How Y'all Doing?

An hour before I started this book, I told a friend that I was afraid to read it because I thought it would be too sad now that Leslie Jordan is no longer with us. I wrestled with this for a bit, but ultimately wound up putting the audiobook on my phone and taking it with me on my evening walk. I didn't make it to the 5% mark (I don't think I even made it past the first chapter?) before I was sobbing great big ugly sobs as I walked. I'm glad I live in the middle of nowhere!

Here's the thing: I was bawling like a child, but I definitely wasn't sad. It was bittersweet, for sure, but “sad” is the wrong word entirely. Leslie Jordan's enormous heart, adorable soul, and inimitable charm live on in both the text of this memoir and its wonderful audiobook narration. It is maybe the most pure, and most hopeful, autobiography I've ever read. It's beautiful. I loved it so much that I had to force myself to slow down so I would have the time to truly process the stories and lessons contained within. And so began my short lived, but very lovely, evening ritual of walking and weeping while I listened to one of the coolest entertainers ever hold court as only he can. I must have shed a million tears in the last week and a half and I regret absolutely none of them.

Some of the stories in this book are sad, but many are deeply joyous - and all are written with style and grace. Even the more mundane bits made me feel like I was sitting under the learning tree of an insightful (and hilarious) person. Rest in peace, Leslie Jordan.