DREAM BOY: A Novel

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful and powerful tale of love
Review: This novel is one of the best books I have read in a long time. The language is almost deceptively straightforward. While seeming simple, it carries a tremendously rich and powerful emotional resonance. I really loved this novel, which is first, a (hot) gay teen love story and second, a brutal dream sequence. You will get drawn in by this tale. You'll feel like your mind has left your body and your spirit is trapped within this novel's walls

Rating:
Summary: An amazing emotional journey
Review: Read this! I have never read a novel like this, nor have I read any writer writes like this. Jim Grimsley writes like a liar, using simple sentences and structure on surface but tells a story that has complex emotions and goes straight and deep into your heart

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing.
Review: Having read all the five-starred reviews this book received (especially on the US Amazon site) i decided to add it to my summer reading list. However, I was brutally disappointed with the book. Minor nuances include the use of over-ambitious and flowery prose, which seemed to me to serve only as a distraction to the issues at hand. Particularly cringe-worthy are some of the sexual euphemisms employed, which do nothing but to lend a feeling of tackiness to the story - towards the end i was unsure whether i'd purchased a piece of serious young adult literature, or rather a crass erotica. What i found most unsettling about this book was the superficial, fleeting and perfunctory manner in which the author went about the issue of sexual abuse. I felt the author failed to handle the issue seriously enough, having seemingly included it only to add bulk to the novella - what really quite disturbed me was the apparent absolution the abusive father receives towards the closing chapters (and this, through the narrative, not the action!). Further, such poor handling of the issue, in addition to the allusions made to it, added only to the perceived depravity of the book, making it feel more like a sleazy, or even perverse, work in certain scenes. The story could have had such potential to be an enjoyable read, if only the characters had been developed more fully, and the major themes of the book and their ramifications explored on a more pertinent level and handled with more sensitivity. Despite this, i have given the book three stars, because on a very superficial level at least, the book was enjoyable, and did keep me engaged.

Rating:
Summary: Heartrenching
Review: For me, along with Marilyne Robinson's "Housekeeping," this book is the most beautifully written, heartfelt I have ever read. My reaction was so similar to other reviewers who posted here, I don't know if I have anything new to add. However, I feel so strongly about this book that I am compelled to contribute my opinion anyway. I, too, read "Dream Boy" in one sitting and, upon finishing, felt bereft, devastated for days afterward. The book's power derives not merely from the fairly simply, straightforward story, but from the writing itself which is positively transcendent. Mr. Grimsley works magic, at once exercising incredible brevity while achieving a kind of quiet poetry with his carefully chosen words. A boy's body, arching toward his lover, is described as a "curve of yearning," and at their first touch, the other boy, "...makes one sound, throaty and startled, like an animal giving a single warning." Spare, sensual, erotic, yet strangely disquieting.

Grimsley manages to create an aura of wonderment, joy even, in the boys' sexual discovery while at the same time running an undercurrent of dread through the entire slim volume, foreshadowing the book's heartrenching climax. Interestingly, although I suspect most people misinterpreted or simply missed this, Grimsley provides several clues strongly suggesting that it's jealousy, not homophopia that precipitates the story's inevitable, horrifying tragedy. The final nine chapters, some as brief as half a page, present a spiritual, open ended denouement that offers a whisper of hope for those of us still haunted and despairing.


Rating:
Summary: sad yet sweet reverie
Review: ...when i finished i felt like i wanted to cry, but couldn't; your reviews were really enlightening and i thankfully and finally sobbed for all the sadness, lust and disquiet in this deceptive little tome, for the bond that could not be theirs, some weren't much for the present tense, it hooked me before i realized that's what made it such a swift read. And no, we're not given much of Nathan physically to go on, so he remains ethereal, all raw emotions, ideas and secrets, whoever you want him to be, much like Roy, who seems perplexed, more confused than insensitive, yet awash in his inexplicable need to be held, touched, to protect and understand, indeed within himself, the enigma that is Nathan. Almost gave it four stars for some of its/his ultimate creepiness, but truly sad and touching

Rating:
Summary: A delicate, ethereal vision of emotional violence
Review: Grimsley conveys his story with a fanciful style of, well...dreaminess -- he tells us about the characters actions: he did this, he did that, in a kind of fairy tale that hovers above daily reality but isn't removed from physical feeling. The story is told as if by a precociously wise youngster who idealizes the situation, simplifies it into something abstract and poetic. And it's an especially good work because it works along the lines of emotion and our reactions to dreams in an emotional way -- our fantasies and the feelings they invoke in us are evoked from Grimsley's writing of THIS story.

Nathan is a bright boy, we learn, in his sophomore year in high school -- yet kids are concerned that he skipped third grade? The characters, Nathan and Roy, should be younger judging by their speech, but it's quite possibly the colloquialisms of the setting that result in the way they talk (and making them younger would have made it seem more innocent and playful, I think, with a sense of boyhood discovery, excluding the awful emotional violence we experience at some points in the story; having them as high school students adds an edge of suspense, a roughness and unpredictability).

Of course Grimsley appeals to the most common of gay fantasies -- the unlabeled boy who has sex with boys, Roy; here, portrayed not as dumb, but not as saintily intelligent and aware as Nathan, who makes observations, such as the difference in Roy's shoulders when he drives the bus one day, that, to him, render changes in the course of history. There's a feeling of constant suspense that the entire enterprise will fall apart -- that Nathan's dad will find him, that Roy will leave Nathan for his girlfriend ("I'm not your boyfriend, I have a girlfriend"). You don't want it to end tragically, you want Grimsley to let it continue, to let us down easy. Our anxiety is because we know it can't and that he probably won't. We suspect it early on -- we suspect a lot of things throughout the novel, actually; Grimsley rarely spells anything out explicitly. Occasionally his foreboding can become a bit too visible, such as when Nathan's speech begins to get especially ominous in the abandoned house, how he suggests that he'll "never leave."

Grimsley is uniquely talented at creating sexual situations in which the emotional consistency is pure and recognizable, much more so than could be said to be "erotic" -- the eroticism, when there is any, is due mostly to the secrecy of the affair. Grimsley deals very intelligently and compassionately with the theme of father-son incest, especially compared to the replay of it as found with Nathan and Roy, and finally with another character. The emotional violence that Grimsley conveys is just shattering, and the detail between the relationships is very precise. The climax of the novel is terrific -- Grimsley destroys the world he's created for us. It's a violent tearing away, when a flashlight goes on the tenseness of the entire novel is brought up. The foreboding of the novel would normally bother me, but here it adds the echoes of long-gone voices, and when the ending comes it all sort of flows together into some ethereal vision. In many ways, this is Roy's story -- Nathan IS Roy; he's what Roy uses to discover what's in himself (there's a hole in Nathan when he does); Nathan is the dream boy.

Rating:
Summary: poetic
Review: I bought this book without looking closely at it. Then I put it in my "unread book" shelf for a quite some time, before I picked it up to just skim through. I started reading the last half of it where the boys were already in the haunted house. The tension was there and I couldn't stop, but then when it came to Roy doing things at Nathan in the dark, I said to myself, "oh dear, what have I got myself into?" and when Burke violated Nathan, it became too violent for me, so I put the book back in the shelf to sell it later at Amazon market place.

Well, I decided to read it from the beginning just this week, and I'm glad I did.
Roy is a very complicated character, at the age where he's still not developed enough as a man or a person. He's still growing, changing, finding his way out for adulthood. Obviously he's not sure of what he wants, what love is, or what he really is. He's immature, as most high school kids are, and he's possessive, as many boys are, and he's afraid of others to find out about his relationship with Nathan. On the other hand, he's pretty gentle with Nathan, dominant yet protective, selfish yet cares enough about Nathan. Nathan seems passive and vulnerable all the way, but he plays a role of shelter for Roy in his own way and holds power over Roy. Both boys are ambiguous in their own ways which leads their relationship to be ambiguous, and that's part of the reason why this story is so compelling.

Toward the end, finally Roy is forced to face himself as a person and to make a choice. One of those things that happens almost every teenager. Circumstances and situations force one to grow, to face oneself.
The ending is ambiguous and painful, and one will find it still dangerously unsure, some more tragedy can be expected, but at least Roy's mind is set.

I especially liked the way the author made the final chapters short, like half a page per chapter, and almost violently forces the reader to move on. The beginning half when the two boys starts the relationship is just so poignant and realistic, like you are actually falling in love, and gets you involved emotionally. It's about those adolescent years that you'd never want to repeat, yet couldn't avoid.

If this was written by Victor Hugo or some great authors in the past, Nathan's parents and Roy's parents would probably have their own big stories to tell. But this story is written more like a poem, and I am glad that it was written the way it is.
Short, incomplete sentences gives poetic flow, focused on the relationship between the two boys, supported by the back story of Nathan's dark relationship with his father. It is beautiful, tragic, nostalgic, violent and painful at the same time very gentle and tender. A good read.




Rating:
Summary: Utterly depressing.
Review: I often measure the impact of a book by the impression it has left on me years later. This being said, I read Dream Boy 7 or 8 years ago, when I was first coming out, a closeted, lonely gay boy in an oppressive, religious high school. An older friend I had met online recommended Dream Boy to me -- and it was the first work of gay fiction I had ever read. Having read it so long ago, I can't say my memories of the book are very detailed...

However, as a young, confused, inexperienced teen, I remember the book leaving me with a sense of claustrophobia, emptiness, anger, and, most of all, depression. Like most of the Amazon reviewers have pointed out, I clearly remember the ending being confusing and ambiguous. However, I do believe the many readers who thought the ending "uplifting" or "happy" are being very naive and overly-positive. A boy cannot sustain a fractured skull and expect to live without receiving immediate medical attention. No, the title of the book was the final irony in this sad, haunting tale. While the ending is definitely odd and ambiguous, Roy and Nathan are most certainly not actually running off into the sunset together in perfect happiness. The truth is that those last moments were a dream all in the dying brain of an abandoned, mortally wounded young man -- or, alternately, perhaps they are visions of Nathan's afterlife (slightly less depressing). But I have no doubt Nathan is dead. His sad life has come to a horrific end.

I must also agree with the few reviewers who pointed out that Roy has been greatly idealized by many readers. Although I read it so long ago, I also clearly remember Roy as an unbelievably selfish and immature individual who, in my opinion, used Nathan. While his actual love for Nathan can be debated, the truth is that he abandoned Nathan in the end.

I can safely say that this book did not affect me in any other way than leaving a lonely gay teen horribly depressed.
I give the book 3 stars because I do agree it is well-written and thought provoking, I just would not recommend it unless you want to experience soul-crushing depression. I *definitely* would not recommend it for gay teens first coming out and already in that lonely/sad state of mind!

Rating:
Summary: Amazing Story, but Sad
Review: I have to say that when I read this, I did not know what to expect. I began reading, and I found that I rather like shy Nathan and Roy, whom he worshipes.

I also have to admit that I sometimes felt that the love was one-sided and that Roy didn't love Nathan as much as Nathan loved Roy. I mean, Nathan is the one that does all the work, and Roy is the only one who gets the pleasure. Poor Nathan is happy just by seing Roy smile at the service he provides. I felt really sad about that.

Then I saw that what I thought was not true by what Roy did to Nathan in the abandoned house. From then on I could barely read the book beacuse I was extremely angry and depressed. I have to say this...(people are going to think I am insane...) I don't cry usually. At movies, in books, when someone I know cries, I don't cry. I don't think I cried for a long, long time, and when that time was, I don't know....(here goes *gulp*, don't hate me) I didn't even cry when seing Passion of the Christ, though I was very moved. I am Christian and I have read most of the BIble, and know some of the short stories, I studied religion in school, read and wrote about it, but i DID NOT cry at Mel's movie, though it was a teribbly sad masterpiece. But I cried when reading this novel. I have no idea why, but the things that happen to poor Nathan got be bawling. I wanted to strangle Burke. I would have killed him for what he did to shy Nathan.

Anyway, I couldn't even see the pages because of my tears. I know I sound teribbly corny, but it's true. I did, like most readers, have to go back and re-read the last parts since they confused me in my hightened angery state. I am so happy that Jim decided to end the novel the way he did. I was going to be depressed for several days if more sad things happened to Nathan.

But even with the ending, I was still sad. It took so much suffering for that sweet little boy to finally find some peace. *Sigh* Go buy it, it's completely worth it. A moving story, one of the few things that ever got me crying.
I really should stop being so sentimetal.


Rating:
Summary: a lasting haunting feeling
Review: I have never read a book that left me with such a lasting haunting feeling. I felt so close to both Nathan and Roy that the storyline affected me so profoundly. Their relationship was so pure and touching...so real.