The Double Dutch Fuss: A Memoir

Emmy-winning director Branch explores the fault lines between identity, ambition, and social expectation in his poignant debut memoir. “I felt ruined from the start,” Branch begins, charting his coming-of-age as a Black queer boy in 1980s Newark, N.J., where he felt more comfortable jumping rope than playing football. Nevertheless, his father and community enforced rigid codes of Black masculinity, and Branch vividly recalls his early discovery that language, when wielded correctly, could both move others and protect him from harm. That knowledge carried him from Hampton College to Los Angeles, where he tried to balance screenwriting aspirations with economic necessity, leading him to a string of survival jobs. When Branch’s father suffered a heart attack, Branch ambivalently left a lover in California to care for his dad in Virginia, confronting unresolved tensions in the process. Their reunion provides the book’s emotional core, with Branch’s father’s “gruff voice” becoming a “song of salvation” as he unpacks their complicated bond. Unflinching and compassionate in equal measure, Branch’s moving autobiography probes the fragile process of forgiveness and the enduring ties between fathers and sons. It’s a resonant story of reconciliation and self-acceptance. (June)