The Pink Marine

THE PINK MARINE is set in the Marine Corps in the 1980s. Our unlikely hero is a gay teen who joins the Corps with his straight best friend. And yes, it's insanely dangerous for both of them. But as fate would have it, turns out the Few and the Proud are a bunch of oddballs and eccentrics - and thus, a brotherhood is born. In a world where the landmines are both literal and metaphorical, this memoir takes a hard - and hilarious - look at masculinity and what it means to belong.

When Greg Cope White's best friend tells him he's spending his summer in Marine Corps boot camp at Parris Island, South Carolina, all Greg hears is 'summer' and 'camp'. Despite dire warnings from his friend Dale, Greg vows to join him in recruit training. He's eighteen, underweight, he's never run a mile-and he's gay. Greg's sheltered life hadn't prepared him for military service. He packed five suitcases, since he'd never been away from home for thirteen weeks. The U.S. Marines stripped him from all of that, shaved his head and put a rifle in his hands. At first he struggles to keep up, afraid his secret will be discovered. But midway through, the desire to survive and become a Marine trumps fear. He learns that everyone, just like in the real world, comes into the service feeling 'different'; possibly prejudged for the color of their skin, their weight, their poverty--some have even chosen boot camp over jail. Can a flighty, 112-pound, unmanly Texan transform into one of the few, the proud, the Marines? Will Greg even survive?