A collection of open-hearted meditations on contemporary manhood by an ex-pat of its blustery shores
Navigating life as a neurodivergent, non-binary person, Alex Manley explores their dislocations from the norm as part of a relentlessly personal journey, as seen through the variety of lenses that have defined them.
Post-Man delves into the ways in which Manley has always felt apart, alone, and othered, the ways in which they felt there was something wrong with them. In adulthood they came to recognise they were someone with depression, anxiety, ADHD, and possibly more, someone who existed outside the neat binary of gender that modern society imposes on us. These facets of personality have been consistent and undeniable presences in the author's life, slowly and ineluctably making their way to the surface.
Post-Man takes the reader through the stultifying machismo of hockey culture, the thrilling rule-breaking of jaywalking, the improbable job of working for a men's website, the strange unpleasantness of going bald as a non-binary person, and more, each essay digging down into the meat of these experiences in search for its beating heart.
'Post-Man is a work of striking honesty and irresistible curiosity. Page after page, Manley's analysis of gender dynamics balances forensic attention with tactile sensitivity. A thrilling detective story of
and a beautiful homecoming to
the self.'
Tajja Isen, author of Some of My Best Friends
'In these essays
steeped in internet lore and shimmering with a poet's sensibility
Alex Manley explores crushes, late-stage capitalism, and the shifting, searching, febrile landscape of gender. Throughout, Manley's prose is unwaveringly honest; Post-Man is an ode to language as its own way of figuring things out.'
Larissa Pham, author of Pop Song: Adventures in Art and Intimacy
'Post-Man is an unapologetic jaywalk through ideas so potent, they bleed into one another: the tenderness of becoming, the unlit edges of desire, chance encounters that change us forever, and being misunderstood through it all. In these razor-tipped essays, Alex Manley is both vulnerable and unrelentingly curious, a perpetual work-in-progress. You can't read this book and not feel something, everything.'
Daniel Allen Cox, author of I Felt the End Before It Came
