Firebird

A Memoir

By: Mark Doty

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Paperback | 13 December 2013

At a Glance

Paperback
230 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
20.32 x 13.34 x 1.47

Paperback

RRP $24.19

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"A beautifully written, hallucinatorily evocative memoir of growing up gay in baby-boom America." -- Newsweek

In his powerful autobiography, Firebird, Mark Doty tells the story of a ten-year-old in a top hat, cane, and red chiffon scarf, interrupted while belting out Judy Garland's "Get Happy" by his alarmed mother at the bedroom door, exclaiming, "Son, you're a boy "

Firebird presents us with a heroic little boy who has quite enough worries without discovering that his dawning sexuality is the Wrong One. A self-confessed "chubby smart bookish sissy with glasses and a Southern accent," Doty grew up on the move, the family following his father's engineering work across America-from Tennessee to Arizona, Florida to California. A lyrical, heartbreaking comedy of one family's dissolution through the corrosive powers of alcohol, sorrow, and thwarted desire, Firebird is also a wry evocation of childhood's pleasures and terrors, a comic tour of American suburban life, and a testament to the transformative power of art.

Industry Reviews

"By the end of Mark Doty's exquisite memoir. "Firebird, " you'll have troublebelieving you haven't read a brilliantly plotted novel by a master offiction. But no made-up story could ever be as gripping as theone Doty tells, And few novelists could tell it this well."-- "San Francisco Chronicle""Supple powerful reading . . . Doty immerses his readers in a gay coming-of-age complicated family meltdown." -- "New York Times Book Review""A beautifully written. hallucinatorily evocative memoir Of growing up gay in baby-boom America."-- "Newsweek""Doty writes with the characteristic Zen calm you find also in his gorgeous poetry."--"Los Angeles Times Book Review""A lyrical, heartfelt, and ultimately haunting account of his early years."--"Washington Post Book Review""His luminous portrait of the artist as a young man also illuminates the currents of his times, and contains a haunting family history."--"Booklist "(starred review)"An American classic....Doty's writing surpasses anything he's ever attempted before and achieves a depth and a clear-eyed splendor that left me bereft and exalted at the same time."--"Salon""By turns lyrically comic and deeply sad."--"Out "magazine"Incandescent....A lasting work of art."--"Time Out"

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