox as he contends with the difficulties and traumas of compulsory heterosexuality that were forced upon him growing up in his Nicaraguan family. He brings readers on an exhilarating trip through his teens in Central America, where bloody cockfights at his uncle’s bar pulsated with machismo; reflects on meeting a group of encouraging trans sex workers, whose simple freedom both terrified and enticed him as a young gay person; recounts his awkward attempts to navigate hookup culture in his early 20s in Florida; and reflects on how taking PrEP instantly labeled him medically as a “high-risk homosexual.” The result transcends a simple coming-out story to instead offer a brilliant and provocative interrogation of sex, gender, race, and love. Agent: Danielle Bukowski, Sterling Lord Literistic. (Jan.)
*Winner of the American Book Award*
*Winner of the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Memoir/Biography*
An Honor Book for the 2023 Stonewall Book Award—Israel Fishman Non-Fiction Book Award
Named a Best Book of the Year by BuzzFeed, Electric Literature, and Publishers Weekly
The Millions, A Most Anticipated Book of the Year
Times of India, A Most Anticipated LGBTQ+ Book of the Year
"A breath of fresh air . . . Gomez writes with a humor and clarity . . . Gomez’s voice is equal parts warmth and acid wit, like a good friend you’re slightly afraid of . . . An exciting debut from an author with a rare point of view. High-Risk Homosexual deals with some titanic questions. What is Latinidad? What is machismo? What does it mean to be a man, never mind a queer man? By its own admission, the book doesn’t have all the answers, but it makes a compelling case that they will come from the razor-sharp queers living in the margins." —John Paul Brammer, The New York Times Book Review
"Bright, nervy, hilarious." —Boris Kachka, Los Angeles Times
"A very funny memoir that sits on my fireplace mantel with more-pages-than-is-useful earmarked—the universally accepted sign of a great book."—Justin Krajeski, NBC News
"I loved this memoir so much. Gomez had me crying and laughing while also taking deep breaths throughout the pages." —Lupita Aquino, TODAY
"Gomez's compelling memoir of embracing his gay, Latinx identity in a world that so often prizes neither takes the reader on a whirlwind tour from a Nicaraguan cockfighting ring to a drag queen convention in Los Angeles and far beyond." —Emma Specter, Vogue
"Gomez explores his upbringing and coming to terms with his identity in a series of humorous essays." —Alamin Yohannes, Entertainment Weekly
"The catalogue page for this debut memoir lists a number of things you can expect to find within the book’s contents. Among them are 'Maybelline foundation shade: Rich Tan,' 'A baby wailing in an ancient Jesuit language,' and 'The most famous woman in the world.' If that doesn’t entice you to read Gomez’s account of figuring out how to embrace his queer identity amid a culture of machismo, I’m not sure what will." —Keely Weiss, Harper's Bazaar, A Best LGBT Book of the Year
"Laughs abound in this book, as do sharp confrontations with what we risk living in the margins." —Matt Ortile, Esquire
"High-Risk Homosexual is a book that will stick with readers." —Sarah Neilson, Shondaland
"Gorgeous and hilarious." —Sophia June, NYLON, A Most Anticipated Book
"Outstanding . . . Throughout this impressive memoir [Gomez] writes candidly and with great dexterity about the joys and fears that grounded his innocent childhood and continue to inform and empower his adulthood." —Jim Piechota, The Bay Area Reporter
"This memoir is good: author Edgar Gomez’s literary wandering makes it feel much like an honest conversation with readers . . . An affable book with just enough seriousness." —Terri Schlichenmeyer, Washington Blade
"Hilarious and touching . . . Edgar Gomez's tone is personal, heartfelt, and introspective, with a healthy dose of humor." —David Vogel, BuzzFeed
"Heartbreaking, funny, and vulnerable . . . Gomez expertly captures what it means to be on the cusp of embracing your full, queer self when the world doesn’t want you to do so." —Eva Recinos, B*tch
"A propulsive delight . . . Gomez has the droll observations of David Sedaris or Michael Arceneaux . . . Full of hard-won insights into the heart, Latinx identity, and contemporary queer life . . . An engrossing memoir." —Matthew Caprioli, Lambda Literary
"Excellent . . . A journey not without difficulties, but also not without saving grace." —Rigoberto González, On the Seawall
"A must-read memoir about sex, love, and queerness . . . [Gomez] balances tender moments with the sharpest wit." —Adam Vitcavage, Debutiful
"Gomez’s vulnerable and humorous voice gives strength to High-Risk Homosexual. And yes, while this highly personal memoir is written through the unique lens of a femme-queer-Latinx, there is a universal narrative that will resonate with anyone who has ever felt marginalized. No matter how we identify or where we end up, ultimately, we are all high-risk, and Gomez captures this universality so well. Shantay." —Trey Burnette, Los Angeles Review of Book
“A riotously funny and poignant debut by a quick-witted new voice . . . Displaying a masterful blend of humor, personal reflection, and thoughtful commentary on Latinx culture, Gomez’s first work is as good as it is largely due to its emotional sincerity, its willingness to examine the mistakes and lessons learned just as closely as it does the triumphs . . . This book—open, anguished, brimming with humanity—is, above all, a work of hope.” —Isabella Pilotta Gois, Latino Book Review
"With alternating notes of gut-wrenching emotion and humor, High-Risk Homosexual chronicles not only Gomez’s coming-of-age and coming out, but also his choppy navigation of a culture and family that refused to accept him . . . Gomez’s incandescent prose flickers with an intensity that illuminates his insecurities, his disappointments, and his courage." —Henry L. Carrigan Jr., BookPage
"Packed with dry wit and searing cultural insight . . . A brilliant and provocative interrogation of sex, gender, race, and love." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Poignant, vivid, and often hilarious, this coming-of-age memoir fearlessly explores intersectional identity and shows what it means to live and love authentically as a gay man today . . . An engagingly candid memoir from a promising young writer." —Kirkus Reviews
08/01/2021
In I Came All This Way To Meet You, New York Times best-selling author Attenberg explains that as the daughter of a traveling salesman she came by her wanderlust naturally and shows how reflecting on her early years during her travels led her to writing—and particularly her theme of troubled families (75,000-copy first printing). Award-winning actress and Food Network star Bertinelli follows up her No. 1 New York Times best-selling memoir Losing It with inspiration as she turns 60 in Enough Already (100,000-copy first printing). In High-Risk Homosexual, a memoir ranging from funny (a baby speaking an ancient Jesuit language) to heartbreaking (the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando), Gomez explains how he came to embrace his gay, Latinx identity within a culture of machismo. In This Boy We Made, Harris relates her efforts to determine what is suddenly wrong with her bouncy 22-month-old boy in a system frequently inhospitable to Black mothers and her discovery when meeting with a geneticist that she has medical issues of her own. In Admissions, James relates the complications of being a diversity recruiter for select, largely white prep schools after attending The Taft School as its first Black legacy student. Attorney, podcaster, and Extra correspondent Lindsay discusses growing up in Dallas, TX; her career in law; and why she chose to be the first Black Bachelorette on The Bachelor in Miss Me with That. Miller reveals how he made the Jump, taking Nike's Jordan Brand from a relatively modest $150 million sneaker producer to a $4.5 billion worldwide footwear and apparel phenomenon while also recalling his teenage jailtime and the nightmares from which he still suffers and arguing for criminal justice reform and greater educational opportunities for the currently or formerly imprisoned. After her mother, actress Roseanne Barr, moved the family to celebrity-soaked Hollywood from working-class Denver, using personal details from their lives there for her sitcom's storylines, the teenaged Pentland endured anxiety and eating issues and various 1980s-sanctioned self-help interventions while muttering to herself This Will Be Funny Later (evidently proved here). In Lost & Found, the Pulitzer Prize-winning New Yorker staffer Schulz explores the bittersweet reality of meeting the woman she would marry just 18 months before losing her father. Readers Rise with Vonn as she earns 82 World Cup wins, 20 World Cup titles, seven World Championship medals, and three Olympic medals to become one of the top women ski racers of all time. Raised in Albania, the last Communist country in Europe, where the final tumble of Stalin's and Hoxha's statues soon led to economic chaos, political violence, and the flight of the disillusioned, Ypi has earned the right more than most to ponder what it means to be Free.
2021-10-02
A Florida-born writer’s account of how he learned to embrace and celebrate his identity as a gay Latinx man.
As an adolescent growing up in Orlando, Gomez fantasized he could live in a “rom-com” world like the one that Jennifer Lopez, his idol and beautiful Latina “damsel in distress,” often inhabited on screen. But an “artsy asexual” facade hid the queerness that his machista Latinx culture denigrated. In high school, a gay friend took him to clubs to revel in drag queen culture, and college brought with it the opportunity to move out and further define his sexuality on his own terms. However, Gomez quickly found himself forced into a binary existence. “It was obvious,” he writes, “that I could experiment with my appearance or I could have sex, but I couldn’t have both.” At the same time, the author also discovered a desire to engage in anonymous, multipartner gay club sex, and he joined a gay burlesque troop, where he learned, gradually, to be comfortable in his own skin. Leaving Orlando for graduate school after the 2016 Pulse nightclub massacre gave rise to other important personal revelations. “I don’t have sympathy for the man who murdered forty-nine people I used to dance with. I promise you I don’t,” writes the author. “But I do for the child he’d been, despite knowing how this story ends, because he reminds me so much of myself.” Contending with the pervasive fear of contracting HIV, the author slowly began to learn to cautiously explore his desires while also continuing to “play the game. The game is hope.” Poignant, vivid, and often hilarious, this coming-of-age memoir fearlessly explores intersectional identity and shows what it means to live and love authentically as a gay man today.
An engagingly candid memoir from a promising young writer.
In these personal essays, Edgar Gomez writes about the many facets of his queer Latinx identity, sharing his tumultuous journey to self-love with honesty, humor, and warmth. His narration hits just the right notes—sometimes serious, sometimes downright giddy, sometimes tight with pain, but always open and inviting. He writes about the rigid masculinity he witnessed watching cockfights with his uncle in Nicaragua and about embracing his femme glory while performing with a queer burlesque strip show. His reflections on the Pulse nightclub shooting and its aftermath are heartbreaking, and his recollections of his first tentative forays into gay clubs, bars, and bathhouses are candid and vulnerable. This exuberantly narrated memoir is a wonderful addition to queer Latinx literature—a fierce and hopeful celebration of one young person’s truth. L.S. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
In these personal essays, Edgar Gomez writes about the many facets of his queer Latinx identity, sharing his tumultuous journey to self-love with honesty, humor, and warmth. His narration hits just the right notes—sometimes serious, sometimes downright giddy, sometimes tight with pain, but always open and inviting. He writes about the rigid masculinity he witnessed watching cockfights with his uncle in Nicaragua and about embracing his femme glory while performing with a queer burlesque strip show. His reflections on the Pulse nightclub shooting and its aftermath are heartbreaking, and his recollections of his first tentative forays into gay clubs, bars, and bathhouses are candid and vulnerable. This exuberantly narrated memoir is a wonderful addition to queer Latinx literature—a fierce and hopeful celebration of one young person’s truth. L.S. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
