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Firebird: A Memoir
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Firebird: A Memoir Paperback - 2000

by Mark Doty

In his autobiography, poet Mark Doty tells the story of how he became aware of his sexual orientation at the age of ten, and of one family's dissolution through the corrosive powers of alcohol, sorrow, and thwarted desire.


Summary

In Firebird, Mark Doty tells the story of a ten-year-old in a top hat, cane, and red chiffon scarf, interrupted while belting out Judy Garland's "Get Happy" by his alarmed mother at the bedroom door, exclaiming, "Son, you're a boy!"Firebird presents us with a heroic little boy who has quite enough worries without discovering that his dawning sexuality is the Wrong One. A self-confessed "chubby smart bookish sissy with glasses and a Southern accent," Doty grew up on the move, the family following his father's engineering work across America-from Tennessee to Arizona, Florida to California. A lyrical, heartbreaking comedy of one family's dissolution through the corrosive powers of alcohol, sorrow, and thwarted desire, Firebird is also a wry evocation of childhood's pleasures and terrors, a comic tour of American suburban life, and a testament to the transformative power of art.

From the publisher

"A beautifully written, hallucinatorily evocative memoir of growing up gay in baby-boom America." -- Newsweek

In his powerful autobiography, Firebird, Mark Doty tells the story of a ten-year-old in a top hat, cane, and red chiffon scarf, interrupted while belting out Judy Garland's "Get Happy" by his alarmed mother at the bedroom door, exclaiming, "Son, you're a boy!"

Firebird presents us with a heroic little boy who has quite enough worries without discovering that his dawning sexuality is the Wrong One. A self-confessed "chubby smart bookish sissy with glasses and a Southern accent," Doty grew up on the move, the family following his father's engineering work across America-from Tennessee to Arizona, Florida to California. A lyrical, heartbreaking comedy of one family's dissolution through the corrosive powers of alcohol, sorrow, and thwarted desire, Firebird is also a wry evocation of childhood's pleasures and terrors, a comic tour of American suburban life, and a testament to the transformative power of art.

First line

In 1959, in Memphis, Tennessee, my sister, Sally, became a Rain Girl.

From the rear cover

In Firebird, Mark Doty tells the story of a ten-year-old in a top hat, cane, and red chiffon scarf, interrupted while belting out Judy Garland's "Get Happy" by his alarmed mother at the bedroom door, exclaiming, "Son, you're a boy!"

Firebird presents us with a heroic little boy who has quite enough worries without discovering that his dawning sexuality is the Wrong One. A self-confessed "chubby smart bookish sissy with glasses and a Southern accent," Doty grew up on the move, the family following his father's engineering work across America-from Tennessee to Arizona, Florida to California. A lyrical, heartbreaking comedy of one family's dissolution through the corrosive powers of alcohol, sorrow, and thwarted desire, Firebird is also a wry evocation of childhood's pleasures and terrors, a comic tour of American suburban life, and a testament to the transformative power of art.

Details

  • Title Firebird: A Memoir
  • Author Mark Doty
  • Binding Paperback
  • Edition Reprint
  • Pages 224
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Harper Perennial, New York
  • Date 2000-09-19
  • ISBN 9780060931971 / 0060931973
  • Weight 0.45 lbs (0.20 kg)
  • Dimensions 8.06 x 5.42 x 0.57 in (20.47 x 13.77 x 1.45 cm)
  • Themes
    • Chronological Period: 1950's
    • Chronological Period: 1960's
    • Cultural Region: South
    • Demographic Orientation: Urban
    • Geographic Orientation: Tennessee
    • Sex & Gender: Gay
    • Topical: Coming of Age
    • Topical: Lgbt
  • Library of Congress subjects Poets, American - 20th century, Poets, American - 20th century - Family
  • Library of Congress Catalog Number 99015619
  • Dewey Decimal Code B
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Firebird: A Memoir
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Firebird: A Memoir

by Doty

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0060931973
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Firebird: A Memoir
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Firebird: A Memoir
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Firebird: A Memoir

by Doty, Mark

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by Doty, Mark

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New York: Harper Perennial, 2000. Light edgewear and a bit of a curl, otherwise a fine clean sturdy copy. From the back cover:"In Firebird, Mark Doty tells the story of a ten-year-old in a top hat, cane, and red chiffon scarf, interrupted while belting out Judy Garland's "Get Happy" by his alarmed mother at the bedroom door, exclaiming, "Son, you're a boy!" Firebird presents us with a heroic little boy who has quite enough worries without discovering that his dawning sexuality is the Wrong One. A self-confessed "chubby smart bookish sissy with glasses and a Southern accent," Doty grew up on the move, the family following his father's engineering work across America-from Tennessee to Arizona, Florida to California. A lyrical, heartbreaking comedy of one family's dissolution through the corrosive powers of alcohol, sorrow, and thwarted desire, Firebird is also a wry evocation of childhood's pleasures and terrors, a comic tour of American suburban… Read More
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Firebird: A Memoir
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by Mark Doty

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Firebird: A Memoir
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Firebird: A Memoir

by Mark Doty

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ISBN 10
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Firebird: A Memoir

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0060931973
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Firebird : A Memoir
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Firebird : A Memoir

by Doty, Mark

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ISBN 10
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