Men We Reaped

There was a specific passage in the Men We Reaped where you explained how families transitioned to a matriarchal family structure from the nuclear structure. I feel like all the things you talk about in the memoir relate back to these ideas of a necessary matriarchal structure, of how men and the idea of masculinity require women to hold it up. When you talk about how much time and care your father lavished on the motorcycle, using desperately needed funds to buy this symbol of personal and solitary freedom, I feel like it provides context to the larger historical moment.
    I was also really moved by the scene where you talk about fiction writing and how difficult it was to make your male characters reflect the reality of the men in your life. It made me thin about how much maliciousness is required to write “real life”. I feel like memoir is such an interesting genre because it blends fiction and nonfiction, so that people in our lives take on the qualities of characters while still retaining the things that make them them.