America's BoyAmerica's Boy
a Memoir
Title rated 4.4 out of 5 stars, based on 5 ratings(5 ratings)
Book, 2006
Current format, Book, 2006, , Available .Book, 2006
Current format, Book, 2006, , Available . Offered in 0 more formatsA journalist remembers his childhood struggles to gain acceptance from the jeans-wearing set, his envy of his admired older brother, his parent's atypical personalities, and the Fourth of July accident that ended his brother's life. 40,000 first printing.
A journalist remembers his childhood struggles to gain acceptance from the jeans-wearing set, his envy of his admired older brother, his parent's atypical personalities, and the Fourth of July accident that ended his brother's life.
Born in 1965 into a small town in the heartland of America, Wade Rouse didn't quite fit in. At five, his family returned home to find Wade in the middle of their living room wearing red heels, a black-and-white polka-dot bikini, gold earrings, a tinfoil crown embedded with glued-on red checkers, and a cardboard sash saying Miss Sugar Creek in red magic marker. With his golden feathered hair and preference for pink dress shirts, Wade is mistaken for a girl much of his childhood. Wade's family has their own quirks. His father calls everyone "hon" - including the dirty gas station attendant - and his mother talks as though she's cross-examining herself. Wade fills his time eating Little Debbie cakes and Cherry Mashes because becoming fat is more acceptable than being different.
But when summer arrives, his entire loveable, eccentric family pack their clothes in garbage bags and drive to their log cabin on Sugar Creek in the Missouri Ozarks. At Sugar Creek, Wade finds comfort with his family until a tragic accident takes his brother's life and, afraid of losing the love of his remaining family, swears that he will never allow them to mourn the loss of their only remaining son. Wade buries his identity along with his brother.
America's Boy is a love letter to a singular time in America's heartland, to a family perhaps in detail different but familiar all the same, and to the growing pains that accompany self-discovery.
A journalist remembers his childhood struggles to gain acceptance from the jeans-wearing set, his envy of his admired older brother, his parent's atypical personalities, and the Fourth of July accident that ended his brother's life.
Born in 1965 into a small town in the heartland of America, Wade Rouse didn't quite fit in. At five, his family returned home to find Wade in the middle of their living room wearing red heels, a black-and-white polka-dot bikini, gold earrings, a tinfoil crown embedded with glued-on red checkers, and a cardboard sash saying Miss Sugar Creek in red magic marker. With his golden feathered hair and preference for pink dress shirts, Wade is mistaken for a girl much of his childhood. Wade's family has their own quirks. His father calls everyone "hon" - including the dirty gas station attendant - and his mother talks as though she's cross-examining herself. Wade fills his time eating Little Debbie cakes and Cherry Mashes because becoming fat is more acceptable than being different.
But when summer arrives, his entire loveable, eccentric family pack their clothes in garbage bags and drive to their log cabin on Sugar Creek in the Missouri Ozarks. At Sugar Creek, Wade finds comfort with his family until a tragic accident takes his brother's life and, afraid of losing the love of his remaining family, swears that he will never allow them to mourn the loss of their only remaining son. Wade buries his identity along with his brother.
America's Boy is a love letter to a singular time in America's heartland, to a family perhaps in detail different but familiar all the same, and to the growing pains that accompany self-discovery.
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