Alligator Tears

“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

“A big-hearted, humorous portrait of a queer coming-of-age in Central Florida.”—USA Today

“Wildly original . . . The existence of this book shows the power of the written word, the need for stories to be shared not as a trauma at which to gawk but for the power of voice that cannot be erased.”—Southern Review of Books

“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

“An arresting memoir-in-essays . . . A skillful analysis vital for examining one’s life on the page . . . Gomez transports his readers on a journey that will have them laughing through their tears.”—The Coachella Review

“Squirmishly honest . . . Gomez dismantles the American Dream one harrowing and humorous experience at a time.”—Queerty

“Gomez writes essays that are by turns wacky and poignant (occasionally both at the same time), but always deeply personal and perspicacious.”—San Francisco Bay Times

“Vivid, absorbing . . . Alligator Tears gifts us with lessons on remembering how to float, how to keep breathing, despite all of the forces that would have it otherwise.”—Xtra

“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