Michael Taeckens spoke of three stories–including mine–in todays USA Today:
“Romance is a dangerous distraction,” editor Michael Taeckens writes in the introduction to Love Is a Four-Letter Word: True Stories of Breakups, Bad Relationships, and Broken Hearts (Plume paperback original, 297 pp., $16). He spoke with USA TODAY’s about some of the book’s true stories and why they resonate.
‘Homecoming, With Turtle’
by Junot Diaz (The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao)
“I love Junot’s piece as much for the eloquent description of returning to his hometown of Santo Domingo after a 20-year absence as for the details of the nightmarish experience it was for him and his girlfriend.”
‘Trans’
by Jennifer Finney Boylan (She’s Not There: A Life in Two Genders)
“Jennifer takes a unique experience — dating while one’s gender is in flux — and turns it into a hilarious and poignant story that is completely universal.”
‘Head Lice and My Worst Boyfriend’
by Lynda Barry, cartoonist, creator of the syndicated strip Ernie Pook.
“Lynda, my idol, is able to make life seem simultaneously poetic and comic — here she takes the humiliation of getting head lice and giving it to her boyfriend — and realizes ‘head lice are much easier to get rid of than bad love.’ ”
