Eating Fire
Family Life on the Queer Side
Eating Fire follows in the steps of Riordon’s popular 1996 book Out our way, on gay and lesbian life in the country (BTL, 1996). This new set of tales examines the range in living patterns and relationships among queer families across Canada.
Eating Fire illuminates the rich diversity in which people negotiate their personal and public identities. As in all his writing and radio work, Riordon brings to this book a subtle, direct, and vivid style. For Eating Fire he travelled widely, engaging in significant new research and speaking with hundreds of fascinating people. The resulting book is wanted and needed in classrooms, within queer communities, and among everyone hungry for knowledge about the wide range of Canadian families.
More by this Author
Praise
This book is cause for celebration, honouring ordinary Canadians leading extraordinary lives, written by a storyteller with an eye for the complexities of the the heart.
– Richard Burnett, Hour magazine, Montreal
Michael Riordon brings us the singular and various voices of our tribe—worth everyone’s hearing.
– Jane Rule, author of After the Fire
Contents
| Preface | |
| Part I | Fruitful Couplings |
| Chapter 1 | War and Peace, and Celery |
| Chapter 2 | Dancing with Widows |
| Chapter 3 | The Hired Hand |
| Chapter 4 | Finding Home |
| Chapter 5 | Where the Boys Are |
| Chapter 6 | I've Looked at Life from Both Sides Now |
| Chapter 7 | Mr. Right |
| Chapter 8 | A Balance of Powers |
| Chapter 9 | Passage to India |
| Chapter 10 | War and Peace, and Bullshit |
| Part II | Family Values |
| Chapter 11 | My Son the Queen |
| Chapter 12 | My Name in the Snow |
| Chapter 13 | Modern Parenting |
| Chapter 14 | The Parental Urge |
| Chapter 15 | One of the Family |
| Chapter 16 | Bumps and Bruises |
| Chapter 17 | youth.org |
| Chapter 18 | Some Kindred Spirits |
| Chapter 19 | The Burden of Gravity |
| Part III | Roles in the Hay |
| Chapter 20 | 0977056: A Life |
| Chapter 21 | Exodus |
| Chapter 22 | Out There |
| Chapter 23 | You Gotta Have a Gimmick |
| Chapter 24 | Roaming with Roxy |
| Chapter 25 | And the Walls Came Tumbling Down |
| Chapter 26 | Walks with Smudge |
