#Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls

[seab]

Ghosts are better than nothing. Ghosts move. They want things. To haunt each other, then, is a way for my mother and I to keep him. He is more than a voice in the walls, a Ouija board movement, an iridescent cloud in the dark; he can exist here, inside us, through possession. We do our best to play the roles. Our own bodies are not big enough. Falling in love with someone, I think, is at least like that.

T. Kira Madden, Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls

[haveyoureadthispoll]

Acclaimed literary essayist T Kira Madden's raw and redemptive debut memoir is about coming of age and reckoning with desire as a queer, biracial teenager amidst the fierce contradictions of Boca Raton, Florida, a place where she found cult-like privilege, shocking racial disparities, rampant white-collar crime, and powerfully destructive standards of beauty hiding in plain sight. As a child, Madden lived a life of extravagance, from her exclusive private school to her equestrian trophies and designer shoe-brand name. But under the surface was a wild instability. The only child of parents continually battling drug and alcohol addictions, Madden confronted her environment alone. Facing a culture of assault and objectification, she found lifelines in the desperately loving friendships of fatherless girls. With unflinching honesty and lyrical prose, spanning from 1960s Hawai'i to the present-day struggle of a young woman mourning the loss of a father while unearthing truths that reframe her reality, Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls is equal parts eulogy and love letter. It's a story about trauma and forgiveness, about families of blood and affinity, both lost and found, unmade and rebuilt, crooked and beautiful.

[attempted--eloquence]

can you please give me your top favorite novels you’ve read? they don’t have to be any particular genre i’m just very curious!!

Asfhdksldj ok ok let me preface this by saying I am a habitual book collector and not so much a habitual book reader 🫣 (I am trying to be better about this lmao)

But I’d say my current top five in no particular order are Frankenstein, Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls, The Crown Ain’t Worth Much, Invisible Man (the Ralph Ellison one), and Autobiography of Red

+Bonus: the Brokeback Mountain novella will always have a vice grip on me

[btvs3x21]

for the book ask: 2, 15, 20?

2. top 5 books of all time?

this is a constantly changing list, but currently i'd say long live the tribe of fatherless girls by t kira madden, sula by toni morrison, on earth we're briefly gorgeous by ocean vuong, it came from the closet: queer reflections on horror which is an anthology edited by joe vallese, and memorial by bryan washington

15. recommend and review a book.

i'm gonna rec bestiary by k-ming chang. chang is a gorgeous writer who strings together some of the rawest, grossest shit i've ever read in the best way possible, and bestiary is exemplary of that. it's about three generations of taiwanese women living in diaspora and how they're haunted by their culture's mythology, and it just has some fucking spectacular prose in it. it's also got a slow burn to plot which i personally adore---i love to be edged by my literature, you could say.

20. what are things you look for in a book?

the first and most important to me when i'm reading is prose. if you can't write compelling and solid prose, i am not interested. you don't have to be flexing your shit constantly; i don't need every line to be pretty. but if you write dully or badly or too blandly, it is very unlikely i will continue reading unless the plot or characters are VERY strong. i don't really look for representation when i'm reading, at least not lgbt rep, but i do consider it a nice bonus. i do however like to read about people of color or books written by people of color where i can. but my priority with characters is always that they're complex, compelling, and, ideally, awful---i really loved my year of rest and relaxation because despite the protagonist being a wealthy, white, cishet woman, she was deeply interesting and awful to watch. i generally go for literary fiction over genre fiction because genre fiction can get way too trope-y for my tastes, and i prefer fascinating characters over a fascinating plot (though i do love when a book has both). i love a memoir that's thoughtful and provoking and written by someone with both an interesting life and a good perspective on said life such as the top spot in my favorite books, i'm glad my mom died by jennette mccurdy, know my name by chanel miller, and paris by paris hilton. i love a good classic, especially if it's gothic. i'm always compelled by an effective use of perspective. i want a writer who clearly chose first or second or third person for a reason and achieves what they set out to do with it. i could go on, but this is awfully long.

book asks

[arthruian]

2. 3. 18 📚

2. - I reread The Locked Tomb books an embarrassing number of times. I read Gideon 5 times, Harrow 4 times, and Nona 4 times. For the record, I read Gideon for the first time in January and was immediately like. Oh yes. I read it, listened to it, made my wife listen to it with me (so she has also heard the series through a few times) TLT really did it for me.

3. - While Gideon was definitely my top book of the year I'm gonna talk about others. This is no particular order.

Heavy: An American Memoir by Kiese Laymon -- A memoir about growing up as an overweight black man in the south to a genius mother. It talks about weight and bodies, and families and secrets. The prose was so beautiful. I would suggest listening to it, it's read by the author and captures the feel of the words and AAVE that I, as a white person, would have missed.

My Lovely Wife in the Psych Ward by Mark Lukach -- Another memoir about Mark's experience with his smart, beautiful wife's unexpected mental health crisis, how it affected both of them and their relationship. I thought it would be rather triggering for me, I was ready to put it down if it was but her mental health issues were far away enough from my own to be fascinating rather than triggering.

Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women by Kate Moore -- I definitely learned about the Radium Girls during school but this was a wonderfully informative book with a uniquely person-focused view. It follows specific women and how they deteriorated rather than just talking about the companies involved.

None of This is True by Lisa Jewell -- Love a good unreliable narrator. The uneasy relationship between the two women was really well done. By the end of the book I was honestly still questioning what was real and what wasn't. Probably worth rereading

Long Live The Tribe of Fatherless Girls by T Kira Madden -- I was really into memoirs this year. Story of a queer biracial girl growing up amidst drug addicted parents. Another book with beautiful prose.

WHEW

18. - How many books did I buy? Oh god, this is just from a really quick look on my bookshelves but minimum 10. And those are just the books I bought, didn't count anything my wife got. I read most of them though!

[spiritsoulandbody]

#DailyDevotion Don't Give The LORD A Reason To Call You A Fat Cow

#DailyDevotion Don't Give The LORD A Reason To Call You A Fat Cow Amos 4 Listen to this, you cows of Bashan on the hill of Samaria, oppressing the poor and crushing the needy and telling your husbands, “Bring it and let’s drink.” 2The Lord GOD has sworn by His holiness: “Certainly the days will come on you when you will be taken away with hooks, and the last of you with fishhooks. 3Each of you will go out straight ahead through the break in the wall, and you will be sent away to Harmon,” says the LORD. The LORD our God certainly has a way with words. The land of Bashan was given to the tribes of Israel who mainly raised cattle. The land was very rich and so the cattle ate quite well. They were the wagyu beef of the day. The LORD is calling the women of Samaria, particularly the wealthy ones fat cows. They are particularly fat at the expense of the widow, the fatherless, the foreigners, the priests and the rest of the poor. They tell their husbands, “Bring it and let's drink.” Oh my! As Cindy Lauper once said, “Girls just want to have fun.” Their happiness is all that matters to them no matter the cost or harm done to others. The LORD accuses them of oppressing the poor and the needy. We conservative Christians really need to take note of this. We who don't want the government involved in welfare programs, mainly because we know their systems are abused and are full of waste, must be liberal in our own lives and in and with the Church—particularly our congregations. The LORD our God has not given us more than we need for the day to hoard it to ourselves. While the Israelites had laws concerning the poor, compelling the Israelites to gather funds for them, we in all Christian freedom, who have been freed from the constraints of the Law, should feel the joy the LORD wants to give us by acting like Him as He is toward us—grace, mercy, peace, steadfast love, and forgiveness (the name of Jesus Ex. 34:6). When we withhold our hands from giving to those in need, who beg and the like, we are oppressing those people. We might not be able to help every person we meet, particularly in the cities where there are 10, 20, sometime 30 or more sitting there begging. But you can extend your hand to one and make sure s/he eats that day. You can make sure homeless kitchens are financed. There of course are numerous groups that buy kids shoes, coats, and provide weekend backpacks for kids who have nothing over the weekend because their parents spend all their money on drugs. If your church doesn't have a benevolence fund for the pastor to help people who come to the church, start one. He hates having to turn people away. Rarely do any of these people ever have a nice car. And don't forget the people especially in your own congregation. Remember, it was mostly fellow Israelites whom these women were getting fat on. There should not be one single member of your congregation who lacks adequate food, proper clothing, and shelter for the day. There are some people who have long periods of need. Perhaps it is some inadequacy of intelligence, education, or who knows, the congregation, and that means you individually, are called to help that person or family. Hear the judgment of the LORD towards these fat cows! He swears by Himself since there is nothing higher. He is going to rip them from their comfortable positions and be carried off by the Assyrians. We should take heed lest our LORD Jesus Christ rips us from our comfortable positions because we are not personally liberal to those in need. God has shown His liberalness to us in His Son Jesus Christ who died for the sins of the world. Go and do likewise. Heavenly Father, You have bestowed upon us such great grace and mercy in Christ Jesus. Grant us a graceful and merciful heart to those in need. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Read the full article

[transmascreplica]

how to tell my Kweer Books prof that i couldn’t finish long live the tribe of the fatherless girls because it made me cry on the SUBWAY i didn’t even think it was that good too

[valiumvenus]

alongside Delta of Venus (Anaïs Nin), Flush (Virginia Woolf), In the Eye of the Sun (Ahdaf Soueif)

[lgbtqreads]

Happy AAPI Heritage Month!

Happy AAPI Heritage Month!

Happy Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage month! May is a fabulous month to celebrate all these books and authors, so if there are any missing from your bookshelf, please use the links below to rectify that! (They are indeed affiliate links, so a percentage of your purchase goes to supporting LGBTQReads.) See a fave of yours that is or isn’t mentioned here? Please recommend it in the…

[aquotecollection]

When I think of my father, I think of my heart breaking in stages. A dull pain, then piercing. Electric. Still, somehow, gradual.

Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls, T Kira Madden

[thebooksaidthat]

No one can hurt you the way a mother can. No one can love you the way a mother can.

T Kira Madden, Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls

[subtextread]

I did not know this book was a memoir (yes, I see that it says it is on the cover) when I picked it up, and had I known, I would have put it down because I typically struggle with memoirs. But this was an incredible book - so beautifully written, so compassionate to one’s younger self. It is a piece that journeys like memory, but there is a lot of love that imbues the ways in which Kira’s grappling with her own life. It’s very painful, and trigger warnings for child sexual assault, racism, alcoholism, drugs, and parental neglect, but it is fundamentally about someone processing these things. Here she is all happy with her wife!:

[catjoyy]

She does love him, I think. The look of her—she does. Whatever comes before or after men is a footnote; my life has taught me this by now. I nod my head at the computer, understanding, forcing a smile as if this were our final conversation.

—T Kira Madden, Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls

[thegingerjedi]

Books by Queer Authors of Color, Day 24:

Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls: A Memoir by T Kira Madden

"Acclaimed literary essayist T Kira Madden's raw and redemptive debut memoir is about coming of age and reckoning with desire as a queer, biracial teenager amidst the fierce contradictions of Boca Raton, Florida, a place where she found cult-like privilege, shocking racial disparities, rampant white-collar crime, and powerfully destructive standards of beauty hiding in plain sight.

"As a child, Madden lived a life of extravagance, from her exclusive private school to her equestrian trophies and designer shoe-brand name. But under the surface was a wild instability. The only child of parents continually battling drug and alcohol addictions, Madden confronted her environment alone. Facing a culture of assault and objectification, she found lifelines in the desperately loving friendships of fatherless girls.

"With unflinching honesty and lyrical prose, spanning from 1960s Hawai'i to the present-day struggle of a young woman mourning the loss of a father while unearthing truths that reframe her reality, Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls is equal parts eulogy and love letter. It's a story about trauma and forgiveness, about families of blood and affinity, both lost and found, unmade and rebuilt, crooked and beautiful."

https://bookshop.org/books/long-live-the-tribe-of-fatherless-girls-a-memoir/9781635571851

[left-handlibrary]

Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls by T Kira Madden (2019)

I finally finished a book this month, and it was incredible. Madden’s work is fluid, creative, and compassionate. She details her birth to a single mother and her (then) married-to-someone-else father, setting the scene for the various stuggles that occupy her childhood and adulthood. Her father eventually leaves his wife and marries Madden’s mother. Together they lead a life of relative wealth and one in which both parents are present and absent at various stages. We gradually see drugs taking more and more prominence in Madden’s life. Her mother and father often go to ‘the other place’ to take a cocktail of pills and powder, until eventually, as a teen, Madden herself is also taking drugs with friends of convenience.

She details the racial discrimination she has been subject to, childhood bullying (often, but not always, connected to her race), her sexual assault at age 13 by a high school senior, coming to terms with her queer sexuality and grief over her father’s death. She also includes a beautiful few essays about her mother’s past and their connected present. While Madden doesn’t shy away from the difficult details of her life, she is incredibly kind. Her love for both of her parents is as clear as the sadness and loneliness she has felt. This really is a beautiful memoir-in-essays and I really recommend giving it a go. Madden’s writing truly is stunning.

Content warnings for sexual assault, drug use

[ebbartels]

Non-Fiction by Non-Men: T Kira Madden

Non-Fiction by Non-Men: T Kira Madden

For the full interview, see it on Fiction Advocate. Published on September 24, 2019.

—

T Kira Madden is a lesbian APIA writer, photographer, and amateur magician living in New York City. She holds an MFA in creative writing from Sarah Lawrence College and serves as the founding Editor-in-chief of No Tokens, a magazine of literature and art. A 2017 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellow in nonfiction literature…