The Groom Will Keep His Name

Some authors, instead of therapy, unburden themselves in a book. This is one of them. I so wanted to root for the author, but the multiple chips on his shoulder got in the way. The authors overall intelligence is smothered by wave upon wave of loathing, pity, and overall unhappiness. What could have been a fresh gay voice on the literary scene becomes a pitying woe is me tale instead.

I sped through this collection of essays, loving every moment. Ortile interweaves and disentangles many facets of the experience of being a queer Asian immigrant in America, and I enjoyed learning alongside him how the oppressive cultural history of the west affects and influences us all.

I truly enjoyed this book. The parts I saw myself reflected in made me feel less alone and the parts completely outside of my experience were captivating and educational

Thank you @hachetteaudio @boldtypebooks @librofm for this audiobook I enjoyed this audiobook so much that I decided to get the kindle book as well so my husband can read it too. This was spot on about the hardship attached to the whole Living the American Dream. People from our home country may think that our lives here is bed of roses, I mean don\’t get me wrong, we sure have better opportunities and lives, but our journey towards it wasn\’t easy. And I am one of those that even after twenty years of living here in the US kind of didn\’t lose my accent completely. This book talks about colonization, being immigrant or as I also like to call it legal/permanent alien (Matt, you read my mind on this), being gay in Filipino culture and living in America, the struggle of accepting who you are because of all the name-calling and awful stuff thrown at you, romance and a lot of sex. It is funny, entertaining, and very educationaltons of references about history and politics. I love the break down of crab mentality and for stating that the primary language of instruction in the Philippines is English! I love this book!

Thank you to Perseus Books and NetGalley for this ARC! Through his collection of essays revolving around race, immigration, his parents divorce, family and queerness in the United States, Matt Ortile manages to tell stories that anyone who picks up The Groom Will Keep His Name: And Other Vows Ive Made About Race, Resistance, and Romance will find something to relate to or learn about. Ortiles debut book is composed of a series of essays that explore multiple points throughout his teenage and adult life, as he reflects on immigrating to the United States from the Philippines and his work to try to fit in with the predominantly white country and more specifically, his new home of Las Vegas. Throughout the book, as Ortile grows older, the book explores his struggles with being single and alone in New York, working as a rising journalist, embracing his queerness and finding a chosen family. Overall, Ortiles writing is phenomenal and his writing style, journalistic with amazing use of figurative and descriptive language, captivates and conveys his emotions and thoughts to the reader extremely well. Although I cant relate to him on some of the things he talked about, such as immigrating and being a minority in the United States, it was an eye opening experience reading this book that I feel more educated and understand more than I did before. Another aspect about this book that was portrayed well was Ortiles millennial experiences, something that often gets looked over or written off as young adults complaining about their easy lives. Ortiles essays, though, describe the genuine struggles he and other millennials face. On the slip side to that, his essays also allow insight to another way of thinking and handling problems and situations. A highlight of the essays are their length and content, which focuses on a main idea and always ends up tying back to that idea in the end. Sometimes the main focus of one essay would be referenced in another essay which unites the collection well and feels like a complete story, beginning to end. Ortile also found ways to connect different aspects of his essays together nicely, a good example being of an essay focusing on his queerness that goes on to talk about his family relationships, to ultimately come back to his queer relationships in the end. The reading experience is satisfying and comes full circle, making it more impactful for the reader. The Verdict Altogether, Ortiles essays are not just interesting to read, theyre eye opening and provide a variety of problems and situations to relate to. Personally, this is one of the best books Ive read this year and one of the best nonfiction books Ive read in my life. I loved every minute of it and hope that people take the time to read this beautiful collection. This will be one of the best books of the summer and is an amazing experience.

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