My Heart Is a Drunken Compass: A Memoir

My Heart Is a Drunken Compass: A Memoir

by Domingo Martinez
My Heart Is a Drunken Compass: A Memoir

My Heart Is a Drunken Compass: A Memoir

by Domingo Martinez

Hardcover

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Overview

With his trademark tragic-comical voice and arresting storytelling, Domingo Martinez once again delivers a deeply personal memoir full of wry asides and poignant, thoughtful reflections in his new book My Heart Is a Drunken Compass. His first book shockingly ended with his fiancé Stephanie plummeting off the side of an overpass in Seattle, after having a seizure while driving. He now chronicles this painful episode in his life, with flashbacks to their tenuous romantic relationship, and how her accident and subsequent coma ultimately causes him to unravel emotionally. This pivotal moment, which began with an alarming call in the middle of the night, parallels another gut-wrenching experience from the past when his youngest brother's life hangs in the balance. Martinez once again brilliantly examines the complicated connections between family, friends, and loved ones. Feeling estranged from his family in Texas over the years, isolated and alone in Seattle, he turns to writing as a therapeutic tool. The underlying themes of addiction and recovery and their powerful impact on family dynamics also emerge within the narrative, as he struggles with his inner demons. These two traumatic life events actually bring Martinez closer to the family that he has in many ways spend years trying to deny, strengthening their bonds and healing old wounds. When Martinez falls apart completely, he finds his family, his redemption, and a new beginning with the love of his life, who encourages him to write his way out of the pain in order to save his own life.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781493001408
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date: 11/18/2014
Pages: 320
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Domingo Martinez is the New York Times bestselling author of The Boy Kings of Texas and was a Finalist for the National Book Award. The Boy Kings of Texas has been optioned by HBO for an original series through Salma Hayek's production company, Ventanarosa. Martinez's work has appeared in Texas Monthly, The New Republic, Saveur Magazine, and more. He has also appeared on NPR's All Things Considered and This American Life as well as The Diane RehmShow.

Table of Contents

Prologue xi

Part I Songs of His People

Chapter 1 The Oops! Baby 3

Chapter 2 Mom Leaves Derek 9

Chapter 3 Drinking with Dad 19

Chapter 4 Cain without Abel 25

Chapter 5 Epiphanies 35

Chapter 6 Pygmalion, Texas 41

Chapter 7 Bread Thou Art 55

Chapter 8 Bread Thou Shalt Remain 57

Chapter 9 Caramelization 61

Chapter 10 Toast 67

Part II The Unwedded

Chapter 11 It Was just One of Those Things 71

Chapter 12 Stephanie of a Thousand Lives 83

Chapter 13 Cannibal Hymns 95

Chapter 14 The War of the Rats 99

Chapter 15 Cleopatra 103

Chapter 16 Beating Up Lesbians 107

Chapter 17 The Wrong Side of the Fork 125

Chapter 18 Showering Blows 131

Chapter 19 Every Exit an Entrance, Someplace Else 137

Chapter 20 What the Morning Brings 151

Chapter 21 Neon Crosses 155

Part III Looking Down

Chapter 22 Sarah's Place 171

Chapter 23 Buying Goblin Fruit 177

Chapter 24 The Hurricane 185

Chapter 25 The Third Place 195

Chapter 26 Now the Wolf 205

Chapter 27 People Ain't No Good 219

Chapter 28 Stalling 223

Chapter 29 Easy Money 229

Chapter 30 Queen of the Savages 237

Chapter 31 Northern Exposure 241

Chapter 32 Roslyn 245

Chapter 33 Good-bye, Jack County 247

Chapter 34 The Low Gear 257

Chapter 35 Dining with Cannibals 263

Chapter 36 The Way to Say Good-bye 279

Epilogue 287

Coda 291

Acknowledgments 295

About the Author 297

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