America's Boy: A Memoir, Wade Rouse

Publisher's Copy:

Growing up in the Missouri Ozarks in the 1960s and ’70s, Wade Rouse was always a bit of an outsider. While some of his roughneck peers wore Wrangler jeans and had stylish crew cuts, Wade feathered his golden hair and sported a handmade leatherwork belt bearing his unfortunate childhood nickname, Wee-Pooh.

Taunted by his classmates, Wade finds comfort in his offbeat but lovable family, but when a tragic motorcycle accident takes his brother’s life, Wade buries his sexuality along with his brother, vowing to be the son he believes his family wants.

America’s Boy is Wade Rouse’s tale of self-denial and self-discovery, and a tender tribute to the eccentric family that carried him through it all. Wade’s battle with himself—and the long road back to self-acceptance—forms the heart of America’s Boy, an arresting and utterly moving memoir about a boy learning to live (and love) in his own skin. Told with humor, courage, and boundless joy, America’s Boy is a love letter to a singular time in America’s heartland, to family, and to the growing pains that accompany self-discovery.

My Review:

Since I read one of his later books first, At Least In The City Someone Would Hear Me Scream, this book was not quite as good, but still full of great stories.

Realizing that he is a homosexual in a small Missouri town is hard enough, but when his brother dies tragically as a teen, Rouse feels that he can't let his family down by admitting the truth about himself. He eats through his pain and avoids relationships all together until he's in his 30's. Finding true love & coming out to his family saves him.

This book is set up in small chapters of individual stories, some only a page or two long, making it an easy book to set down & pick up again later. This book of self discovery and homey memories is worth your time.