{"product_id":"daddy-boy-9781952119521","title":"Daddy Boy","description":"In 2017, Emerson Whitney was divorcing the woman they'd been with for ten years--a dominatrix they called Daddy. Living in a tent in the backyard of their marital home, Emerson was startled to realize they didn't know what it meant to be an adult. \"We often look to our gender roles as a sort of map for aging,\" they write. \"I wanted to know what the process looked like without that: not man-ness, not-woman-ness.\" Dizzied by this realization, they turned to an activity steeped in stereotypical masculinity: storm chasing. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cem\u003eDaddy Boy \u003c\/em\u003efollows Emerson as they pack into a van with a rag-tag group of storm chasers and drive up and down tornado ally--from Texas to North Dakota--staying in motels and eating at gas stations and hunting down storms like so many white whales. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn heading with them to Texas, we return, too, to the only site of adulthood Emerson has ever known: their childhood. Interspersed throughout this trip are memories of dad--both Emerson's stepdad, Hank, present and unflinching and extremely Texan; and their biological dad, who they hardly knew. With his cowboy hats and random girlfriends, he always seemed so sweet and lost. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThrough these childhood vignettes, coupled with queer theory and weeks spent reading the clouds like oracles, wanting nothing more than to drive straight into the eye of a storm, Emerson frames these probing questions of manhood against the dusty, loaded background of the American West.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEmerson Whitney\u003c\/strong\u003e is a writer and a professor. Their book \u003cem\u003eHeaven\u003c\/em\u003e, McSweeney's 2020, was named a 'best book' by\u003cem\u003e the AV Club\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003ePAPER\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003e Literary Hub\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003e Refinery29\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eMs. Magazine\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eChicago Review of\u003c\/em\u003e \u003cem\u003eBooks\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003e the Observer\u003c\/em\u003e, and \u003cem\u003ethe Seattle Times\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003cem\u003e Heaven\u003c\/em\u003e was also awarded a \u003cem\u003eKirkus\u003c\/em\u003e star and was written about by nonfiction editor at \u003cem\u003eKirkus\u003c\/em\u003e, Eric Liebetrau, in a piece called \"\u003cem\u003eQueer Memoir Old and New\u003c\/em\u003e\" as a profile of Emerson and \u003cem\u003eHeaven\u003c\/em\u003e is compared to Alice B. Toklas' by Gertrude Stein. \u003cem\u003eHeaven\u003c\/em\u003e also won a silver medal in the Independent Publisher Book Awards and continues to garner praise. Emerson was named a 2020 Now List awardee in literature alongside Ocean Vuong and Danez Smith by \u003cem\u003eThem\u003c\/em\u003e magazine. Emerson's writing has appeared in \u003cem\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eLos Angeles Review of Books\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Believer\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eParis Review\u003c\/em\u003e and elsewhere.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"McSweeney's","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52000292176146,"sku":"9781952119521","price":18.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_c0523333-a562-4cfa-a0ca-63da1ad62ebe.jpg?v=1770193359","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/daddy-boy-9781952119521","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}