Ken Carpenter

Borderlands Boy Ken Carpenter

This lyrical, moving and intensely personal coming-of-age memoir is also a coming out story of a gay boy from a conservative family growing up in the U. S. Southwest in an era of political, social and cultural transformation. It is also an extended reflection on the importance of place, time, history and geography in shaping who we are and who we become. In post-World War II America, the specter of nuclear destruction and environmental crises, challenges to racism and women's inequality, the Vietnam War and the sexual revolution threaten to tear the country apart. Already struggling with what it means to be different and what kind of man to become, the author faces the ultimate moral test of courage and conscience when he graduates from college and is drafted to fight in Vietnam. How will he navigate these tumultuous years and what will he learn from his experiences? How can he survive, find love and a purpose in life? And what lessons are there in such a story for future generations in a world without borders?