The novel Blackouts explores queer history through the memories of two men in a mentor-mentee relationship. Juan and nene discuss their experiences as gay men and Juan tells nene about Jan Gay and the Sex Variants book that co-opted her research on the lives of lesbian women. While the novel is a work of fiction, Jan Gay was a real person, and Sex Variants a real book.
The novel is intertextual and genre bending, using photographs, blackout poems, and other mixed media alongside the highly fragmented narrative. Ten years after his beloved debut novel We the Animals, Torres has received ample positive praise for the uniqueness and beauty of Blackouts. It was named the winner of the 2023 National Book Award for Fiction.
