Lonely Veteran's Guide to Companionship
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A01=Bronson Lemer
American veteran
Author_Bronson Lemer
autobiography
Category=DNC
Category=JBSJ
Category=NHWR9
companionship
connection
contemporary
dating
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
essay collection
essays
expat
expatriot
exploration
gay
identity
intersectional
LGBT
LGBTQ
literature
loneliness
memoir
military
military narratives
military service
outsiders
personal essays
popular culture
queer
queer culture
queer literature
queer memoir
reintegration
self-discovery
sexuality
social media
society
US veteran
veteran
Product details
- ISBN 9780299350741
- Weight: 454g
- Dimensions: 140 x 216mm
- Publication Date: 08 Apr 2025
- Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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In this collection of interrelated essays, Bronson Lemer explores companionship through the lens of a queer veteran, focusing on the difficulty of forming true connections with others, including a “battle buddy” during basic training, the people he meets while teaching in China, and the spirit of a long-dead older sister. Lemer uses lessons from popular culture and literature—the globe-trotting exploits of fictional criminal Carmen Sandiego, the sexual exploration in Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room, the expatriate longing in Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast, just to name a few—as a means to think more broadly about the role of the outsider and how we navigate aimlessness while searching for stability and meaning.
Lemer’s distinct take on the veteran’s story boldly engages the intersection of military narratives and queer culture, including examinations into the role of thirst traps in contemporary dating culture, the fears of long-term health damage caused by military service, and the ways in which intimate relationships can lead to a loss of self. Taken together, his essays illustrate how one queer veteran managed to carve out a path that led him, however awkwardly at times, closer to the person he wanted to be.
Lemer’s distinct take on the veteran’s story boldly engages the intersection of military narratives and queer culture, including examinations into the role of thirst traps in contemporary dating culture, the fears of long-term health damage caused by military service, and the ways in which intimate relationships can lead to a loss of self. Taken together, his essays illustrate how one queer veteran managed to carve out a path that led him, however awkwardly at times, closer to the person he wanted to be.
Bronson Lemer is the author of The Last Deployment: How a Gay, Hammer-Swinging Twentysomething Survived a Year in Iraq. His work has appeared in Guernica, Creative Nonfiction, the Southeast Review, Twentysomething Essays by Twentysomething Writers, and other publications. A McKnight Writing Fellow, he lives in St. Paul, Minnesota.
