In the before, Jesse James Rose is happy. She has a beautiful boyfriend with melty glacier eyes, she's on a euphoric journey of gender exploration, and New York City is perfect. In the after, she's single, making dinner for her grandfather, and wondering if he's going to forget her name today. Except, in the before, her first-grade music teacher led her into a dark room to show her something he shouldn't have. And in the after, she's finding healing and comfort in coming into her own, even as her grandfather declines. In the before, she was fine, more or less. But in the after, she has to reckon with whatever the hell restorative justice really, truly means. Following the aftermath of an assault, and the heartache of caring for a grandfather with Alzheimer's, sorry i keep crying during sex tells a captivating story of identity, recovery, grief, survivorship, and transness.
One of the funniest books I’ve ever read. It’s also one of the deepest: having a command over humor means having a command over the complexity of what you’re joking about. The laughter Rose evokes throughout the memoir disarms the reader, drawing them close to the disturbing subject matter ... Rose forces us to engage with topics that have become overburdened by theoretical arguments...as if they are visceral realities we are encountering for the first time ... There is so much unexpected hope in sorry i keep crying during sex that, as the news has gotten darker and darker, I have returned to this book 10, 20, 50 times a day.
Inspired ... Writing with flair and panache, she effortlessly escorts readers across frenetic pages of Grindr app conversation extracts, text exchanges, thoughts about identity ... The book can feel disjointed, but taken as a whole, it’s a moving account of pain and personal growth. An intimate, emotionally honest patchwork quilt of trauma, compassion, desire, and identity.
Heartbreaking and genre-bending ... The emotional intensity and sexual candor won’t be for everyone, but open-minded readers will be wowed—especially if they’re grappling with their own self-definition.