If you’ve been feeling numb around the edges lately, as, wearily, year two of the global pandemic marches on, you are sure to be fully woken up by this brilliant but raw memoir. The title references the oft-held-belief that “any black boy who did not signify how manly he was at all times deserved to be punched back up to God to be remade, reshaped.” Broome, well aware that he was gay from a young age, was raised with this precept, and accordingly, his father would routinely physically punish him; his father … (read more)
