What do you think?
Rate this book
Alligator Tears: A Memoir in Essays
A darkly comic memoir-in-essays about the scam of the American Dream and doing whatever it takes to survive in the Sunshine State—from the award-winning author of High-Risk Homosexual
In Florida, one of the first things you’re taught as a child is that if you’re ever chased by a wild alligator, the only way to save yourself is to run away in zigzags. It’s a lesson on survival that has guided much of Edgar Gomez’s life.
Like the night his mother had a stroke while he and his brother stood frozen at the foot of her bed, afraid she’d be angry if they called for an ambulance they couldn’t afford. Gomez escaped into his mind, where he could tell himself nothing was wrong with his family. Zig. Or years later, as a broke college student, he got on his knees to put sandals on tourists’ smelly, swollen feet for minimum wage at the Flip Flop Shop. After clocking out, his crew of working-class, queer, Latinx friends changed out of their uniforms in the passenger seats of each other’s cars, speeding toward the relief they found at Pulse nightclub in Orlando. Zag. From committing a little bankruptcy fraud for the money for veneers to those days he paid his phone bill by giving massages to closeted men on vacation, back when he and his friends would Venmo each other the same emergency twenty dollars over and over. Zig. Zag. Gomez survived this way as long as his legs would carry him.
Alligator Tears is a fiercely defiant memoir-in-essays charting Gomez’s quest to claw his family out of poverty by any means necessary and exposing the archetype of the humble poor person for what it is: a scam that insists we remain quiet and servile while we wait for a prize that will always be out of reach. For those chasing the American Dream and those jaded by it, Gomez’s unforgettable story is a testament to finding love, purpose, and community on your own terms, smiling with all your fake teeth.
In Florida, one of the first things you’re taught as a child is that if you’re ever chased by a wild alligator, the only way to save yourself is to run away in zigzags. It’s a lesson on survival that has guided much of Edgar Gomez’s life.
Like the night his mother had a stroke while he and his brother stood frozen at the foot of her bed, afraid she’d be angry if they called for an ambulance they couldn’t afford. Gomez escaped into his mind, where he could tell himself nothing was wrong with his family. Zig. Or years later, as a broke college student, he got on his knees to put sandals on tourists’ smelly, swollen feet for minimum wage at the Flip Flop Shop. After clocking out, his crew of working-class, queer, Latinx friends changed out of their uniforms in the passenger seats of each other’s cars, speeding toward the relief they found at Pulse nightclub in Orlando. Zag. From committing a little bankruptcy fraud for the money for veneers to those days he paid his phone bill by giving massages to closeted men on vacation, back when he and his friends would Venmo each other the same emergency twenty dollars over and over. Zig. Zag. Gomez survived this way as long as his legs would carry him.
Alligator Tears is a fiercely defiant memoir-in-essays charting Gomez’s quest to claw his family out of poverty by any means necessary and exposing the archetype of the humble poor person for what it is: a scam that insists we remain quiet and servile while we wait for a prize that will always be out of reach. For those chasing the American Dream and those jaded by it, Gomez’s unforgettable story is a testament to finding love, purpose, and community on your own terms, smiling with all your fake teeth.
- GenresEssaysMemoirNonfiction
256 pages, Hardcover
Expected publication February 11, 2025
About the author
Edgar Gomez
5 books96 followersEdgar Gomez (all pronouns) is a Florida-born writer with roots in Nicaragua and Puerto Rico. A graduate of University of California, Riverside’s MFA program, their debut memoir, High-Risk Homosexual, was called a “breath of fresh air” by The New York Times; named a Best Book of 2022 by Publisher’s Weekly, Buzzfeed, and Electric Literature; and received a 2023 American Book Award, a Stonewall Israel-Fishman Nonfiction Book Honor Award, and the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Memoir. Their second book, a memoir about growing up poor in early 2000’s Florida titled Alligator Tears, will be out in 2025 from Crown.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 2, 2024
Giving this book 5 stars because the author seems kinda desperate...
August 6, 2024
I had the extreme pleasure of reading this book early and I honestly could not put it down. Edgar’s writing is charming, hilarious, painfully beautiful, and unfairly heartfelt. Like, crying on NJ Public Transit beautiful. You really, really do not want to miss out on this book when it hits the shelves!
September 14, 2024
thank you to netgalley, crown publishing and edgar gomez for the privilege of reading this book early in exchange for a review.
this book was great and completely engrossed me into edgar’s stories. as a floridian, and someone who grew up queer in a small town longing for more, this book felt kindred to me.
i loved hearing gomez’s stories of growing up in his culture and trying to find himself within that, being queer, appeasing his parents, amending relationships and longing for a life outside of the mundanity.
you’re not going to want to skip this one! add this to your tbr now!
this book was great and completely engrossed me into edgar’s stories. as a floridian, and someone who grew up queer in a small town longing for more, this book felt kindred to me.
i loved hearing gomez’s stories of growing up in his culture and trying to find himself within that, being queer, appeasing his parents, amending relationships and longing for a life outside of the mundanity.
you’re not going to want to skip this one! add this to your tbr now!
September 25, 2024
Great read, Edgar has done it again writing an incredible book. The last chapter moved me to tears.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews