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Summary
Summary
"A thoughtful and joyous literary experience that celebrates its characters and liberally rewards its readers." --New York Times Book Review, Editors' Choice
"I tore through this novel like an orphaned reader seeking a home in its ragtag yet shimmering world." -- Carrie Brownstein
"Our '90s nostalgia is hella high these days, and this tender, funny story made our aging hipster hearts sing." -- Marie Claire
A warm, funny, and whip-smart debut novel about rebellious youth, inconceivable motherhood, and the complications of belonging--to a city, a culture, and a family--when none of them can quite contain who you really are.
All of us were refugees of the nuclear family . . .
Twenty-three-year-old artist Andrea Morales escaped her Midwestern Catholic childhood--and the closet--to create a home and life for herself within the thriving but insular lesbian underground of Portland, Oregon. But one drunken night, reeling from a bad breakup and a friend's betrayal, she recklessly crosses enemy lines and hooks up with a man. To her utter shock, Andrea soon discovers she's pregnant--and despite the concerns of her astonished circle of gay friends, she decides to have the baby.
A decade later, when her precocious daughter Lucia starts asking questions about the father she's never known, Andrea is forced to reconcile the past she hoped to leave behind with the life she's worked so hard to build.
A thoroughly modern and original anti-romantic comedy, Stray City is an unabashedly entertaining literary debut about the families we're born into and the families we choose, about finding yourself by breaking the rules, and making bad decisions for all the right reasons.
Reviews (6)
School Library Journal Review
Johnson's fast-paced novel goes far beyond a typical coming-of-age story. In the late 1990s, Andrea Morales moves halfway across the country to Portland, OR, to attend college, where she experiences culture shock, prompting her to come out. Meanwhile, her Midwestern conservative family discovers she is a lesbian and severs ties-emotionally and financially. Andrea then immerses herself in the indie music scene and begins to build a family from her circle of friends, who turn out to be a tremendous support system when she becomes pregnant. The pregnancy is a result of Andrea's relationship with a male friend, and readers follow her exploration of her identity. The conflict and angst she experiences with her family, as well as within herself regarding her sexual orientation, are honest and genuine. Readers, especially those dealing with similar issues, will relate to this complex protagonist. Adding to the title's appeal, Johnson retains a sense of humor in the realistic dialogue among the well-developed characters, even as she handles serious issues in a frank manner. VERDICT A worthwhile addition to recent historical fiction.-April Sanders, Spring Hill College, Mobile, AL © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Johnson's smart and delightful debut is narrated by Andrea, a college student and self-described member of the Lesbian Mafia. The novel is set mostly in late-'90s Portland, but also flashes back to Andrea's repressive adolescence in Nebraska and forward a decade for its final section. Fresh from a painful breakup, Andrea receives a second emotional blow at the club where she goes to commiserate with her friends: she spots her ex, Flynn, in intimate conversation with her closest confidant, Vivian. This, and an abundance of alcohol, lead to a one-night dalliance with Flynn's friend Ryan, a hairdresser and aspiring musician. Andrea's fling with Ryan blossoms into a relationship, and she works to keep it secret and to understand her attraction to him, which unnerves her. When an unplanned pregnancy intervenes, must her life become conventional? A chief pleasure of the novel is its shagginess, reflected in Andrea's "mostly hopeful," unambitious, but inquisitive life. Johnson taps into a nostalgia for a reader's youth and a simpler time, and the story keeps its vitality and humor throughout. Agent: PJ Mark, Janklow & Nesbit Associates. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
A debut novel about the families we're given and the families we create.Andrea Morales is reeling from multiple romantic disappointments when she does the unthinkable: she has sex with a man. What should have been a one-time hook-up turns into a regular thing because it feels good to be wanted, and Ryan wants her. Of course, Andy has to keep this act of heresy a secret from the "lesbian Mafia," but that becomes impossible when she gets pregnant and decides to have a baby. The first section of this novel is set in Portland, Oregon, in 1998 and '99. This is the place Andy lands when she leaves small-town Nebraska and her parents behind. Portland is no Seattle, but there are plenty of hipster signifiers. Andy works in a letterpress studio. Her friends include a stripper and an apprentice tattoo artist. Just about everybody's in a band. In Andy's voice, Johnson depicts these people and this time with a fondness that borders on overfondness. Every detail is precious, and Johnson is sometimes given to overwriting. The amount of time that passes between Andy and Ryan's first night together and their eventual split is just a few months, but it takes up more than half the book. There's a short middle section devoted to a brief period in which Andy and Ryan are negotiating their future. This is told mostly in phone messages and unsent letters, and the device works to convey disconnect and miscommunication. A decade has passed by the time we reach the third section, and this is where one might wish that the first part of the novel had been tightened up to allow more development here. Andy is happily settled with Beatriz, the love of her life, when 10-year-old Lucia gets curious about her father. This part of the narrative feels rushed. Neither Beatriz nor Lucia emerges as anything more than sketches, and all-grown-up Andy and Ryan get short shrift, too. Still, this is a welcome look at a happily unconventional family.Quirky and sweet. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Johnson's terrific debut is set in Portland, Oregon, beginning in the late 1990s. After Andrea Morales' parents, back home in Nebraska, found out about her girlfriend, they stopped paying her Reed tuition. Andy scrapped together one more semester before dropping out; Portland, though, she'd never quit. A handful of years later, Andy emerges from the haze of a wrenching breakup, landing directly in the arms of musician Ryan, who's genuine and just available enough and seems to understand everything about Andy, except that she's gay. Disturbed that she's (mostly) enjoying their dalliance and terrified of explaining their arrangement to her fellow members of the Lesbian Mafia, Andy keeps things mum (plus the secrecy is kind of hot). It's a sticky situation, and then Andy finds out she's pregnant. Spanning several eras, up to Andy's present day, this is a coming-out and coming-of-age story; a surprise-I'm-pregnant story; a will-they-or-won't-they love story; and an ode to a time and place we think we've heard everything about and it's all utterly fresh. Portraying Portland and Andy's chosen family with feeling and immense charm, Johnson paints Andy's love for her kid, her city, herself, and others in all its thorny nuance and surprising glory. Recommend this to Jami Attenberg and Rainbow Rowell fans.--Bostrom, Annie Copyright 2018 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
THE OVERSTORY, by Richard Powers. (Norton, $27.95.) The science of botany and the art of storytelling merge to ingenious effect in Powers's magisterial new novel - a story in which people are merely the underbrush and the real protagonists are the trees that the human characters encounter. STRAY CITY, by Chelsey Johnson. (Custom House, $25.99.) Among the delights of this engrossing debut novel, about a single young lesbian mother, is how clearly Johnson delineates the psychosexual dualities and prejudices of our culture - how effortlessly she instructs even as she entertains. THINKING WITHOUT A BANISTER: Essays in Understanding, 1953-1975, by Hannah Arendt. Edited by Jerome Kohn. (Schocken, $40.) Arendt's urbane and unceremonious style is in full display in these essays from the last two decades of her life. Many of the pieces deal with political events and intellectual issues of the time, but they retain a striking relevance in the Age of Trump. THE SANDMAN, by Lars Kepler. Translated by Neil Smith. (Knopf, $27.95.) In this Nordic noir thriller, with resonant echoes of "The Silence of the Lambs," two Swedish cops can only crack their case by befriending an imprisoned serial killer. TO CHANGE THE CHURCH: Pope Francis and the Future of Catholicism, by Ross Douthat. (Simon & Schuster, $26.) This book, together with two of Douthat's previous books, is one part of a loose triptych about institutions in decline. Here, Douthat, a convert to Catholicism as well as a columnist for The New York Times, focuses on what he sees as a crisis of the church, brought on by the accommodationist policies of Pope Francis. CLOUDBURSTS: Collected and New Stories, by Thomas McGuane. (Knopf, $34.95.) People living on the fringes - loners and schemers - populate these brilliant and compulsively readable short stories. You may find yourself tearing through the book like a flash flood washing out a dirt road. THE GHOST NOTEBOOKS, by Ben Dolnick. (Pantheon, $25.95.) Dolnick doesn't employ screaming demons or blood-dripping walls in this well-crafted thriller about newlyweds who have moved into a decidedly creepy farmhouse. His brand of haunting is much more subtle - and much scarier. HIGH-RISERS: Cabrini-Green and the Fate of American Public Housing, by Ben Austen. (Harper/HarperCollins, $27.99.) This history of a notorious low-income development in Chicago shows how public housing became a symbol for policy gone awry. BE PREPARED, by Vera Brosgol. (First Second, $16.99; ages 8 to 12.) In this winning graphic novel based on the author-illustrator's childhood, 8-year-old Vera, a Russian immigrant, longs to go to sleepaway camp like her American friends. The full reviews of these and other recent books are on the web: nytimes.com/books
Library Journal Review
DEBUT No one appreciates a sense of community quite like an exile, and this first novel revolves around the lesbian community in pre-gentrification Portland, OR. Like many other queer kids, Andrea -Morales settles in the city after being cut off by her family for being gay. She gets by well enough with several part-time jobs, a rotating cast of roommates, and the many friends who serve as her new family. Her love life is a mess, however, and she finds it hard to avoid her ex around town. There is one area in which she finds some space and peace, though; surprisingly, it is with a man, Ryan. Andrea remains ambivalent about the relationship, and when she becomes pregnant and decides to keep the baby, Ryan bails. Ten years later, her daughter Lucia is starting to ask questions about her father, and Andrea needs to confront her past decisions while supporting her daughter's self-discovery. VERDICT This is a good choice for readers looking for an enjoyable read embracing complex and believable characters with the added benefit of an affectionate portrait of underground culture in Portland in the 1990s. [See Prepub Alert, 9/25/17.]-Devon Thomas, Chelsea, MI © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
