Literary Success Today

Taylor Brorby's 'Boys & Oil'

author Taylor Brorby

“Boys & Oil” is an example of some of best, most original writing being produced today in my humble opinion. In this lesson, I want to convey why. What makes it so good and gives it momentum in a very tough market?

The availability of information online and the sheer number of books now being published, combined with dwindling numbers of fewer readers means the bar for literary success is now significantly higher. And yet this book has succeeded.

Here is what this book has going for it that insures its success, success meaning simply that its message will be heard above the noise of the 1.7 million - 2.5 million book titles that are now published annually (up from just 328,000 titles published in 2010):

• Originality, keen observations, deep insights. Not only do the descriptions really sing, but this is the first book I encounter that is as much about the land as it is about the characters that populate it. The physical characteristics and the formation of the land itself and the land’s impact on the characters’ lives, personalities and possibilities make for captivating reading.

• It appeals to a ready-made audience of people in the heartland and rural America.

• Familiarity. He ties in topics that are familiar to all of us by quoting Teddy Roosevelt’s writing about his North Dakota adventure, addressing environmental concerns, and examining the impact of the oil industry on the prairie.

• A clarion call about an issue that matters. Commercial pursuits are destroying the prairie faster than it can recover. And yet the people that live there need to make a living. This is actually a crucial time that will determine the region’s future.

In my view, these are at least some of the reasons “Boys & Oil” is not only a satisfying read, but an important one.

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Here’s my review of the book “Boys & Oil”:

"Flyover country. When you grow up knowing you're from a place no one visits, your dreams settle for staying put, for doing the act you've been trained to do: make your money by destroying the world. Though you don't see it that way, you've become a pawn in someone else's story, a story of That's the way it is, this is the way it has to be. The illogical violence wrought upon the prairie is propelled by powerful men destroying lives to line their own pocketbooks."

Thus begins Taylor Brorby's beautifully written new memoir, "Boys & Oil: Growing Up Gay in a Fractured Land."

Taylor Brorby grew up in Center, North Dakota. The tiny town has a population of just 500 people, even today. Not so much as a traffic light was needed when he was growing up.

Nonetheless, there were plenty of outdoor activities to keep him busy. In vivid, cinematic descriptions, he recalls his active childhood and his love of hunting and fly-fishing on the prairie, “the most bio-diverse region on the planet. A square mile can support somewhere north of 3,000 species of insects. This is more than the Amazon can do…which I love knowing,” Brorby revealed.

Readers of "Boys & Oil" will relish his lyrical prose and brilliant descriptions of the land that to my knowledge have never been published to date. The book contains many astute observations about life on the grassy prairie, oceans of grasslands where early settlers sometime died if they lost their way with no landmarks to guide them, that may be completely new to most readers.

One such observation tells of the harshness of living on land that leaves all wildlife and humans completely vulnerable and exposed. Furthermore, he delves into the type of closed masculinity that develops in such extreme topography where the only acceptable expression of emotion is physical violence.

Beautiful depictions of nature, America the beautiful —even in the most remote places— allow the reader to behold this ancient land perhaps for the first time.

“The prairie trains the eye to be attentive. The dome of sky smolders cerulean, sapphire, indigo, crimson, amber, saffron, lavender, periwinkle, and plum.”

Swamplands transformed by volcanic ash pressing into sedimentary rock, limestone, and shale reshaped by glaciers over millions of years, this priceless land is our inheritance.

Primarily, though, this book is not about the fossil-fuel industry or the destruction it wreaks upon the land, although the landscape informs his story in this "gin-infused world." Instead, this is a memoir about the pain of growing up gay in small town America.

From a young age, Brorby was taunted due to his interest (and enormous talent) in art and music, considered girlish pursuits.

Brorby's ticket out was education and the professional opportunities it opened up for him. He could now escape his "fossil-fuel heritage" and would not be confined to working in the coal industry. Truly, the chances are very slim he ever would have become an author had he not been gay. If not for his hometown's rejection of sexuality, he may never have been compelled to discover his own literary talent.

He also writes about Medora, the popular resort town and home of the Cowboy Hall of Fame in the heart of Theodore Roosevelt National Park. With folk singers and beautiful horseback riding trails, ironically, it also happens to be "the gayest town in the West."

There are occasional unexpected outbursts of violence in the memoir, and viciousness, even from family, such as from the aunt who cruelly outed him, destroying his relationship with his parents. In stark contrast, it was easy to come out to his beloved grandfathers, men from the greatest generation, a farmer and a coal miner who had forged their own way on the prairie.

Unconditionally, instinctually, these were men who knew how to discern what is important from what is irrelevant, and no matter what, they made it clear they would always love him.

'Boys and Oil: Growing Up Gay in a Fractured Land' by Taylor Brorby, 2022, Liveright/Norton, www.norton.com www.taylorbrorby.com $27.95