Stray City

by Chelsey Johnson

Overview

“A thoughtful and joyous literary experience that celebrates its characters and liberally rewards its readers.” —New York Times Book Review, Editors' Choice

"I tore through this novel like an orphaned reader seeking a home in its ragtag yet shimmering world." — Carrie Brownstein

“Our ’90s nostalgia is hella high these days, and this tender, funny story made our aging hipster hearts sing.” — Marie Claire

A warm, funny, and whip-smart debut novel about rebellious youth, inconceivable motherhood, and the complications of belonging—to a city, a culture, and a family—when none of them can quite contain who you really are.

All of us were refugees of the nuclear family . . .

Twenty-three-year-old artist Andrea Morales escaped her Midwestern Catholic childhood—and the closet—to create a home and life for herself within the thriving but insular lesbian underground of Portland, Oregon. But one drunken night, reeling from a bad breakup and a friend’s betrayal, she recklessly crosses enemy lines and hooks up with a man. To her utter shock, Andrea soon discovers she’s pregnant—and despite the concerns of her astonished circle of gay friends, she decides to have the baby.

A decade later, when her precocious daughter Lucia starts asking questions about the father she’s never known, Andrea is forced to reconcile the past she hoped to leave behind with the life she’s worked so hard to build.

A thoroughly modern and original anti-romantic comedy, Stray City is an unabashedly entertaining literary debut about the families we’re born into and the families we choose, about finding yourself by breaking the rules, and making bad decisions for all the right reasons.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062791863
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	03/20/2018
Edition description:	Large Print
Pages:	560
Sales rank:	679,502
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Chelsey Johnson received an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and a Stegner Fellowship from Stanford University. Her stories and essays have appeared in Ploughshares, One Story, Ninth Letter, The Rumpus, and NPR’s Selected Shorts, among other outlets. She has received fellowships to the MacDowell Colony, the Virginia Center for Creative Arts, and Signal Fire Arts. Born and raised in Northern Minnesota, she currently lives in Richmond, Virginia, and teaches at the College of William & Mary. This is her first novel.

Editorial Reviews

This novel has everything: the circa-’99 lesbian indie-rock scene! Zines! Answering machines! . . . Our 90s nostalgia is hella high these days, and this tender, funny story made our aging hipster hearts sing.” — Marie Claire

“Insightful and brilliant, Stray City explores the stickiness of doing what’s expected and the strange freedom born of contradiction. I tore through this novel like an orphaned reader seeking a home in its ragtag yet shimmering world.” — Carrie Brownstein, New York Times bestselling author of Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl

“A winsome novel about love and belonging—and the possibility of discovering both in the most unlikely of places, and among the most unexpected people. Tender and smart, Stray City is a fantastic debut from a huge talent.” — Cristina Henríquez, bestselling author of The Book of Unknown Americans

“Johnson’s writing is very funny yet emotionally tender, and ultimately is a heartwarming celebration of found families and our desire to belong.” — Buzzfeed, Exciting New Books You Need To Read This Spring

“Gritty and lively.” — Entertainment Weekly

“This lively first novel features a lesbian reeling from a breakup who begins a befuddling affair with a man. Things don’t get any easier when she realizes she’s pregnant.” — O magazine

“Diverse and colorful . . . a vibrant portrait of a woman coming into her own, in a city also coming into its own, brimming with music, art and beauty . . . a thoughtful and joyous literary experience that celebrates its characters and liberally rewards its readers.”  — New York Times Book Review, Editors’ Choice

“Stray City has it all. As funny as it is moving; as joyful, as radically communal, as it is lonesome . . . Honestly, one of the most absorbing, finely-tuned books I’ve had the pleasure of falling down into. Chelsey Johnson is a wonder.” — Justin Torres, bestselling author of We the Animals

“Written with wit and sensitivity and exquisite emotional intelligence, Stray City is an absolute pleasure to read. Chelsey Johnson is one of the most refreshing new voices in literature.” — Jami Attenberg, New York Times bestselling author of The Middlesteins and All Grown Up

“A humorous and heartfelt exploration of sexual identity and unconventional families.” — The Millions, The Great 2018 Book Preview

“Radically funny and truly insightful . . . a brilliant emotional rollercoaster of a book, exploring what it means to create and sustain a family, and the difficulties of loving people—including yourself.” — Nylon Magazine, 50 Books We Can’t Wait to Read in 2018

“A love letter to Portland in the 90s, Stray City is a gorgeous, funny, sharply spot-on tale of growing up and making family again and again and again.” — Michelle Tea, award-winning author of Valencia

“A coming-out and coming-of-age story; a surprise-I’m pregnant story; a will- they-or-won’t-they love story; and an ode to a time and place we think we’ve heard everything about—and it’s all utterly fresh. . . . Recommended for Jami Attenberg and Rainbow Rowell fans.” — Booklist (starred review)

“Both an ode to and critique of the modern American family.” — Harper’s Bazaar

“Charming, witty, and perfectly fast-paced, Chelsey Johnson’s Stray City examines the modern family through the lens of one extraordinarily quirky family out of Portland, Oregon.” — Pop Sugar

“A propulsive, compassionate, hilarious novel about coming of age at the fraught intersections of Midwestern family norms, punk rock community, and LGBTQ politics.” — Leni Zumas, Tin House

“A love letter to both a city and a community, and in some ways also to a specific moment in our queer history, this novel stole my heart... If I could have willed a book into existence, that book would be Stray City.” — Autostraddle.com

From the Publisher

A winsome novel about love and belonging—and the possibility of discovering both in the most unlikely of places, and among the most unexpected people. Tender and smart, Stray City is a fantastic debut from a huge talent.

Cristina Henríquez

Insightful and brilliant, Stray City explores the stickiness of doing what’s expected and the strange freedom born of contradiction. I tore through this novel like an orphaned reader seeking a home in its ragtag yet shimmering world.

Carrie Brownstein

A humorous and heartfelt exploration of sexual identity and unconventional families.

The Millions

Gritty and lively.

Entertainment Weekly

This novel has everything: the circa-’99 lesbian indie-rock scene! Zines! Answering machines! . . . Our 90s nostalgia is hella high these days, and this tender, funny story made our aging hipster hearts sing.

Marie Claire

Written with wit and sensitivity and exquisite emotional intelligence, Stray City is an absolute pleasure to read. Chelsey Johnson is one of the most refreshing new voices in literature.

Jami Attenberg

Stray City has it all. As funny as it is moving; as joyful, as radically communal, as it is lonesome . . . Honestly, one of the most absorbing, finely-tuned books I’ve had the pleasure of falling down into. Chelsey Johnson is a wonder.

Justin Torres

This lively first novel features a lesbian reeling from a breakup who begins a befuddling affair with a man. Things don’t get any easier when she realizes she’s pregnant.

O magazine

Johnson’s writing is very funny yet emotionally tender, and ultimately is a heartwarming celebration of found families and our desire to belong.

Exciting New Books You Need To Read This Spring Buzzfeed

Charming, witty, and perfectly fast-paced, Chelsey Johnson’s Stray City examines the modern family through the lens of one extraordinarily quirky family out of Portland, Oregon.

Pop Sugar

A love letter to Portland in the 90s, Stray City is a gorgeous, funny, sharply spot-on tale of growing up and making family again and again and again.

Michelle Tea

Both an ode to and critique of the modern American family.

Harper’s Bazaar

Radically funny and truly insightful . . . a brilliant emotional rollercoaster of a book, exploring what it means to create and sustain a family, and the difficulties of loving people—including yourself.

Nylon Magazine

Both an ode to and critique of the modern American family.

Harper's Bazaar

A winsome novel about love and belonging—and the possibility of discovering both in the most unlikely of places, and among the most unexpected people. Tender and smart, Stray City is a fantastic debut from a huge talent.

Cristina Henriquez

Diverse and colorful . . . a vibrant portrait of a woman coming into her own, in a city also coming into its own, brimming with music, art and beauty . . . a thoughtful and joyous literary experience that celebrates its characters and liberally rewards its readers.” 

New York Times Book Review

Charming, witty, and perfectly fast-paced, Chelsey Johnson’s Stray City examines the modern family through the lens of one extraordinarily quirky family out of Portland, Oregon.

Popsugar

Stray City is the queer anti-Gilmore Girls you didn’t know you needed. Warm and hysterical.

Washington Blade

Both an ode to and critique of the modern American family.

Harpers Bazaar

Johnson’s writing is very funny yet emotionally tender, and ultimately is a heartwarming celebration of found families and our desire to belong.

Buzzfeed

This heartwarming debut novel from Johnson touches on the divide between the family that is given to us and the families we choose.

Real Simple

…Chelsey Johnson's engrossing debut novel…Stray City makes an expansive canvas, diverse and colorful, for a vibrant portrait of a woman coming into her own, in a city also coming into its own, brimming with music, art and beauty. Johnson's debut is a thoughtful and joyous literary experience, one that celebrates its characters and liberally rewards its readers.

The New York Times Book Review - Christine Sneed

01/08/2018
Johnson’s smart and delightful debut is narrated by Andrea, a college student and self-described member of the Lesbian Mafia. The novel is set mostly in late-’90s Portland, but also flashes back to Andrea’s repressive adolescence in Nebraska and forward a decade for its final section. Fresh from a painful breakup, Andrea receives a second emotional blow at the club where she goes to commiserate with her friends: she spots her ex, Flynn, in intimate conversation with her closest confidant, Vivian. This, and an abundance of alcohol, lead to a one-night dalliance with Flynn’s friend Ryan, a hairdresser and aspiring musician. Andrea’s fling with Ryan blossoms into a relationship, and she works to keep it secret and to understand her attraction to him, which unnerves her. When an unplanned pregnancy intervenes, must her life become conventional? A chief pleasure of the novel is its shagginess, reflected in Andrea’s “mostly hopeful,” unambitious, but inquisitive life. Johnson taps into a nostalgia for a reader’s youth and a simpler time, and the story keeps its vitality and humor throughout. Agent: PJ Mark, Janklow & Nesbit Associates. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

A propulsive, compassionate, hilarious novel about coming of age at the fraught intersections of Midwestern family norms, punk rock community, and LGBTQ politics.

Leni Zumas

A coming-out and coming-of-age story; a surprise-I’m pregnant story; a will- they-or-won’t-they love story; and an ode to a time and place we think we’ve heard everything about—and it’s all utterly fresh. . . . Recommended for Jami Attenberg and Rainbow Rowell fans.

Booklist (starred review)

A love letter to both a city and a community, and in some ways also to a specific moment in our queer history, this novel stole my heart... If I could have willed a book into existence, that book would be Stray City.

Autostraddle.com

05/01/2018
Johnson's fast-paced novel goes far beyond a typical coming-of-age story. In the late 1990s, Andrea Morales moves halfway across the country to Portland, OR, to attend college, where she experiences culture shock, prompting her to come out. Meanwhile, her Midwestern conservative family discovers she is a lesbian and severs ties—emotionally and financially. Andrea then immerses herself in the indie music scene and begins to build a family from her circle of friends, who turn out to be a tremendous support system when she becomes pregnant. The pregnancy is a result of Andrea's relationship with a male friend, and readers follow her exploration of her identity. The conflict and angst she experiences with her family, as well as within herself regarding her sexual orientation, are honest and genuine. Readers, especially those dealing with similar issues, will relate to this complex protagonist. Adding to the title's appeal, Johnson retains a sense of humor in the realistic dialogue among the well-developed characters, even as she handles serious issues in a frank manner. VERDICT A worthwhile addition to recent historical fiction.—April Sanders, Spring Hill College, Mobile, AL

School Library Journal

2017-12-24
A debut novel about the families we're given and the families we create.Andrea Morales is reeling from multiple romantic disappointments when she does the unthinkable: she has sex with a man. What should have been a one-time hook-up turns into a regular thing because it feels good to be wanted, and Ryan wants her. Of course, Andy has to keep this act of heresy a secret from the "lesbian Mafia," but that becomes impossible when she gets pregnant and decides to have a baby. The first section of this novel is set in Portland, Oregon, in 1998 and '99. This is the place Andy lands when she leaves small-town Nebraska and her parents behind. Portland is no Seattle, but there are plenty of hipster signifiers. Andy works in a letterpress studio. Her friends include a stripper and an apprentice tattoo artist. Just about everybody's in a band. In Andy's voice, Johnson depicts these people and this time with a fondness that borders on overfondness. Every detail is precious, and Johnson is sometimes given to overwriting. The amount of time that passes between Andy and Ryan's first night together and their eventual split is just a few months, but it takes up more than half the book. There's a short middle section devoted to a brief period in which Andy and Ryan are negotiating their future. This is told mostly in phone messages and unsent letters, and the device works to convey disconnect and miscommunication. A decade has passed by the time we reach the third section, and this is where one might wish that the first part of the novel had been tightened up to allow more development here. Andy is happily settled with Beatriz, the love of her life, when 10-year-old Lucia gets curious about her father. This part of the narrative feels rushed. Neither Beatriz nor Lucia emerges as anything more than sketches, and all-grown-up Andy and Ryan get short shrift, too. Still, this is a welcome look at a happily unconventional family.Quirky and sweet.

Kirkus Review