{"product_id":"the-lonely-veterans-guide-to-companionship-9780299350741","title":"The Lonely Veteran's Guide to Companionship","description":"In this collection of interrelated essays, Bronson Lemer explores companionship through the lens of a queer veteran, focusing on the difficulty of forming true connections with others, including a \"battle buddy\" during basic training, the people he meets while teaching in China, and the spirit of a long-dead older sister. Lemer uses lessons from popular culture and literature--the globe-trotting exploits of fictional criminal Carmen Sandiego, the sexual exploration in Baldwin's \u003ci\u003eGiovanni's Room\u003c\/i\u003e, the expatriate longing in Hemingway's \u003ci\u003eA Moveable Feast\u003c\/i\u003e, just to name a few--as a means to think more broadly about the role of the outsider and how we navigate aimlessness while searching for stability and meaning. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Lemer's distinct take on the veteran's story boldly engages the intersection of military narratives and queer culture, including examinations into the role of thirst traps in contemporary dating culture, the fears of long-term health damage caused by military service, and the ways in which intimate relationships can lead to a loss of self. Taken together, his essays illustrate how one queer veteran managed to carve out a path that led him, however awkwardly at times, closer to the person he wanted to be.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBronson Lemer is the author of \u003ci\u003eThe Last Deployment: How a Gay, Hammer-Swinging Twentysomething Survived a Year in Iraq\u003c\/i\u003e. His work has appeared in \u003ci\u003eGuernica\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eCreative Nonfiction\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003ethe Southeast Review\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eTwentysomething Essays by Twentysomething Writers\u003c\/i\u003e, and other publications. A McKnight Writing Fellow, he lives in St. Paul, Minnesota.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"University of Wisconsin Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51201531904274,"sku":"9780299350741","price":14.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_a40d0ebe-f8ac-4a10-8ae4-4b0a4a7d7514.jpg?v=1744914036","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-lonely-veterans-guide-to-companionship-9780299350741","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}