Marcus/Marsha, an 18 year old transsexual, can see no other future than street-walking in the footsteps of his prostitute mother when he meets a fantastic bisexual teenager called Gavin. Gavin moves in, becomes the lover of both mother and son/daughter and re-arranges their lives at least temporarily for the maximum convenience of all three. Things can’t last and when Gavin decrees a ban on sex-for-cash all three are caught up in a desperate pursuit of alternate sources of income. Son of a Whore breaks with current tendencies toward conformism and correctness to renew with the movement of innovation and liberation that characterized American literature in past decades.
MY FATHER WAS A SERIAL RAPIST. MY MOTHER WAS A WHORE. MY BROTHER IS A SERIAL KILLER. I ESCAPED THEIR MADNESS AND FORGED MY PATH TO FREEDOM. From the slums of Georgia and the projects of New Jersey, Demetrye Isoldi climbed his way to the top of the world.Son of a Whore is a story of redemption and triumph. A story of how even though we might be broken, neglected, rejected, hurt, and abused, we do not have to struggle with our pain our entire life. We can find the power in us to unleash meaning, purpose, peace, and authenticity. Not despite the pain we lived through, but because of it. In this raw and evocative memoir, Demetrye, a survivor of childhood abuse and trauma, and co-author Elena Isoldi Medici empower you to:? Find freedom from the shadow of someone else's decisions and your own mistakes? Take charge of your emotions? Design your future purposefully? Become the architect of your lifeSo instead of feeling powerless and remaining a victim, you can shed the chains of your pain and trauma and soar to unimaginable heights. With a serial rapist for a father, a serial killer for a brother, and a whore for a mother, Demetrye chose to forge his path to freedom and happiness? and so can you.
After the runaway success of his Afrikaans memoir, Hoerkind, the contrarian journalist and writer Herman Lategan translated and updated his eventful life story, with no holds barred. Herman was conceived illegitimately one warm February night in 1964 in a boarding house in Cape Town. From an early age, he felt disposable, passed from one pair of unstable adult hands to the next, even ending up in an orphanage for a while. At thirteen he was caught in the web of a cunning paedophile, a well-known Afrikaans newspaperman. Shortly after his eighteenth birthday, when his abuser finished with him, Herman was unceremoniously dumped at the door of his alcoholic father. Conscription into the army and a dishonourable discharge followed. During his teenage years, Herman befriended Afrikaans poets like Sheila Cussons, Ina Rousseau, Barend J. Toerien and Casper Schmidt, and later, in New York, he followed Andy Warhol in the street and partied with a ‘smorgasbord of social butterflies’. Back in South Africa, Herman established himself as a journalist, but struggled with alcohol and drug addiction, and was homeless for a while. For many an employer, he became the nightmare they feared most. Son of a Whore is a gripping account of loss, hardship and overcoming both; it will make you laugh and, at times, break your heart. You will despair at the cruelty of a world in which the marginalised are forsaken but stand in awe at the extent of goodness surrounding us, because, ultimately, people depend on each other.
The last decade has seen a revival of interest in John Ford and especially 'Tis Pity She's a Whore, his tragedy of religious scepticism, incestuous love, and revenge. This text in particular has provided a focus for scholarship as well as being the subject of a number of major theatrical productions. Simon Barker guides the reader through the full range of previous interpretations of the play; moving from an overview of traditional readings he goes on to enlarge upon new questions that have arisen as a consequence of critical and cultural theory.
This irresistible collection of short stories from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Empire Falls reveals the imperfect bargains of marriage, the discoveries and disillusionments of childhood, and the unwinnable battles men and women insist on fighting with the past. “An author whose laid-back understatements can be as sharp as other writers’ boldest declarations….the architect of stories you can’t put down.” —The New York Times Richard Russo brings the same bittersweet wit, deep knowledge of human nature, and spellbinding narrative gifts that distinguish his best-selling novels. A cynical Hollywood moviemaker confronts his dead wife’s lover and abruptly realizes the depth of his own passion. As his parents’ marriage disintegrates, a precocious fifth-grader distracts himself with meditations on baseball, spaghetti, and his place in the universe. And in the title story, an elderly nun enters a college creative writing class and plays havoc with its tidy notions of fact and fiction. The Whore’s Child is further proof that Russo is one of the finest writers we have, unsparingly truthful yet hugely compassionate and capable of creating characters real that they seem to step off the page. Look for Richard Russo's new book, Somebody's Fool, coming soon.
For over two centuries, Alexander Hamilton’s birth, youth, and family background have been shrouded in mystery. For the first time ever, Michael E. Newton has conducted a systematic examination of the primary source material to discover the truth about Alexander Hamilton’s early life. In the greatest and most significant collection of original Hamilton discoveries to be made in decades, Newton separates fact from fiction to create a new portrait of the tempestuous early years of America’s most remarkable and enigmatic Founding Father and the people that comprised his world. An icon in life and a legend in death, Alexander Hamilton continues to fascinate. Discovering Hamilton answers some of the most important and intriguing questions about Hamilton’s biography and introduces abundant new material about the lives of Alexander Hamilton, his family, friends, and colleagues.
A sensitive innocent, Hendrickje Stoffels escapes the harsh realities of her garrison home-town to take up a servant's role in Rembrandt's household. She soon becomes his lover and closest confidante, and plays witness to the highs and lows of the great artist's life. But Hendrickje is fated to discover the hypocrisy and greed of society in Amsterdam's Golden Age. In sensuous prose, Matton paints a powerful fictional portrait of this impassioned relationship through the eyes of a remarkable woman.
A native son of Akron, Ohio, LeBron James seemed like a miracle heaven-sent by God to transform Cleveland's losing ways when he was drafted by the Cavaliers in 2003. But after seven years—and still no parade down Euclid Avenue—he left, announcing his move to South Beach on a nationally televised ESPN production with a sly title that echoed fifty years of misery. The Catch, The Drive, The Shot . . . The Decision. Out of James's treachery grew a monster. Scott Raab, a fifty-nine-year-old, 350-pound Jewish Santa Claus with a Chief Wahoo tattoo, would bear witness to LeBron's every move, and in so doing would act as the eyes and ears of Cleveland itself. Crude but warmhearted, poetic but raving, hilarious, profane (and profound), The Whore of Akron is both a rabid fan's indictment of a traitorous athlete and the story of Raab's obsessive quest to reveal the "wee jewel-box" of LeBron James's soul.
Two plays—hilarious and searing in equal measure—by one of our most essential and original authors In his poetry, short stories, novels, and plays, the National Book Award-winning author Denis Johnson has explored the story of America—especially of the West, land of self-made men and self-perpetuating myths—with searing honesty and genuine sympathy. These two plays, written in verse at once hypnotic and clear, confirm his position as one of our great verbal stylists and a literary conscience for our times. In Soul of a Whore, a lively cast of characters—faith healers, pimps, strippers, actual demons—converge, with unexpected hilarity, as Bess Cassandra awaits execution for the murder of her infant daughter. Purvis's seven reverse-chronological scenes catalog the fall and rise of Melvin Purvis, the G-man who brought down John Dillinger and Charles Arthur "Pretty Boy" Floyd. Johnson takes us from Washington's back rooms to a Midwestern cornfield, dramatizing the seductive allure of power and our own human capacity for both pettiness and grace. In these furiously entertaining, occasionally terrifying works, Johnson chronicles and questions America's myths, heroes, and everyday realities with verve and elegance, revealing himself once again to be at the height of his linguistic and insightful powers.
