A Memoir About Growing Up Gay in Oil Country
BOYS AND OIL: Growing Up Gay in a Fractured Land, by Taylor Brorby Years ago, I had a student who wrote wonderful short stories but struggled to translate her skills to creative nonfiction.
At 18, she didn’t think anyone would want to read about her life because she’d grown up in a small Midwestern town where “nothing ever happened.” How I wish Taylor Brorby’s new memoir, “Boys and Oil: Growing Up Gay in a Fractured Land,” had existed back then so I could share it with her.
Brorby grew up in Center, N.D. — a town so small it didn’t even have a stoplight. Still, there was no lack of activities to keep him busy.
In strikingly visual prose, he describes hunting, fishing and roaming the grassy prairies, developing an appreciation for the richly hued land.
