Hillbilly Queer
A Memoir
by J.R. Jamison
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Pub Date May 11 2021 | Archive Date Mar 30 2021
The Facing Project Press | Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), Members' Titles
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Description
J.R. Jamison spends his days in a world of trigger warnings and safe spaces, while his trigger-happy dad, Dave, spends his questioning why Americans have become so sensitive. Yet at the height of the 2016 election, the two decide to put political differences aside and travel to rural Missouri for Dave’s fifty-five year class reunion. But with the constant backdrop of the Trump vs. Clinton battle at every turn, they are forced to explore one formidable question: Will the trip push them further apart or bring them closer together?
Traveling through the rural, sun-beaten landscapes of Missouri the two meet people along the way who challenge their concepts of right and wrong, and together they uncover truths about their family’s past that reveals more than political differences, they discover a lesson on the human condition that lands them on the international pages of The Guardian.
Hillbilly Queer is an enduring love story between a dad and son who find that sometimes the differences between us aren’t really that different at all.
A Note From the Publisher
9781734558173 (eBook)
Advance Praise
“J.R. Jamison has written one of the most humane and challenging memoirs to come out of the Midwest. This is a perfect read to begin talking about all the conflicting, yet connected, issues forcing a reckoning for those who thought they knew what the world was, and who they were in it. Indeed, we are all more than heroes and villains, and Jamison does a great job of showing how and where our humanity gets lost between the two. I’m so glad I let him guide me through the trip.”
— Ashley C. Ford, author of SOMEBODY'S DAUGHTER and host of the HBO podcast Lovecraft Country Radio
“One of those rare books that finds beauty in the irreconcilable. In an age when our politics and our nation can feel broken, Hillbilly Queer shows us the messy glue of love that still holds families together. At turns powerful and vulnerable, J.R. Jamison takes the reader on a journey as profound and moving as the road trip he took with his father at the dawn of the Trump era.”
—Samantha Allen, author of REAL QUEER AMERICA
Marketing Plan
Signed copies available through Second Flight Books, an independent bookstore located in Lafayette, Indiana.
Virtual book launch event on May 14, 2021, hosted by Second Flight Books: "An Evening with J.R. Jamison."
Author is available for interviews.
Book tour for summer/fall 2021 TBA.
Available Editions
| EDITION | Paperback |
| ISBN | 9781734558166 |
| PRICE | $19.95 (USD) |
Featured Reviews
Valerie R, Educator
On paper, J. R. Jamison and his father are as different as it gets, but when his father asks him to take a road trip to a high school reunion, Jamison surprises himself by agreeing to this chance to reconnect with his aging, ailing father. Jamison writes openly and honestly about the trip, beginning with an intro that left me doubting how he and his father could ever make the relationship work.
This heartfelt memoir will resonate with any reader who struggles with relatives and loved ones who seem to live diametrically opposite lives: rural vs urban, gay vs straight, Democratic vs Republican.
Personally, my father and I share many political views, but still struggle to connect the way I want. Even if you and your parent vote the same, the struggle to communicate and navigate parent-child relationships as an adult are universal, and Jamison's memoir handles this in a way that will appeal to most readers.
***Very happy to have read this courtesy of NetGalley.
Carol M, Reviewer
Jamison writes a memoir perfect for our times, one which echoes much in our country: a gay narrator and his Trump-following father take a trip down memory lane in the heart of Trump country. This is a memoir to which Midwestern folks will relate, especially those who have left the midwest and look back to Flyover Country objectively. This memoir, too, may well appeal to readers from the coasts who wish to understand the Trump phenomenon, presented here so carefully from the narration of the son. Poignant.
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