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1.05k reviews for:
Hola Papi: How to Come Out in a Walmart Parking Lot and Other Life Lessons
John Paul Brammer
4.06 AVERAGE
1.05k reviews for:
Hola Papi: How to Come Out in a Walmart Parking Lot and Other Life Lessons
John Paul Brammer
4.06 AVERAGE
CW: suicide ideation
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I really enjoyed this book, and especially appreciated Brammer's narratives around his suicide ideation over the years. Even in the moments where his answers to questions from others are "I don't know," the journey there is very clear, well explained, and likely relatable for a lot of queer folks. He also includes great reflections on situationships, navigating queerness is rural areas, and more.
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I really enjoyed this book, and especially appreciated Brammer's narratives around his suicide ideation over the years. Even in the moments where his answers to questions from others are "I don't know," the journey there is very clear, well explained, and likely relatable for a lot of queer folks. He also includes great reflections on situationships, navigating queerness is rural areas, and more.
Introspective, hilarious at times, but ultimately a lesson that teaches us that we are all authors of our own lives and our experiences, whether exciting or dull, make up the story.
So well written, even the weak chapters are good. The strong chapters are downright moving. All of it resonated with me, as a gay man of a certain age. There’s wisdom here for anyone. Highly recommend. And it’s a fun read. His voice is natural and winning. I hope he writes more.
emotional
funny
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
John Paul Brammer has written a memoir disguised as responses to very basic one sentence advice column questions. Brammer’s words are interesting and worthwhile, but if you wrote to him and got a long personal essay about something that happened in his life that shaped his worldview, tangentially linked to your incredibly vague question, would you be happy?
Still, there are essay collections that are constructed on flimsier pretexts, and ¡Hola Papi! has a clear thesis and through line. Brammer only barely scratches the surface of his imposter syndrome, and you’d think he only had a mother and an abuela if you didn’t see that he thanks his father (mentioned in passing) and sister in the acknowledgements.
Within its bounds, ¡Hola Papi! is a slim volume that gives a strong sense of Brammer’s character — enough to know if you'd like to spend more time with him. Maybe his advice will help you, but that’s the least useful approach to reading the book.
Still, there are essay collections that are constructed on flimsier pretexts, and ¡Hola Papi! has a clear thesis and through line. Brammer only barely scratches the surface of his imposter syndrome, and you’d think he only had a mother and an abuela if you didn’t see that he thanks his father (mentioned in passing) and sister in the acknowledgements.
Within its bounds, ¡Hola Papi! is a slim volume that gives a strong sense of Brammer’s character — enough to know if you'd like to spend more time with him. Maybe his advice will help you, but that’s the least useful approach to reading the book.
Wonderful writing from an interesting character. He is both relatable and easy to follow. Definitely a recommendation from now on.
Even though I may have read some of these stories from his postings on Twitter, it was refreshing to listen to him through the audiobook and felt immersive. I may have to revisit some chapters again. Beautifully told and authentically written.
Beautiful little memoir of a young man wrestling with his identity and using it to help give advice to others in his advice column. It’s has moments of joy, and sadness, and deep pain that so many can relate to. The raw openness was a lovely view into the the lives of others who feel othered.
Even though I'm from a different generation and cultural background, I found a lot I could relate to in John Paul Brammer's funny and touching memoir. Each chapter starts off with a question from an anonymous advice-seeker who is looking for answers to life's problems by writing to Hola Papi, the online gay advice column written by author John Paul Brammer. Brammer uses the questions as springboards to write about his own life and how he faced similar challenges to those asked by the advice-seekers. It's a clever device and since the questions are vague enough (for example "How do you keep chasing your dreams even though you're most definitely a failure?") I found myself reflecting on my own life and surprisingly discovered that I had a lot in common with a Mexican-American author who is probably young enough to be my grandson. That's definitely not something I expected when I cracked open this book, but then, maybe certain gay experiences are universal, or if not universal, at least relatable to those of us who grew up in a society where coming out could feel like walking through a mine field. There is a lot of wisdom in this book and as I read it, I was impressed by Brammer's powers of self-observation and his ability to learn from his experiences and to pass on what he learned with candor and much humor. This book made me wonder what I've learned from my own experiences and past mistakes and any book that can do that is one I can highly recommend.