Books on Tap read Boy Erased by Garrard Conley at Champion Brewery on June 6, a memoir of Conley’s time in the Love in Action gay conversion therapy center after his first year of college. Conley describes being raised in a religious bubble with a larger-than-life father who is leading his own church when Conley is outed by his rapist.
We acknowledged that we were probably not Conley’s intended audience but we were taken by the painful choice he lays out between being true to his religion and family expectations or actually being himself. Conley skips between time periods, which we found confusing and we would have liked more explanation of the institute he was enrolled in and an epilogue to bridge the end of the book with his much different current life. We were most taken by the author’s relationship to his parents. His mother genuinely likes him while his father seems afraid that he’ll fall off the right path. Conely is sympathetic to the ways in which his grandfather’s alcoholism and abuse color his own father’s view on life and parenthood. In fact, it was the realization that he didn’t hate his father that helped Conley leave Love in Action with his mother’s support.
We would recommend this memoir to teens and parents of teens who are coming out. Below is a list of books that contained similarities.
More Information:
About the author
About the book
Author’s podcast
Movie adaptation
Related Titles:
We the Animals by Justin Torres
Educated by Tara Westover
Seven Days of Us by Francesca Hornak
Celebrating the Third Place
Books on Tap Information:
- July 4 No meeting
- August 1 Barracoon by Zora Neale Hurston
- September 5 Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler
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