Engine Running: Essays

by Cade Mason

Engine Running explores debut author Cade Mason’s gradual distancing from home and old selves alongside an increasingly fractured family doing the same. Starting at the beginning of his parents’ love and working past its end, he combs through memory to piece together a portrait of a family then and of a father, reeling after a blindsiding divorce; of a mother, anxious to move on; of a sister, caught in the crossfire; and of a son, learning to embrace his sexuality even as he fears that his own loves may have deepened the rift between his parents.

Lush and innovative, these essays contemplate childhood memories and family secrets, religion and queerness in the rural South, and the ways rituals and contours of manhood are passed through generations. Most of all, we feel with Mason what it is to grapple with and love a place even as you yearn to leave.

Genres: Nonfiction

190 pages, Paperback

Published December 5, 2022

Reviews

[R.J. Sorrento · Rating 5 out of 5]

I took my time with these essays that read as mini-memoirs about a very specific experience being queer in a rural environment and all that goes with it. The essays provide a sensory experience and are highly personal demonstrating the restrictions of religion on sexuality and gender as well as the interconnections within a family. I greatly appreciated the thoughtfulness of the author’s reflections on his coming of age as a queer person and the impact he feared his sexual orientation had on his family. Queer identity is often viewed through an urban lens, and it was refreshing to read about experiences beyond that perspective.

Thank you to the publisher for an ARC. This is my honest review.

[Ethan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review to come later, when my emotions are under control
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Sept. 2025 Update:

Truly just one of the best collections of personal essays I’ve ever. So much haunting beauty and love and West Texas dirt live in these lines. Just one of my personal favorite books ever.

[Kyra · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love a collection of short stories. There are some good ones in this book that explore identity, religion, and politics through the lens of a gay man coming of age in middle America.

[Elizabeth Sanders · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book uses an interesting mix of narrative structure, some more prose, some more poetry. At times this narrative structure successfully helps with invoking and capturing emotion, but other times it interferes with the narrative flow. I found it difficult to follow passage of time and events for some reason, which at times left me confused.