Rust Belt Femme

An acquaintance of mine wrote this book, so I was delighted to read it. While some of the other comments here about tense are correct, I appreciated the pulse of music, punk and femme-ness that thrummed throughout. The book is short, digestible, and not-too-heavy, in the way that some memoirs can be. Was it incisive? No. But it was a nice vacation of the mind, and time-traveled me back to my own similar ages in my own lifetime.

Self-proclaimed queer femme feminist writer Raechel Anne Jolie shares her story growing up in Ohio in Rust Belt Femme (Belt Publishing, 9781948742634, 2020).

There are two statements Jolie writes that really resonate with me: “Poverty is as damaging as it is enriching.” Jolie talks about her life and connects it to the person she has turned into today. It is a story I think many will relate to - I did. The story was very familiar even though I did not grow up in the rural midwest. I nodded my head many times while reading.

“Trauma is an incoherent language of the body.” Wow. So freaking true. I do not know why this one sentence impacted me so much, but it has.

I will say that I expected something a little different from a “queer” writer's memoir. I confess I did not expect a book full of male and female sexual relationships (laugh). Jolie only references any other references, but details all heterosexual relationships. If you were hoping, as I was, for a sexual identity memoir in the manner of homosexuality - this is not it.

Jolie focuses on what being a woman is to her and how growing up in rural Ohio and in poverty impacted this awareness. Jolie's story is a mix of yesterday's speak and today's learned language. It makes it an interesting read where you can find nuggets of “holy sugar” that hits home.

I received an ARC of this book and I am writing a review without prejudice and voluntarily.