Diary of a Misfit

A Memoir and a Mystery

By: Casey Parks

Narrated by: Casey Parks

Length: 14 hrs and 39 mins

Publisher's summary

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF 2022 by The Washington Post, Boston Globe, Booklist, Kirkus Reviews, New York Public Library, Minneapolis Star Tribune

Part memoir, part sweeping journalistic saga: As Casey Parks follows the mystery of a stranger's past, she is forced to reckon with her own sexuality, her fraught Southern identity, her tortured yet loving relationship with her mother, and the complicated role of faith in her life.

"Most moving is Parks’s depiction of a queer lineage, her assertion of an ancestry of outcasts, a tapestry of fellow misfits into which the marginalized will always, for better or worse, fit."—The New York Times Book Review

When Casey Parks came out as a lesbian in college back in 2002, she assumed her life in the South was over. Her mother shunned her, and her pastor asked God to kill her. But then Parks's grandmother, a stern conservative who grew up picking cotton, pulled her aside and revealed a startling secret. "I grew up across the street from a woman who lived as a man," and then implored Casey to find out what happened to him.

Diary of a Misfit is the story of Parks's life-changing journey to unravel the mystery of Roy Hudgins, the small-town country singer from grandmother’s youth, all the while confronting ghosts of her own.

For ten years, Parks traveled back to rural Louisiana and knocked on strangers’ doors, dug through nursing home records, and doggedly searched for Roy’s own diaries, trying to uncover what Roy was like as a person—what he felt; what he thought; and how he grappled with his sense of otherness. With an enormous heart and an unstinting sense of vulnerability, Parks writes about finding oneself through someone else’s story, and about forging connections across the gulfs that divide us.

©2022 Casey Parks (P)2022 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"Diary of a Misfit is at once dewy-eyed and diligent, capricious and capacious, empathetic and exacting. It’s as richly textured as a pot of gumbo. As a work of autobiography, it’s maximalist; subtitled A Memoir and a Mystery, it certainly is both of those things, but it’s also an assiduous family history, a decades-spanning community chronicle à la Sarah Broom’s The Yellow House, a coming-out narrative, a dive into Christian denominations, a wrestling with Southern heritage... Most moving is Parks’s depiction of a queer lineage, her assertion of an ancestry of outcasts, a tapestry of fellow misfits into which the marginalized will always, for better or worse, fit."—Michelle Hart, New York Times Book Review (cover review)

"Parks...[is] a vivid storyteller...Readers familiar with her work in the New Yorker and the New York Times Magazine know her as a thoughtful, precise journalist who communicates her characters’ humanity and the stakes of a story through evocative details....Parks’s writing shines in the story that she can meticulously report: her own...Parks is an exceptional chronicler of her family and experience. She leans into the beats of stories she’s expertly honed over the years...She manages the rare feat of writing about her family with both an awareness of its flaws and a respect for privacy. She chooses revealing anecdotes carefully, alluding to family challenges that aren’t hers to share. A self-described listener, she chronicles her pain at a remove...Some scenes feel straight out of Mary Karr, but without the raw rancor...a compelling triumph"—Charley Locke, The Washington Post

"[A] stunning work of memoir and reportage.... Delving deep into ideas of sexuality, identity, otherness, and love, Diary of a Misfit is a must-read."—Sarah Neilson, Them

Great story and so well read!

This moving memoir is so well-written and compelling. Heartbreaking and hope-giving. And the writer herself does a wonderful job of reading it to us.

Reader

Loved the story and the writing .The reading was a bit mono toned for me.

One of my fav memoirs, ever

I love memoirs and this one is superb. I’m a queer person from Mississippi, and I’ve never read an account that made me feel so seen. Perfectly captures the complicated relationships between family/home and wanting to feel seen and loved for who you are.

My favorite book of 2022

This was absolutely stellar. Beautifully written, a story of identity, family, and belonging. A story that opens up the south like I haven’t read before. I hope Casey gets all of the accolades she deserves. I laughed, cried, questioned, and thought all throughout this book.

Great story, Casey

It is good to hear your voice again. It was also good to hear your reference to our meeting, if even obliquely, when you mentioned covering the story about the “multi-modal” center in Hillsboro. I loved the story, and will read it again.
Best wishes,
Hal on wheels Ballard

All Misfits Will Identify.

Historically all those who were different in some way had to leave for the cities if they couldn’t be invisible or at least seen as benign, or else fall outside the social umbrella of protection. The police aren’t called when they are part of the potential violence that can occur, or blame you for being attacked bc you’re dressed like a _________ (man, whore, foreigner..).
This audio version of the book is very good. It really makes the difference w regional accents and here the Southern cadences come through where a paper book wouldn’t do so enough.
How many Roy’s in this country over the many decades and centuries becoming what’s expected just to not be murdered. Wearing the dresses, getting married, becoming spinster sisters, working night shifts to be less visible etc. etc.
This speaks to severe poverty and class issues as much as gender & sexual orientation.
Will listen again as it’s a very experiential process, and I often felt a like a silent witness there with them.
I’m certain I’ll get a whole different book going in a 2nd time around.
Be aware - this book may not be the best thing to read right now if you are finding life very hard, are depressed etc. This is most often a fluid narrative, but can be very emotional heavy to endure, at time if feel very sad and emotionally weighted even when not listening.
That fear and shame and trauma and guilt and disassociation that humans can experience is all here, and is sometimes left in your lap or heart and you only know bc you’re aware immersed in and now living it only slightly how they did.

Let people be their authentic selves!

Such a good book. The author’s narration is excellent! Casey’s story made me remember, again, not only how conservative our area is (she writes about a Louisiana that’s only 137 miles from my Louisiana) but how stifling it is. Years ago my daughter and I discussed if you lived in a conservative area, liberals probably weren’t as liberal as they could be because of the environment of repression.

Casey writes about Roy’s struggles to be accepted for who he was. I empathize with Roy. And I’m thankful Casey spent years working to tell Roy’s story. Bullying still happens today. And today we have social media, which gives cyber bullies huge a platform.

It’s really important to hear the stories from and about the people who are bullied. But, damn, it would be really great if people would stop bullying and cyber harassing people. This sh** destroys lives and the potential people have in life.

What happens when someone is bullied? This passage from Casey’s “Diary of a Misfit: A Memoir and a Mystery” sums it up ~

““You know,” Mark said, “one thing about Royce, the way she was treated by some people and the way her life went, society was robbed of potential. How many potentials does our society rob by bullying and treating people like Royce was treated? Royce could have been a nurse. She could have been, for all I know, a journalist because of the way she loved to write. That’s sad, isn’t it?””

(Casey writes about Roy with he/him pronouns. In this passage Mark calls Roy Royce and uses she/her pronouns.)

Stunning.

Beautifully written and read. What an absolute treasure. Grateful to Casey for so lovingly sharing Roy’s story and her own.

Excellent

This piece was completely captivating. The story spoke to the realness of the individuals in it. I appreciate the opportunity to be a part of Casey’s perspective just for a little while. Especially as a queer woman born in the same time period.

Genuineness and Projection

Learned a lot. Felt very honest, genuine. Sometimes I got confused on the details, but I probably spaced out listening. Author/reader has a pleasant voice. She provided lots of insights and examples on how we project our desires and values onto others.