Set against the present-day backdrop of their home in rural Spain, Juno Roche’s memoir portrays an individual rarely afforded opportunities to share such narratives. A writer, campaigner, and artist, A Working-Class Family Ages Badly is Roche’s first memoir. Their perspective (compassionate and insightful), and experiences (intergenerational family trauma, sex work, addiction) shape a life story that is raw, intimate, and determined to keep going.
Largely written during the pandemic, A Working-Class Family Aging Badly also revisits Roche’s life with HIV – outliving their diagnosis, with NHS texts about shielding prompting recollections of moments during the peak of the AIDS crisis. Roche reflects on their relationship with parents and siblings, sketching images through frank transcripts of phone conversations, childhood memories, and hopes for the years ahead. They also recall drug withdrawal during a trip to Egypt and treatment of those living with addiction, in a radical and accessible text woven with moments of Roche’s own sense of humour.
Yet Roche also rightly and modestly pauses on the events in their life reached with their own hard work and determination, which include a university degree, a successful career and homeownership. In writing their wonderfully honest and refreshing memoir, Juno Roche offers a voice that both deserves and needs to be heard.
A Working-Class Family Ages Badly, Juno Roche (Dialogue)
Price: £18.99. Info: here
words CHLOË EDWARDS
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