CREEP

A queer Latine author explores the multifaceted concept of a “creep.”

Gurba, the author of the acclaimed memoir Mean, begins her latest book with a memory of her and her friend Renee Jr.—daughter of Renee Sr., who gave the author her “second perm”—flinging “lesbian” Barbie dolls out of a 10th-story window purely to delight in the toys’ untimely deaths. “It’s easy to get sucked into playing morbid games,” writes Gurba, using this wickedly hilarious scene to frame a larger question: Who is called a creep, and why? In this and the following essays, the author compares her harmless childhood fascination with the macabre to legitimate creeps. These include writer William Burroughs, a “queer nihilist” and “outlaw” who got away with killing his wife; former Mexican president Carlos Salinas de Gortari, who shot and killed the family maid when he was just 4 years old; and Gurba’s own abusers, including a rapist named Tommy Jesse Martinez and an ex-boyfriend she calls Q, who “routinely raped, beat, and tortured me not because I’m stupid, not because I’m a masochist, and not because I’m insane. He did it because I’m a woman.” One of the most touching pieces traces how Gurba’s cousin’s search for basic safety ultimately landed her in jail, an outcome the author clearly connects to the racist war on drugs. Gurba’s lyrical prose forces us to face the sexism, racism, homophobia, and other systems of oppression that allow some Americans to get away with murder while the rest of us live in constant fear. Every piece is rife with well-timed humor and surprising conclusions, many of which come from the author's staggering command of history. Profoundly insightful, thoroughly researched, incredibly inventive, and laugh-out-loud funny, this book is a masterpiece of wit and vulnerability.

A truly exceptional essay collection about safety, fear, and power.