Barrie Jean Borich Libros

A memoir from the award-winning author of My Lesbian Husband, Barrie Jean Borich’s Body Geographic turns personal history into an inspired reflection on the points where place and person intersect, where running away meets running toward, and where dislocation means finding oneself. One coordinate of Borich’s story is Chicago, the prototypical Great Lakes port city built by immigrants like her great-grandfather Big Petar, and the other is her own port of immigration, Minneapolis, the combined skylines of these two cities tattooed on Borich’s own back. Between Chicago and Minneapolis Borich maps her own Midwest, a true heartland in which she measures the distance between the dreams and realities of her own life, her family’s, and her fellow travelers’ in the endless American migration. Covering rough terrain—from the hardships of her immigrant ancestors to the travails of her often-drunk young self, longing to be madly awake in the world, from the changing demographics of midwestern cities to the personal transformations of coming out and living as a lesbian—Body Geographic is cartography of high literary order, plotting routes, real and imagined, and putting an alternate landscape on the map.

Exploring the tension between tradition and modernity, the narrative immerses readers in the steel mill regions of Chicago and Northwest Indiana. The author reflects on her return for a wedding that symbolizes both connection and disillusionment. As families navigate their shared disappointments in a decaying landscape, the story reveals the duality of a place that once thrived on industry but now grapples with environmental devastation. Through lyrical prose, Borich captures the complexities of familial bonds and the haunting legacy of the industrial heartland.