Reviews & Praise
No Son of Mine
“Chipping away at the impossible damage that a mother caused her son, and reflecting their impossible mother-son love, the memoir No Son of Mine is a masterpiece.” – *STARRED* review in Foreword!
“A lyrical and uncompromisingly honest memoir.” – No Son of Mine receives a *STARRED* review in Kirkus!
“In No Son of Mine, Corcoran cuts to the heart of familial estrangement, and his narrative will be achingly familiar to anyone who has experienced anything like it. When the people who are supposed to love us most in the world abandon and revile us, we cannot help but repeatedly cycle through grief and hope, empathy and ambivalence, forgiveness and remembering.” -Rebecca Biggio in Change Seven Magazine
“I found this memoir remarkable. It encompasses much in terms of its time span and the bigger events in the world, and Jon accomplishes something special by being raw and vulnerable, and never self-indulgent. I think the struggles he portrays here will offer something to any reader, because we are all struggling to navigate even the closest of relationships. I am impressed by the writing in terms of that larger storytelling and meaning-making, as well as line by line.” -Julia Kastner in PagesOfJulia
“Jon Corcoran’s memoir of a beloved son’s twenty year cycle of rejection and grief is also the story of the conflicted mother who adored him, her youngest child and only son, but could not accept him. Every American should read this elegy about the politics of place and church, the loss of one home, and the triumphant forging of another.”
—Jayne Anne Phillips, author of Night Watch
“What if I told you this book will tear your heart out and then turn around and make you want it to happen all over again? There is an ecstatic vulnerability here woven in a language incandescent in its reach.”
—Mesha Maren, author of Perpetual West and Sugar Run
“Set in West Virginia and New York City, No Son of Mine is a gorgeous, extraordinary memoir about the heartbreaking relationship between a queer son and the mother who disowned him, and about two young men falling in love and figuring out how to build their lives together. In poetic and stunning prose, Jonathan Corcoran writes perceptively, fiercely, and tenderly about what it means to be both estranged and bound to a place and family, to feel both loved and rejected, and to grieve and to forgive. It’s also one of the best memoirs I’ve read that shines a light on rural queerness, masculinity, and the complexities of economic class. I absolutely loved this book and I want everyone to read it.”
—Carter Sickels, author of The Prettiest Star
Delaney McLemore has written a beautiful profile on Jonathan, No Son of Mine, Appalachian queer writing, and so much more over at Salvation South.
Praise for The Rope Swing
Reviews
Glowing review from Adam Booth at Appalachian Heritage: “This was not the only story in the collection that made me laugh aloud and cry before the last word was read. Indeed, the world and plight of each story is so real and relatable that on more than one occasion the glimpse offered in a single short story wasn’t enough. I had to set the book down many times to breathe with the emotions and live with the inevitable realities.” Read the full review over at Appalachian Heritage.
“Accounts of LGBT individuals in Appalachia are not often told as they are in Jonathan Corcoran’s stellar story collection The Rope Swing, and that’s a shame, because the perspective of gay Appalachia in particular is a very specific story of survival in a region more or less defined by survival stories. Compact and intimate with an array of protagonists, gay and straight, young and old, Swing is filled with fearless, tender portraits of life in a region that, like the rest of the country, is making its stumbling way through the 21st century.” Full review at American Micro Reviews.
Wonderful and thorough review from The Expendable Mudge: “My take on Jonathan Corcoran is that we’ll hear more from him, and it will be good and get better. Start here with this collection, say you knew his writing when.”
The Los Angeles Review writes: “Corcoran’s achievement in this collection is to establish a prevailing undercurrent of human connection among his disparate and damaged characters and to suggest that this potential exists for all of us.”
“Corcoran is a remarkably empathetic writer whose subtle portraits capture undeniably tender moments in the lives of his characters.”
—Kirkus Reviews
The Minneapolis Star Tribune says “These artful stories of loss and longing are difficult to put down.”
Buzz
The Rope Swing chosen as a finalist for the 29th annual Lambda Literary Awards!
The Rope Swing makes the long list for The Story Prize, an award given to the year’s best story collection!
Renee K Nicholson makes the case for the universality of Appalachian literature by examining The Rope Swing and the wonderful Trampoline (Robert Gipe) at Electric Literature.
Melissa Adamo interviews Jonathan at The Rumpus.
Poet and Lambda Literary Finalist Roberto Santiago interviews Jonathan for English Kills Review.
Oakland Public Library selects The Rope Swing for LGBTQI Book Month!
Chet the Big City Sasquatch raves about The Rope Swing.
English Kills Review covers Jonathan’s book launch at Greenlight Bookstore with Tayari Jones.
The Rope Swing is highlighted in Lambda Literary’s April Book Roundup.
Kevin Catalano interviews Jonathan about his book, life, and his current playlist.
The Beckley Register-Herald interviews Jonathan about The Rope Swing.
Alternating Current chooses The Rope Swing for “Books We Can’t Wait to Read in 2016.”
The Rope Swing named Editor’s Pick by New Pages.
Praise
“Jonathan Corcoran’s Appalachian voice, so fierce, so tender, portrays tradition as both weapon and soothing balm. The Rope Swing takes us inside quiet revolutions of the soul in mountain towns far from Stonewall: we can never go home again, but we recognize ourselves in these linked stories of love, loss, the economic tyranny of neglect and exploitation, and the lifelong alliance between those who stay and those who leave. The Rope Swing establishes a new American writer whose unerring instincts are cause for celebration.“
-Jayne Anne Phillips, author of Quiet Dell, Lark and Termite, and Black Tickets
“A powerful, moving, and beautifully-written book. Corcoran writes both queer and straight characters with insight and empathy. He is an observant writer who understands people’s pain, regrets, heartache, and hope. This much needed, important book explores rural America and queer identity, two subjects rarely portrayed together.”
-Carter Sickels, author of The Evening Hour
“The Rope Swing is an astute, stereotype-busting triumph that shines a light on gay Appalachia. Corcoran unflinchingly exposes hard truths about a complicated region and its people who grapple with identity in more ways than one.”
-Marie Manilla, author of Still Life with Plums and The Patron Saint of Ugly
“This rainbow of West Virginia lives—gay and straight, old and young, rich and poor—is a marvel from every angle. A stirring and absorbing meditation on rural origins and desires.”
-Katherine Hill, author of The Violet Hour
“These are the queer stories I have been searching for my entire life—aching and honest narratives of what it means to be both tied to a geography and excluded from it. The characters in this collection exist now in my memory as fully and significantly as people I’ve loved for years.“
-Megan Kruse, author of Call Me Home