Description: ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES'S 100 NOTABLE BOOKS OF 2023, BET'S FAVORITE MEMOIRS OF 2023, AND ELECTRIC LITERATURE'S FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2023
LONGLISTED FOR THE PEN/JEAN STEIN BOOK AWARD 2024 "A brilliant and brilliantly different" (Kiese Laymon), wrenching and redemptive coming-of-age memoir about the difficulty of growing up in a hazardous home and the glory of finding salvation in geek culture, now in paperback. Surrounded by the failure of systems including his family, the public school system, and democratic society, Joseph Earl Thomas grew up feeling like he was under constant threat. Roaches fell from the ceiling, most lessons were taught through violence, and, to make matters worse, he always seemed to be hungry. To escape these foes, he began retreating inward. In Sink, Thomas queries the possibility of escape through fantasy worlds, while grappling with children's inability to change their circumstances. In a series of exacting and fierce vignettes, Thomas guides readers through the trouble of cruelty without heroics or reprieve and explores how the cycle of hostility permeates our environments. And yet even in the depths of isolation, there are unexpected moments of joy carved out as Thomas finds kinship. Sink follows Thomas's coming-of-age towards an understanding of what it means to lose the desire to fit in and how good it feels to build community, love, and salvation on your own terms.Review Quotes: "Thomas really does accomplish the extraordinary...[He] has constructed a sort of alchemy on the page, but one born of experience, from skill and from a trust about what will end up on the other side...perhaps one of the biggest boons of Sink is its insistence that care is, above all, shared. It is everyone's prerogative. In this way, Thomas has earned a deep bow."--New York Times Book Review