Rating: 
Summary: A Waste of Time
Review: Reading this book was a complete waste of time for me. From shallow characters to poorly described scenes to bland dialogues,the book has no literary merits whatsover. Whatever success it has achieved is perhaps due to the picture on the back flap of the jacket. I suppose most gay readers fell in love with Tom Dolby rather than with the book itself. If that's not the case, I don't understand why so many people fail to perceive the many self-evident flaws of this book (mentioned above).
Rating: 
Summary: A REALLY SOLID DEBUT
Review: Stumbled upon it, didn't know anything about it, but ended up devouring it in one night. Exciting, well-paced, frequently clever. Looking forward to more from the author.
Rating: 
Summary: The Trouble Book
Review: The best part of this book is the inside back dust jacket where there is a really hot picture of the author. (Unfortunately, his website is pretty bare bones with no additional hot pics.) As for the novel, it's good but not great. There's just not much substance to the story. A plus is that the book is free of the continuity mistakes, typos and grammatical errors frequently found in books of this genre, as it was published by a professional house. (The fact that I'm even making this comment relates back to the minimalist substance of the story.) But it is a first novel and we can hope that Tom Dolby will grow and grow. The potential is certainly there.
Rating: 
Summary: A dissapointment
Review: The book was a complete disappointment. After finishing the book I was left with a feeling of "so what!". Characters are superficial and "plastic". The "sex in the city" was more of a "premature ejaculation in the citadel" and what was lauded as "juicy" was irrelevant gossip.
The author's prejudices against HIV people were insensitive at least, perhaps offensive. ("No matter how fashionable the ads made it look, it didn't get around the fact that you had it. You were dirty, like an infected needle thrown in the trash." pages 155 - 156).
Rating:
Summary: Quick fun, but nothing remains
Review: The novel is a fast read with moments of fun, but the author seems unable to create a memorable character. Toby neds a lawyer at one point, but worries he can't afford one, even though his parents pay his rent in Manhattan and his mother just sold her company for $200 million. Huh? Many moments like this make the novel seem rushed.Alos, why does this novel have to be shelved in the gay section? It seemed pretty mainstream to me. I hate this hyper-classification.
Rating:
Summary: A rare achievement in gay fiction
Review: THE TROUBLE BOY is among that rare breed in gay fiction: a literary page-turner, a novel that is fun to read but will also make you think. Even after I finished, the story stayed with me, from the characters' run-ins with potential fame and celebrity to alcohol and drug abuse, relationships, sex, and HIV. The author doesn't serve up what is expected of a gay novel--instead, he portrays the misadventures of a tragically flawed hero and his idiosynchratic circle of friends. The main characters were fully developed, right down to the most specific quirks and foibles. Some of them were so realistically drawn that they reminded me of my own friends. The narrator, Toby, is not perfect, and like a real person, he sometimes does and says some not-so-perfect things. But while not always being likeable, he is always sympathetic. When I first heard about this novel, I was skeptical. I thought it was another "gay nightlife in NY" story. True, the book deals partially with the dishy, sometimes fluffy world of Manhattan nightlife, but this is not a fluffy book--it's actually quite dark and deep in parts, and makes you think about the hidden dangers and desires of young gay life. I also liked that the book wasn't about the character's "coming out" or acceptance of being gay. Instead, it's about something much more important that even straight people can relate to: a character who is coming to terms with being an adult.
Rating: 
Summary: Much More Than Skin Deep
Review: This book is deceptive. Early on there's a bit of name dropping. Designer names (Jimmy Choo?). Celebrity names (Rupert Everett? Rufus Wainwright?) - making it pretty easy to imagine that this is going to be just another "fabulous, frothy romp through the glittering world of gay New York." The queer version of chick-lit, if you will. "(Homo)Sex in the City." But not so. This tale of a recent Yale grad and aspiring writer trying to make his mark in the big city is actually a quite thoughtful and charming coming of age story. Sort of a gay bildungsroman for the new Millennium.
Toby Griffin, the protagonist, is a complex and fully realized character, a classic unreliable narrator who still manages to win the reader's sympathies despite his frequent misinterpretations, self-delusions and occasional blunders. Dolby has created a young man who we root for and, ultimately, one that we admire.
The book is told in first person narrative, with Toby relating his own story, except for Chapter Three, which, in a rather odd literary device, is told in third person. The reason given is that this Toby, the one who endures this particular, rather unsettling, experience, seemed like "...another person, another Toby Griffin." Although not problematic as such, this departure would have been even more effective if Dolby had chosen to use it again during (or immediately after) the book's decisive episode, a car accident that marks the turning point in Toby's fortunes and, more importantly, the point at which he must choose between right and wrong. It would have been the ideal way to illustrate how people can divorce themselves from poor or harmful choices in order to feel free of guilt. But this is a quibble on my part.
I enjoyed "The Trouble Boy" enormously. I think it truly has something for everyone. A bit of glamour. A few thinly disguised New York celebrity types that you'll almost, but not quite, recognize. A little sex. A little romance. A fair amount of wit and a whole lot of heart.
Rating:
Summary: Read it or you're in trouble
Review: This enjoyable romp through New York's hip urban gay scene centers around Toby, a young man of privilege trying to make his way in the editorial world. The environment of Toby and his friends is well-drawn, without the usual campiness you'd expect in a gay novel.
Toby's life gets complicated when he struggles to do right but is at cross hairs with greedy publicists and not-well-meaning others. He also spies guys he'd like--giving them names like "Subway Boy." Just as he thinks he is "Trouble Boy," he makes a decision to do the right thing. He emerges as a likable, growing man who transcends his upbringing and faces the future on his own.
Rating:
Summary: Coming of age novel
Review: This is a coming of age novel so subtle that the main character does not even realize it. "Toby" has led a shelter life in the cloistered parochial school world and the provinicial Manhattan club scene, and has very little understanding of nuance in the way people communicate with each other. The trick is, and no small trick is: the reader understands the main character's quivering naivete without the author having any understanding of it himself. This gives the book a nice comedy touch. The one drawback is the rather bland writing style. If Toby can polish his writing skills a little, he might be compared to a middle-aged Jay McInerfee in the future.
Rating:
Summary: Coming of age novel
Review: This is a coming of age novel so subtle that the main character does not even realize it. "Toby" has led a shelter life in the cloistered parochial school world and the provinicial Manhattan club scene, and has very little understanding of nuance in the way people communicate with each other. The trick is, and no small trick is: the reader understands the main character's quivering naivete without the author having any understanding of it himself. This gives the book a nice comedy touch. The one drawback is the rather bland writing style. If Toby can polish his writing skills a little, he might be compared to a middle-aged Jay McInerfee in the future.
|
