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The Last One Picked for the Team
"The Last One Picked for the Team," tells connective stories about growing up gay in the 1950s, through decades of constant change and adjustment in American culture. But it is more than a gay coming out story. It chronicles the author's effort to lead separate personal and professional lives and its impact on both. Readers of varied backgrounds will relate to these experiences.
When other boys dreamed of careers as athletic stars, Joseph M. Farley fantasized about news, newspapers, and writing. His successful but youthful experience as a newspaper reporter also contributes to the narrative. He eventually transitioned into employment as a teacher, school principal, and district superintendent. The book includes fascinating, challenging, and sometimes disturbing stories from those workplaces, putting them in context with Farley's adjustment to life as a gay man. Farley ultimately attributes his professional success to being gay.
Readers will also learn of battles the author waged in significant organizations he led. They will hear of subtly delivered discrimination, attempted blackmail by an elected official, murders; one of them connected to serial killer Andrew Cunanan; a marriage to a woman, and then to a man. The book also describes living on the edge of many significant cultural changes that took place in America from 1950 to today.
"The Last One Picked for the Team," is reminiscent of "The Best Little Boy in the World," by Andrew Tobias; and Paul Monette's "Becoming a Man," because like Monette, Farley excelled early as a writer, and like Tobias; he is gay, but has not been a gay crusader. This book will resonate with people trying to find their place in the world, parents, educators, organizational leaders of many stripes and types, those on the margins of conventional acceptance, and people of all ages and generation
When other boys dreamed of careers as athletic stars, Joseph M. Farley fantasized about news, newspapers, and writing. His successful but youthful experience as a newspaper reporter also contributes to the narrative. He eventually transitioned into employment as a teacher, school principal, and district superintendent. The book includes fascinating, challenging, and sometimes disturbing stories from those workplaces, putting them in context with Farley's adjustment to life as a gay man. Farley ultimately attributes his professional success to being gay.
Readers will also learn of battles the author waged in significant organizations he led. They will hear of subtly delivered discrimination, attempted blackmail by an elected official, murders; one of them connected to serial killer Andrew Cunanan; a marriage to a woman, and then to a man. The book also describes living on the edge of many significant cultural changes that took place in America from 1950 to today.
"The Last One Picked for the Team," is reminiscent of "The Best Little Boy in the World," by Andrew Tobias; and Paul Monette's "Becoming a Man," because like Monette, Farley excelled early as a writer, and like Tobias; he is gay, but has not been a gay crusader. This book will resonate with people trying to find their place in the world, parents, educators, organizational leaders of many stripes and types, those on the margins of conventional acceptance, and people of all ages and generation
394 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 13, 2022
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