This book was astonishing personal, precise a snd contemplative; the writing beautiful. Saeed weaves so many stories together throughout this memoir through short vignettes. The story of growing up black and gay in the south watching the news of such events as three white supremacists in Jasper Texas who beat James Byrd Jr, chained him to their truck and dragged him for more than a mile down a country road and the brutal murder of Mathew Shepard, a gay 21 year old man, by two strangers he met one night in Laramie Wyoming.

The story of his complicated relationship with his mom and the story of the complicated dynamics with their southern evangelical family, they themselves practicing Buddhists.

The story of people he meets along the way...and how they are all fighting for their lives.

I can’t stress enough how much his writing is the star here, a short review cannot do this memoir justice. This book will stay with me a long, long time.