My drowning : a novel
(Books)

Jim Grimsley's 1995 novel, Dream Boy, was a revelation--a pungent, beautifully written, poetic look at what it means to grow up gay in the rural South--that was both mythical and frightening, sublime and enlightening. Now, in My Drowning Grimsley tells the story of Ellen Tote, a young girl born to a poor family who finally, after years of abuse and poverty, grows up and "comes out"--not as a lesbian, but as her own person--when she discovers that it is possible to have a life and a mind of her own. Using the same spare prose and terse style that worked so well in Dream Boy, Grimsley has fashioned a tale that is startling in its honesty.