Darling Days

<p><strong>This extraordinary memoir from a gender non-conforming child of the '80s is brave and true as devastating as it is inspiring. --Joey Soloway Emmy-award winning creator of <em>Transparent</em></strong></p><p>Born into the beautiful bedlam of downtown New York in the eighties iO Tillett Wright came of age at the intersection of punk poverty heroin and art. This was a world of self-invented characters glamorous superstars and strung-out sufferers ground zero of drag and performance art. Still no personality was more vibrant and formidable than iO's mother's. Rhonna a showgirl and young widow was a mercurial erratic glamazon. She was iO's fiercest defender and only authority in a world with few boundaries and even fewer indicators of normal life. At the center of <em>Darling Days </em>is the remarkable relationship between a fiery kid and a domineering ma--a bond defined by freedom and control excess and sacrifice; by heartbreaking deprivation agonizing rupture and ultimately forgiveness.</p><p><em>Darling Days</em> is also a provocative examination of culture and identity of the instincts that shape us and the norms that deform us and of the courage and resilience it takes to listen closely to your deepest self. When a group of boys refuse to let six-year-old female-born iO play ball iO instantly adopts a new persona becoming a boy named Ricky--a choice iO's parents support and celebrate. It is the start of a profound exploration of gender and identity through the tenderest years and the beginning of a life invented and reinvented at every step. Alternating between the harrowing and the hilarious <em>Darling Days</em> is the candid tough and stirring memoir of a young person in search of an authentic self as family and home life devolve into chaos.</p>