Failure to Appear: Resistance, Identity and Loss is a memoir about a gay woman of conscience who became a fugitive, on the run for over nineteen years using several fake names. This book is a gripping story about finding your real self and your sexual truth. It delves into family rejection for being a lesbian, the price of ideals, lost love, the agony of an underground existence, and personal renewal. The final, suspenseful chapters describe the author's voluntary surrender and re-sentencing.
It takes place in the turbulent late sixties through the late eighties, against the backdrop of the Vietnam War, the Nixon and Reagan years, the women's and gay liberation movements, and the AIDS crisis. This story is very relevant to our time, as injustice and bigotry remain fundamental societal ills. As one reader described it, "I couldn't put it down. It has it all: coming of age, coming out, sex scenes, close calls, and gripping life choices. I sunk deeper under my comforter and deeper into an amazing true story."
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After destroying thousands of draft-records during the Vietnam war, Emily L. Quint Freeman was forced into the underground for two decades. She joins @LettersPolitics to talk about her life and the book, "Failure to Appear: Resistance, Identity and Loss." https://t.co/8zvhKF5wX9 https://t.co/czF2iqxmwd
FAILURE TO APPEAR is a fierce coming of age story of a political activist, a young woman and of a generation. When it becomes as clear to the reader as it does to Emily Freeman that "In a mad country, it's sane to be insane" the urgency of being a part of progressive change is a body slam that takes your breath away. That visceral response is even stronger when we understand that this truth is as crucial today as it was in our country's past. This book takes its place alongside the searing and sensitive memoirs of other moral dissenters who've helped change the course our history.
Jewelle Gomez, author, poet, critic and playwright. Her numerous works include The Gilda Stories. Winner of two Lambda Literary Awards; founding member of GLAAD; and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellow.
Failure to Appear is a page-turner, a powerful and courageous story of a woman risking everything to stand up for what is right and for her own truth. Her details are stunning, humorous and sensuous as she lives life underground, cut off from family and friends. Ultimately, the book inspires all of us to fight for what is right and to be our true selves.
Louise Nayer, is the author of five books, including an O, the Oprah Magazine Great Read, Burned: A Memoir.