Alligator Tears

Praise

“Like fellow memoirists Édouard Louis and Annie Ernaux, Gomez approaches life-writing as a way not just to process but to reprocess the past. . . . Gomez is especially incisive on the American caste system, with which he, like his parents, is intimately familiar. . . . It doesn’t read like a hardscrabble memoir. It’s nostalgia with a bite, but also a wry kind of affection. . . . Alligator Tears sings.”—Los Angeles Times

“Humorous, heartfelt, and refreshingly sincere, Alligator Tears is a meta-level how-to guide for putting words down on the page when the world would rather you not, and a raw and energetic account of coming of age as a queer Latino man on the periphery of the happiest place on Earth.”—Paste magazine

“Gomez is sweet and conversational, like a friend readers have known for life: nostalgic, playful, and caring. . . . It is beautiful to get to know the life of this artist, whose endearing world will remain with readers long after they’ve finished the book.”—Booklist

“With tender vulnerability and laugh-out-loud humor, Alligator Tears invites readers into the lives of America’s invisible caste: the working-class immigrants who are knocked down by systemic barrier after systemic barrier but who each day rise with pride to claim our right to exist. I laughed; I cried; I read and reread beautiful wisdom that I will never forget. Edgar Gomez’s voice is one for us all.”—Qian Julie Wang, New York Times bestselling author of Beautiful Country

“Alligator Tears is gorgeous, poignant, and raw, chock-full of hope and want and irrepressible, aching beauty. This is the kind of Florida writing that I love most: a daring, swampy slick of a collection where the humidity hangs like a hug. Edgar Gomez is a tremendous talent. I’ll read anything he writes.”—Kristen Arnett, author of With Teeth

“No one writes about the terrors of late-stage capitalism with such humor, candor, and aplomb. In every sentence, Gomez elucidates the unnecessary horrors of suffering in the American context. To our benefit (and relief), he accomplishes this feat with the wonder of a child and the wit of a satirist. Affecting and inspiring, Alligator Tears is more proof that Gomez is a writer who deserves our attention.”—Alejandro Varela, author of National Book Award finalist The Town of Babylon

“Triumphant . . . dazzling . . . Even as he offers a pitiless, self-aware view of life on the margins, Gomez remains funny, candid, and unfailingly stylish. This delivers a welcome jolt to the coming-of-age memoir formula.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review

“Meticulously evoked and darkly comic. . . . Heartening. . . . This portrait of the artist as a young flip-flop salesman will inspire, amuse, and empower its audience.”—Kirkus Reviews, starred review