Legend: My Body as the Middle West -- Map 1: Geographical Solutions : A map of the Middle West, with insets past and current -- Map 2: Alabaster City's Gleam : A body map of Chicago, with insets -- Map 3: American Doll : A map of Hong Kong imagined, with Avenue H insets -- Map 4: Mapping the Body Back : An overlay map, with pages illegible or missing -- Triptik: On a Clear Day, Catalina : Los Angeles itinerary, with overlooks and day trips -- Unmapped: Cities of Possibility -- Map 5: When We Were in the Projects : A topography of my mother's and my Chicago -- Map 6: Navigating Jazz : A map to the end of longing, with insets of my father's and my escape -- Map 7: Here Be Monsters : A cartography of the prairie, with overlays and panorama feature -- Triptik: Waterfront Property : New Orleans itinerary, with overlooks and meanderings -- Remapped: City in the Middle -- Legend Reinscribed: The Middle West as My Body -- Postmetropolis: Body Geographic -- About the Maps
A memoir from the award-winning author of My Lesbian Husband, Barrie Jean Borich's Body Geographic turns personal history into an inspired reflection on the points where place and person intersect, where running away meets running toward, and where dislocation means finding oneself. One coordinate of Borich's story is Chicago, the prototypical Great Lakes port city built by immigrants like her great-grandfather Big Petar, and the other is her own port of immigration, Minneapolis, the combined skylines of these two cities tattooed on Borich's own back. Between Chicago a
