Darling Days audiobook

I read this book in 2.5 days. Just could not stop. I’m finding it hard to know how to talk about it. I’d admired iO since seeing his What’s Underneath contribution and learning about the Self Evident Truths project, seeing snippets of a seemingly extraordinary life and past, growing up with extraordinary parents in extraordinary places but not knowing how a childhood like that would actually work. And now reading the story, or at least glimpses, it kind of wallops you. I wanted a time machine to go back and give this kid a hug, make dinner, new sneakers, whatever. But how to talk about it. It’s easy (and gross) to romanticise someone’s struggle and draw vague inspiration from what someone else had to endure. I don’t want to do that. And the book isn’t really about “the struggle”. It’s more: “you just don’t know”. You see the standoffish kid giving you a side glance, you have no idea. You see the woman with busted dance shoes, a plastic bag purse, nerves of steel, it’s a glimpse of someone you can’t possibly know, your judgements are incorrect. Everyone’s story (yours included) is deeper and more important than maybe we feel we can address sometimes, but the best starting point is just being open, listening, respecting what someone tells you as their experience. Lives are not “good” or “bad”, nor are people. We’re all too full for that. It’s about meeting people where they’re at, sending out love but taking no shit. It’s about believing your kid when they tell you who they are. And way too much more than that as well, but I’m going to leave it at this for now. Thanks to iO for sharing his story with us. Brave move and one that offers support to so many others.

Gritty, visceral, and not for the faint of heart is this book. iO is born to a mother who is beautiful, artistic, colorful, a drug addict, an alcoholic, verbally abusive and mentally ill. They live in a hovel on the lower east side of Manhattan. iO has no care, no routine, no food, no bed, and no idea how to live. The writing is clever and riveting. She narrates her life from around the age of five up until 25 and the dialogue matures as she does in the story. Once iO is old enough to realize how bad she has it she tells people and is eventually taken from her mother. This does not mean however, that her new life is easy, ordered, or healthy. Her maternal abuse was bone chilling but her love for her mother is still deep. Read the book if you want to know what becomes of her.

Having seen iO featured on an episode of What's Underneath, I was struck by his candor and couldn’t wait to dive into the memoir. I wasn’t disappointed as his on-screen voice translates to the page in a beautifully unfiltered way. Darling Days catapults from what I initially envied as a scrappy Bohemian city upbringing in the Lower East Side, into a childhood fraught with neglect, the pressure of gender binaries and the tumultuous world of drugs. His harrowing yet passionate relationship with his mother is the toughest love he has ever known and the gripping anecdotal backbone.I wanted to hug this book for pushing away notions of a homogenized existence and encouraging acceptance by familiarity. To avoid boxes, it's the next great everyone book.

This book fucked me up!!! The style of writing was really nice I feel like it was written exactly how people just talk. I love books where the main character is queer but that isn’t the central point of the story. Which since it’s a memoir it makes sense bc really people don’t actually define themselves by one thing. But still it’s cool to read about. A lot of their feelings about gender and sexuality are like mine which is very validating. Overall there are a lot of intense feelings to relate and not relate to and a very interesting life to read about here.

Quite possibly one of the most visceral, evocative and compelling books I have ever 'read'. At points I was laughing, at others I cried. It left me feeling a keen sense of belonging, of parallels, and that perhaps my own history is not just normal, but beautiful. To hear another person grapple with the things that make them unique, different, beautifully human, the things that broke them, healed them, and made them who they are, made me feel like my journey in self-discovery, in coming out, was absolutely ok. iO is so unapologetic in delivering his truth, and I am grateful for that. This book is a gift. This is the first time I have listened to a book, rather than read it, and having the author read his own story to you is like talking to someone all night until the sun comes up.

iO Tillet Wright’s story is fascinating and I really enjoyed his writing and his narration—very skilled at both! Definitely a good listen. iO is also a talented photographer—love, love, LOVE his Self Evident Truths project! Brilliant! And don’t miss his “Fifty Shades of Gay” TED Talk: "…familiarity really is the gateway drug to empathy." Yep!

The book-comparison game is a dangerous one, but it is one that people who sell and promote books have to play on a regular basis. Sometimes this results in weird and vaguely desperate combinations (hands up if you’ve ever seen a book whose jacket says something like “for fans of Stephen King and Sex and the City” and wondered what the hell kind of target demographic that is); sometimes it results in regrettable over-selling (see my review of Diary of an Oxygen Thief, which wasn’t well served by being compared to The Catcher in the Rye). Sometimes—just sometimes—it’s spot on. And so it is with Darling Days, a memoir by iO Tillett Wright (yes, iO, spelled like that) that comes garlanded with comparisons to Patti Smith’s Just Kids and Jeannette Walls’s The Glass Castle. Incredibly, almost improbably, the comparisons are apt. It’s a great book.Read the rest of the review here: https://ellethinks.wordpress.com/2016...

Ich finde den Untertitel äußerst schlecht gewählt, denn (trans)Sexualität spielt hier nur eine untergeordnete Rolle. Vielmehr sind es aufgeschriebene Gedanken auf dem Weg zu einer eigenen Identität zwischen vielen. Nicht immer unter den besten sozioökonomischen Bedingungen, wie iO Tillet Wright wirklich gut und nachvollziehbar zu Papier gebracht hat.

i was so confused for a minute or two bc i knew i hadn't marked this book as finished but i think my stupid kindle did it automatically when i finished the book, stupid kindleanyways i loved this so much, i don't know why i waited two years to read it bc i knew i would love it, maybe that's why i waited, i now have a bit of a book hangover, i just miss iO and nyc and i'm not ready to go into another world, i just wanted to keep following his life and catch up to where he is today living in the desert, sober, and he seems so happy now, i just love him!this is another book (like the glass castle) that makes me think about parenting and how to be a good parent, i mean basic life necessities where often not met bc of his parent's illnesses but they were always so loving and supportive and ensured that he had a rich and varied and loving childhood, he was able to pursue his interests and inclinations freely and you can see from the man he is today how important that is to creating a beautiful, fulfilled, intelligent adult

I found this memoir so rich and engrossing that it was difficult to put down. It is one of my all time favorite memoirs. I laughed out loud, found myself having to re-read portions that were simply unbelievable and so beautifully rendered, and I cried at times. Profoundly devastating and raw yet written with love and concern for the people who influenced him, including the street people, tenant neighbors, school bullies and counselors. It detailed day to day life growing up in the grittiest part NYC, the Bowery, of the seventies and eighties, a child barely surviving, literally not knowing where or when his next meal would come from. iO Tillett's memoir with photos is riveting, I couldn't put it down. I plan to listen to it on Audible, the author narrates and he has a brilliant voice. I listened to his podcast The Ballad of Billy Balls which was also highly personal, it features his mother's story and voice. I highly recommend the actual book, the book photos are absolutely essential. And read it before listening to the podcast, that way you get a sense of every one in that tale. This is a true work of art and it is his love letter to his 'ma'.

Sehr intensive, unmittelbare Kost, trotz der recht üppigen Sprache. Verschafft definitiv einen unbehaglichen und oft mitreißenden Zugang zu einem von Irrsinn und Erbarmungslosigkeit geprägten Leben, das eigentlich jenseits der eigenen Vorstellungskraft liegt. Tillet Wright beschreibt sein* Aufwachsen mit einer zunehmend unzurechnungsfähigen Mutter, die Gefangene der eigenen Wut und Sucht ist. Die Übersetzung dürfte ein ehrgeiziges Unterfangen gewesen sein, das in weitesten Teilen geglückt ist. Das gestanzte Cover ist so schön wie unpraktisch. Durchaus zu empfehlen, insgesamt.

Great friend passed this one to me. Excellent queer litterature, keeping it real and sharp. No frills, pure substance. Not an easy read sometimes, yet the themes touches aren't easy either. Would totally give as a gift to any your queer teen or somebody living ther second adolescence and it's in conflict. iO's writing and narrarive power blew my mind. What a great rollercoaster. I will treasure this book for sure.