"I wanted to find a story where a little gay boy could fit into the world he came from, rather than running to find a way to escape the prairie of his childhood."
Taylor Brorby's story of growing up closeted on the harsh and unforgiving North Dakota terrain -- and what happens when he exposes who he really is to those elements -- is part autobiography and part ecological dissertation.
"Boys and Oil: Growing Up Gay in a Fractured Land" weaves mileposts of the author's maturation with vignettes of his relationship with his land and his family -- which are often the same thing.
As Brorby deals with a sense of dislocation by roaming the country looking for a home and a mission, North Dakota keeps drawing him back. His efforts to reconcile what he loves and fears about the state are at times heartbreaking and admirable.
"Spare emotions fester in a landscape where the only way capitalism has made sense of the American West is to fence it in, break it into 160-acre parcels, frack, mine, dam, and cut it to a stubble."
The competing tales of identity and activism are occasionally at odds, and the writing can feel overwrought at times, but the overall effect is worthwhile. "Boys and Oil" is an emotional look at how the ways in which we define family can impact our choices and paths.
"Like a grain of sand pushed by the current, my life has meandered, slowly shifted farther downstream, where it inches toward a new beginning as I continue to search for the deep current, to find the place where I am meant to be."
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