How We Fight For Our Lives: A Memoir

by Saeed Jones Narrated by Saeed Jones

Overview

From award-winning poet Saeed Jones, How We Fight for Our Lives is a stunning coming-of-age memoir written at the crossroads of sex, race, and power.

“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, Jones' memoir tells the story of 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 listeners into his boyhood and adolescence — into tumultuous relationships with his mother and grandmother, 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.

Blending poetry and prose, Jones has developed a style that is equal parts sensual, beautiful, and 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 an audiobook that cements Saeed Jones as an essential writer for our time.

Editorial Reviews

OCTOBER 2019 - AudioFile

Listeners gain an intimate sense of Saeed Jones’s life through vignettes he presents with grace, compassion, and ferocity. His poetic memoir was born when he turned to writing to heal in the aftermath of an assault, and it centers around struggling as a young, black, and gay boy in the South. He and his mother were close, and when she dies, his anguish is palpable. Jones narrates unflinchingly through early curiosity about his sexuality, homophobia from family and community, and damaging sexual encounters. While he’s skilled at creating voices for everyone in his audiobook, certain voices—taunting slurs, crazed declarations of violence—are particularly chilling. Through his dynamic narration, listeners will feel as though they are sharing intense confidences and moments of joy with a close friend. E.E.C. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine

OCTOBER 2019 - AudioFile

Listeners gain an intimate sense of Saeed Jones’s life through vignettes he presents with grace, compassion, and ferocity. His poetic memoir was born when he turned to writing to heal in the aftermath of an assault, and it centers around struggling as a young, black, and gay boy in the South. He and his mother were close, and when she dies, his anguish is palpable. Jones narrates unflinchingly through early curiosity about his sexuality, homophobia from family and community, and damaging sexual encounters. While he’s skilled at creating voices for everyone in his audiobook, certain voices—taunting slurs, crazed declarations of violence—are particularly chilling. Through his dynamic narration, listeners will feel as though they are sharing intense confidences and moments of joy with a close friend. E.E.C. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170437634
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster
Publication date:	10/08/2019
Edition description:	Unabridged
Sales rank:	1,021,425

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