Tramps Like Us: A Novel

A cult classic novel following Joe, a young gay man who leaves Kansas City after high school in 1974 and hitchhikes across 1970s and '80s America. After reuniting with Ali, another queer outcast from his hometown, the two travel together to New Orleans, where they encounter a world of sex, drugs, and music. In 1979, they move to San Francisco, where their experiences expand further. Told with frank openness, the novel chronicles Joe and Ali's search for community and belonging among other misfits across New Orleans, San Francisco, and the roads between them. Their days and nights blend together with LSD and heroin, new wave and disco, orgies and friendships, and the spontaneity of youth—until Joe, Ali, and those around them are diagnosed with HIV. Now reissued after two decades with an introduction by Eileen Myles and an afterword by the author, Tramps Like Us documents a generation between gay liberation and the AIDS crisis, told through the lens of friendship and survival.