 
|
|
Hardcover
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc
In the tradition of such important best-sellers as Breaking the Surface by Greg Louganis, Behind the Mask by Dave Pallone and Going My Own Way by Billy Bean, this is a wonderful first-person account by a dirt-poor Samoan immigrant who won a football scholarship to Oregon State, was drafted by the Green Bay Packers and played for the Atlanta Falcons in the Super Bowl. Throughout this journey, Esera Tuaolo carried with him an agonizing secret: he is gay. Alone in the Trenches will take the reader behind the scenes into the world of professional football where as many as twenty-five players would meet for conferences of Christian prayer, during which the preacher would exhort them that homosexuality was a grave sin. Esera, a deeply religious man, would sit through such sessions pinned by his fellow players’ hatred for his hidden identity. Esera’s story is rife with heartbreak and, ultimately, hope. His beloved older brother and idol died of AIDS having never told his friends and loved ones that he was gay. Esera himself would find love with a man totally different culturally, a native of Minnesota, with whom he would adopt Samoan twins and begin a new life. As Esera puts it: "I am just your typical gay Samoan ex-nose tackle who would like to break into show business." A deeply moving and inspirational story.
| Customer Reviews: |
|
| |
| Good book and good man! |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
 |
|
The book was better than I imagined it would be. Esera is a good man with a good heart. His honesty comes through loud and clear. He explains how he navigated the world of sports and how he finally learned how to be a gay man in a relationship. He was lucky in that he found the right guy who loved him unconditionally. Really enjoyed this book.
|
| Another Brave Coming Out Story |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
|
|
Another in a growing list of coming out stories buy men in sports. The book movingly shows the internal struggles to fit in to the macho world of professional sports while trying to be true to oneself.
|
| Alone in the Trenches: A Must Read |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
|
|
Alone in the Trenches is a powerful story about Esera's struggles to be true to himself while also conforming to societal expectations for NFL players.
I can relate to Esera's experiences on a personal level, as I'm sure many will be able to, but what really pushes this book over the top is the blatant honesty and courage of Esera in publishing this material. By sharing his soul, Esera truly becomes a role model for all people.
The book is well-written and a very enjoyable read. Once I began, I could hardly put the book down. The praises of Alone in the Trenches cannot be sung enough. Everyone needs to read this book.
|
| Inspiring |
| Customer Rating: 4 out of 5 |
 |
|
Esera Tuaolo has written an inspiring account of his coming out process as a gay man. Within the formidably macho environs of the NFL he concealed his sexuality for years, at great pains to his own psyche and emotional well-being.
He then(with great courage and dignity)acknowledged to the world that he is a man proud of himself, his family and his sexuality. A complete human being at last.
Good on you Esera. I am sure that many gay people will take heart from your fine example and live their lives as themselves, not what they think society wants them to be.
|
| Alone No More |
| Customer Rating: 4 out of 5 |
|
|
Esera has been through a long struggle and come out on top. Now he is "Big Daddy" and Mitchell, his life partner, is "Little Daddy," to a pair of Samoan-American twins, Mitchell Junior and Michelle, and the two of them live quite, contented lives and travel frequently on Rosie O'Donnell's family cruises with their brood. Having twins has opened Esera's willingness to talk about his sexual preference, and he insists that he is doing it for them, so they will know how painful his life has been, in all its aspects.
He had it pretty bleak growing up, sort of like a Hawaiian version of Betty Smith's popular novel A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN, with a hardworking, sometimes impatient mother, and a charming, weak father who took away all of the fun with him when he died unexpectedly and far too young. And he had a gay older brother who died of AIDS, and a wicked uncle who began molesting little Esera when he was six, and who, in a melodramatic finish, got himself killed in a terrible accident and they had to identify his little pieces by his tattoos and dental work! It made me wonder, is the monster really dead? Or might he have faked his own death to avoid paying the consequences of messing with Esera--molestors, after all, know how to play the game and how to fool the rest of us who aren't sociopaths, and I thought, he's probably living the Gary Glitter lifestyle in Thailand or somewhere by now.
However, Esera seems quite certain he is dead. He has nothing good to say about Garrison Hearst either, which amused me! Don't invite those two to the same dinner party--Hearst would bolt like a scared jackrabbit!
Like other reviewers, I could have used a bit more detail about what sex is like when you're a closeted NFL star, for Esera is one of the view who has been through the neon inside and escaped to tell the story. And although he seems frank about his addictions to alcohol and grass (or whatever), I wonder if there isn't anything he's not telling us. In the meantime, I look forward to Esera's forthcoming CD of modern pop music, for the descriptions he gives of his haunting, majestic voice make him seem like a modern day Perry Como, only with more "ufis" (balls).
|
|
