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The co-op bookstore for avid readers
Mean
Critic Reviews
Good
Based on 10 reviews on
California Book Club
True crime, memoir, and ghost story, Mean is the bold and hilarious tale of Myriam Gurba's coming of age as a queer, mixed-race Chicana. Blending radical formal fluidity and caustic humor, Gurba takes on sexual violence, small towns, and race, turning what might be tragic into piercing, revealing comedy. This is a confident, intoxicating, brassy book that takes the cost of sexual assault, racism, misogyny, and homophobia deadly seriously.
We act mean to defend ourselves from boredom and from those who would cut off our breasts. We act mean to defend our clubs and institutions. We act mean because we like to laugh. Being mean to boys is fun and a second-wave feminist duty. Being mean to men who deserve it is a holy mission. Sisterhood is powerful, but being mean is more exhilarating.
Being mean isn't for everybody.
Being mean is best practiced by those who understand it as an art form.
These virtuosos live closer to the divine than the rest of humanity. They're queers.
Myriam Gurba is a queer spoken-word performer, visual artist, and writer from Santa Maria, California. She's the author of Dahlia Season (2007, Manic D) which was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award, Wish You Were Me (2011, Future Tense Books), and Painting Their Portraits in Winter (2015, Manic D). She has toured with Sister Spit and her work has been exhibited at the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach. She lives in Long Beach, where she teaches social studies to eighth-graders.
Book Details
- Publisher: Coffee House Press
- Publish Date: Nov 7th, 2017
- Pages: 160
- Language: English
- Edition: undefined - undefined
- Dimensions: 8.20in - 5.50in - 0.60in - 0.50lb
- EAN: 9781566894913
- Categories: • Memoirs• Women• LGBTQ+
About the Author
Critics’ reviews
Praise for this book
Finalist for the Lambda Literary Award in LGBTQ Nonfiction
Finalist for the Publishing Triangle Judy Grahn Award for Lesbian Nonfiction
Nylon, "Our Favorite Nonfiction Books of 2017"
Book Riot, "The Best Genre Bending Fiction of 2017"
NBC, "8 Great Latino Books of 2017"
BuzzFeed, "The 19 Best Nonfiction Books Of 2017"
Autostraddle, "The Top 10 Queer and Feminist Books of 2017"
Remezcla, "These Were the Best Books From Latin American & Latino Authors in 2017"
The Riveter, "The Riveter's Top Ten Books of 2017"
"Mean calls for a fat, fluorescent trigger warning start to finish -- and I say this admiringly. Gurba likes the feel of radioactive substances on her bare hands." --The New York Times
"Gurba is something of a connoisseur of cruelty. She doesn't pull her punches, but her jabs are calibrated with a perfect balance of rage and satire." --The New York Times
"[Gurba's] dark humor isn't used for shock value alone, offering instead a striking image of deflection and coping in the face of real pain and terror." --Publishers Weekly
"With its icy wit, edgy wedding of lyricism and prose, and unflinching look at personal and public demons, Gurba's introspective memoir is brave and significant." --Kirkus
"Mean demands our attention not only as a painfully timely story, but also as an artful memoir.... a powerful, vital book about damage and the ghostly afterlives of abuse." --Los Angeles Review of Books
"With unconstrained, inventive, stop-you-in-your-tracks writing, Gurba asserts that there is glee, freedom, and, perhaps most of all, truth in meanness." --Booklist "Gurba seems intent on tearing down walls and shaking readers out of complacency; her writing pulls our attention to human cruelty, suffering, and then, resilience. We are better off for it." --BuzzFeed "[Gurba's skill] here is apparent in the way she demonstrates her own gradual maturing through her developing thoughts and sense of self." --Literary Hub "This is a confident, intoxicating, brassy book that takes the cost of sexual assault, racism, misogyny, and homophobia deadly seriously." --The Rumpus "[Gurba's] politicized consciousness comes not only through her college education, but also through the stories of the women who don't survive the violence that women of color encounter on journeys similar to hers. This is a startling and edgy book from start to finish." --NBCNews "She tackles everything from sexual violence to racism with humour and directness." --ELLE UK "[Mean is] gorgeously written--beautiful, forthright, honest, and just a little bit mean, and I loved every minute of it. Gurba's is a voice we need to be listening to right now." --Book Riot "Gurba's 'queer art of being mean' is a triumph of deadpan humor in a timely and thrilling voice. Stop everything and read this brave and tender book." --O, The Oprah Magazine