Back text cover: A searing coming-of-age memoir set against the landscape of rural North Dakota, where
being gay "seems akin to a ticking bomb." "I have been waiting for this book. Boys and Oil is more than a memoir, it is a protest. Taylor Brorby has created a bridge between daydreams and nightmares,
the gentle stirrings of the prairie and the violence of the oil and gas industry. We see through the lens of a gay man how character and identity are shaped by the landscapes that raise us. There is nothing sentimental in these pages. The literary West is more complete because of this stand-up story of beauty and
brokenness by a fearless writer named Brorby." -TERRY TEMPEST WILLIAMS,
author of Erosion: Essays of Undoing "Taylor Brorby's memoir of growing up gay on the North Dakota prairie is authentic and affecting. He is drawn to and repelled by the landscape and family that formed him, conflicted about his birthplace. He subverts the notion that hardship makes us stronger because his inherent humanity is his survival tool. He reminds us, sadly and tragically, that being gay can
still be an oppressive and burdensome secret to carry."
-DIANA OSSANA,
Oscar-winning screenwriter of Brokeback Mountain "It is long past time for those of us who love the vast spaces of the American West-its prairies, plains, and ranges-to reckon with the violence, the greed, and the toxically masculine mythologies that have led to its desertification and the extinction of its creatures.... Boys and Oil does just that, deftly, artfully, compassionately. Taylor Brorby's voice wells up from a place of rage and grief and an abiding love of the ravaged land. Not since Terry Tempest Williams's Refuge has
a book resonated more with my own profound sense of loss."
-PAM HOUSTON,
author of Deep Creek: Finding Hope in the High Country