#book: 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!

[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)

[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

[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

[bigtickhk]

Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls: A Memoir by T Kira Madden https://amzn.to/2tPFJCR

[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…

[hungryfictions]

the concept for this list was: fifty books written by women about women, published within the past five years, (2017-now), that aren’t normal people and whatever else sally rooney just released. i also tried to avoid anything that gave explicitly rooney vibes. (here is why.) i stuck mostly with realism, though some have elements of fantasy or magic or horror. if you have questions about triggers for any particular book feel free to reach out.

Everything Here Is Beautiful by Mira T. Lee

We Play Ourselves by Jen Silverman

Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi*

Goodbye, Vitamin by Rachel Khong

Sweet Lamb of Heaven by Lydia Millet*

The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls by Anissa Gray

No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood*

All’s Well by Mona Awad*

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett*

Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson*

Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata*

The Push by Audrey Audrain

Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo

A Certain Hunger by Chelsea G. Summers

Sad Janet by Lucie Britsch

Weather by Jenny Offill

If I Had Your Face by Frances Cha

The Comeback by Ella Berman

The Farm by Joanne Ramos

Breasts and Eggs by Mieko Kawakami

Writers & Lovers by Lily King*

Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams

My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell

Supper Club by Lara Williams

Vacuum in the Dark by Jen Beagin

In the Dream House: A Memoir by Carmen Maria Machado*

Severance by Ling Ma

Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder

Lurkers by Sandi Tan

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner

Edie Richter is Not Alone by Rebecca Handler

Mostly Dead Things by Kristen Arnett

Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls by T Kira Madden

Godshot by Chelsea Bieker

Betty by Tiffany McDaniel*

The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Daré

Ordinary Girls: A Memoir by Jaquira Díaz

The Memory Police by Yōko Ogawa

Fake Like Me by Barbara Bourland

Saint X by Alexis Schaitkin

My Life as a Rat by Joyce Carol Oates*

Tell the Machine Goodnight by Katie Williams

The Power by Naomi Alderman

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng*

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

Penance by Kanae Minato*

Quicksand by Malin Persson Giolito

a note: this list is obviously limited to books that i have either personally read or know a lot about.

* means the author has other good books that i know of, i just didn’t want to repeat any authors

[thediverismylove]

do you have any recommendations of genuinely good lesbian books? i’m not necessarily looking for a romance - just something a friend of mine who watches a lot of sapphic films/tv shows might enjoy

milk fed by melissa broder (big trigger warning for eating disorders tho), thin girls by diana clarke (also a big trigger warning for eating disorders), white is for witching by helen oyeyemi, fun home by alison bechdel, the world cannot give by tara isabella burton, the mercies by kiran millwood hargrave, belladonna by anbara salam, everyone in this room will someday be dead by emily austin, my education by susan choi, siren queen by nghi vo, our wives under the sea by julia armfield, matrix by lauren groff, sister outsider by audre lorde, long live the tribe of fatherless girls by t kira madden, girl woman other by bernardine evaristo, the price of salt by patricia highsmith (and then watch the movie carol which is based off it!). haven't read fingersmith by sarah waters but i want to and i LOVE the movie the handmaiden which is based off it so maybe that one too.

[longwindedliterary]

Finished June 5, 2020. Five stars.

Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls by T Kira Madden

If you spend any time at all on the bookish corner of Instagram, there are certain books that rise to the top and are seen everywhere--they are the belle of the ball, if you will. T Kira Madden’s memoir was just one of those books, and I remember being on board from the second I saw the cover (the hardcover edition has a different and incredibly striking cover) and read the title. Then, in September of last year, T Kira Madden spoke on a panel at Brooklyn Book Festival, which I just managed to attend before a shift at Trader Joe’s. Hearing her speak, and read something (maybe from the book? I don’t actually remember) cemented my desire to get my grubby lil paws on this book--but as a ride or die paperback gal, I waited, and waited, and then the pandemic happened, and I ordered my copy (which just so happens to be a signed edition!!). Boy was this worth the wait.

Reading T Kira Madden is like watching a beautiful girl dance in slow motion to a synth-y late-70s early-80s pop rock song, where there’s a shiny shimmering curtain between the two of you and every so often you catch a glimpse of her beauty, but more often then not you’re a little dazed, but in a happy way. It’s like slicing open your flesh and shoving sugar and glitter into the pain. These are perhaps some of the oddest ways I’ve described my experience of reading, but it’s the most accurate, I think. There’s always a sense of push and pull, distance and then closeness, between narrator and reader, in this maddeningly (ha) seductive way. Perhaps that’s what draws me to memoir so much: this toggling between intimacy and privacy. Self censorship and baring one’s soul, just dumping your guts, your deepest darkest thoughts onto the page.

Madden never apologizes, never asks for permission, simply tells her story (and the stories that intertwine with hers) as only she can. It’s ugly and beautiful and tragic and heartwarming and so freaking generous and human. By the end, I was nearly in tears. There’s something about weird lonely girls that just speaks to my heart. Seeing someone be so fiercely brave about their trauma, blunt about their upbringing, and forging ahead as best they can is so encouraging. There’s nothing trite or saccharine about this book. Much like tween Madden, it’s all hard edges, sharp metal, and ponies, and secrets. I’m astounded by it.

[mercurygray]

Currently Reading - June 2022

Currently reading:

Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls, by TKira Madden - This has to be one of the hardest memoirs I think I've ever read. Deals with a childhood basically spent in freefall as two parents deal with drugs.

Ardennes 1944, by Anthony Beevor - I forgot how dry and decontextualized Beevor is. He just launches right in and assumes you know how the war got where it is.

Currently Watching:

Only Murders in the Building (Hulu) - I loved the first season of this show because the episodes are short, the comedy is on point, and it's just so full of heart.

Becoming Elizabeth (Starz) - This Tudor-era drama, dealing with the period of time directly after HVIII dies, feels like it comes from the same place as Wolf Hall. Everyone's motivations are murky, and there are no clear heroes in this world that's obsessed with succession and power.

Westworld Season 4 (HBO) - I need to go back and rewatch the whole series, but the complexities of this show never fail to make me think about what's happening.

Just Finished:

Top Gun: Maverick - Does it show?

Spiderman: Homecoming - It popped up in one of my streaming apps, so I thought I'd give it a go. Spiderman isn't my favorite superhero, but this was cute!

Outlander Season 6 - I realized I hadn't seen the latest season, which was truncated due to COVID. I'm excited to see what happens with the fellow time traveler, who was an interesting part of that book.

The Spanish Princess - I had to give up on this one. It just felt… too contrived.

The White Queen - I love Rebecca Ferguson, but ditto.

A Call to Spy - I'm glad I didn't pay money to rent this when it first came out. I love Virginia Hall and A Woman of No Importance was a great book, but this was unfocused and lacked drive.