Tramps Like Us
Paperback
General FictionGeneral GLBTQIA Fiction
Publisher Price: $19.00
ISBN13: 9780374614003
Publisher: MCD
Published: Jun 3 2025
Pages: 384
Weight: 0.75
Height: 1.10 Width: 5.30 Depth: 8.10
Language: English
[A] minor classic, one that packs in vastly more life than many more serious novels do . . . A novel that tastes life at first hand; it's a palate cleanser for jaded appetites. --Dwight Garner, The New York Times
A spare, unflinching, generous and lusty masterpiece of adventure writing. --Andrea Lawlor, author of Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl
A treasured cult classic following a young gay man crisscrossing 1970s and '80s America in search of salvation. Now reissued with an introduction from Eileen Myles and an afterword from the author.
Abused by his father and stifled by closeted life as a teenager in Kansas City, Joe, the wide-eyed narrator of Tramps Like Us, graduates from high school in 1974 and hits the road hitchhiking. But it isn't until he reunites with Ali, his hometown's other queer outcast, that Joe finds a partner in crime. When the two of them finally wash up in New Orleans, they discover a hedonistic paradise of sex, drugs, and music, a world that only expands when they move to San Francisco in 1979. Told with openhearted frankness, Joe Westmoreland's Tramps Like Us is an exuberantly soulful adventure of self-discovery and belonging, set across a consequential American decade. In New Orleans and San Francisco, and on the roads in between, Joe and Ali find communities of misfits to call their own. The days and nights blur, a blend of LSD and heroin, new wave and disco, orgies and friends, and the thrilling spontaneity of youth--all of which is threatened the moment Joe, Ali, and seemingly everyone around them are diagnosed with HIV. But miraculously, the stories survive. As Eileen Myles writes, I love this book most of all because it is so mortal. Back in print after two decades and with an introduction by Myles and an afterword by the author, Tramps Like Us is an ode to a nearly lost generation, an autofictional chronicle of America between gay liberation and the AIDS crisis, and an evergreen testament to the force of friendship.
2 different editions
Also available
Also from
Westmoreland, Joe
Also in
General GLBTQIA Fiction
The Husky and His White Cat Shizun: Erha He Ta de Bai Mao Shizun (Novel) Vol. 10
Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou
Paperback
Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo DAO Zu Shi (Deluxe Hardcover Novel) Vol. 1
Mo Xiang Tong Xiu
Hardcover
Heaven Official's Blessing: Tian Guan CI Fu (Deluxe Hardcover Novel) Vol. 1
Mo Xiang Tong Xiu
Hardcover
This Princess Kills Monsters: The Misadventures of a Fairy-Tale Stepsister: A Novel
Herman, Ry
Paperback
The Husky and His White Cat Shizun: Erha He Ta de Bai Mao Shizun (Novel) Vol. 9
Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou
Paperback
Heaven Official's Blessing: Tian Guan CI Fu (Deluxe Hardcover Novel) Vol. 7
Mo Xiang Tong Xiu
Hardcover
Heaven Official's Blessing: Tian Guan CI Fu (Deluxe Hardcover Novel) Vol. 2
Mo Xiang Tong Xiu
Hardcover
The Husky and His White Cat Shizun: Erha He Ta de Bai Mao Shizun (Novel) Vol. 8
Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou
Paperback
Heaven Official's Blessing: Tian Guan CI Fu (Deluxe Hardcover Novel) Vol. 6
Mo Xiang Tong Xiu
Hardcover
Everything for Everyone: An Oral History of the New York Commune, 2052-2072
Abdelhadi, Eman
O'Brien, M. E.
Paperback
Heaven Official's Blessing: Tian Guan CI Fu (Deluxe Hardcover Novel) Vol. 3
Mo Xiang Tong Xiu
Hardcover
Heaven Official's Blessing: Tian Guan CI Fu (Deluxe Hardcover Novel) Vol. 5
Mo Xiang Tong Xiu
Hardcover
Both/And: Essays by Trans and Gender-Nonconforming Writers of Color
Electric Literature
Norris, Denne Michele
Hardcover
Heaven Official's Blessing: Tian Guan CI Fu (Deluxe Hardcover Novel) Vol. 4
Mo Xiang Tong Xiu
Hardcover
The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System: Ren Zha Fanpai Zijiu Xitong (Deluxe Hardcover Novel) Box Set
Mo Xiang Tong Xiu
Hardcover
Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo DAO Zu Shi (Deluxe Hardcover Novel) Vol. 2
Mo Xiang Tong Xiu
Hardcover
Pumpkin Spice and Poltergeist: A cozy sapphic paranormal rom-com
Morrison, K. Elle
Mulford, Ali K.
Paperback
