Leaving Isn't the Hardest Thing

Lauren Hough traces the long aftermath of growing up in the Children of God, a cult that took her family across countries while leaving little room for a self of her own. Leaving it behind opens a succession of other lives: military service, working as a bouncer and installing cable, finding relationships and starting over. Across these essays, Hough considers how class, sexuality and institutional power shape what survival demands. Her experiences as a lesbian in the Air Force and as a working-class woman complicate any easy story of escape. The collection follows the effort to claim a voice while recognizing how persistently childhood can accompany a person into adulthood.