A Boy's Own Story

Rating:
Summary: High quality writing
Review: An excellent and very readable account of teenage years of growing up, and of aspects of life, parents, sexuality, duplicity and human beings. Vivid and clever use of language. An interesting combination of words, ideas insights, growing maturity and honesty. A book that leaves the reader wanting more. A book with hidden depths. A book that probably needs to be read over more than once, to get its full effect.

Rating:
Summary: A Boy's Own Narrative Pastiche
Review: Edmund White is an excellent prose stylist. His writing is rich and evocative, and he ranks as a leading gay author. "A Boy's Own Story," however, is not a story, but rather a series of autobiographical sketches from his childhood; there is no overarching storyline, no conflict or resolution, and there are no dynamic characters. The book is nonetheless quite worth reading: it is always enjoyable, at times humorous, at times poignant. The gay (male) reader may find something of himself in the book, and other readers might enjoy a well written perspective of the gay youth in a straight world. While it may not transcend the genre of gay fiction (other than that it is not wholly fictitious), "A Boy's Own Story" is less gratuitous and better written than the average work in this genre. Though the tone of the writing is generally light, White thankfully does not avoid exploring the deeper emotional issues of the young gay American male, focusing at various times on his own insecurities regarding masculinity and self image, as well as the stereotypical tendency of gay men towards fantasy lifestyles. He manages to do this in a meaningful and constructive way without dwelling on the negative, and it is this treatment of deeper issues coupled with White's charming narrative style that make "A Boy's Own Story" worthwhile reading for all.

Rating:
Summary: A Boy's Own Narrative Pastiche
Review: Edmund White is an excellent prose stylist. His writing is rich and evocative, and he ranks as a leading gay author. "A Boy's Own Story," however, is not a story, but rather a series of autobiographical sketches from his childhood; there is no overarching storyline, no conflict or resolution, and there are no dynamic characters. The book is nonetheless quite worth reading: it is always enjoyable, at times humorous, at times poignant. The gay (male) reader may find something of himself in the book, and other readers might enjoy a well written perspective of the gay youth in a straight world. While it may not transcend the genre of gay fiction (other than that it is not wholly fictitious), "A Boy's Own Story" is less gratuitous and better written than the average work in this genre. Though the tone of the writing is generally light, White thankfully does not avoid exploring the deeper emotional issues of the young gay American male, focusing at various times on his own insecurities regarding masculinity and self image, as well as the stereotypical tendency of gay men towards fantasy lifestyles. He manages to do this in a meaningful and constructive way without dwelling on the negative, and it is this treatment of deeper issues coupled with White's charming narrative style that make "A Boy's Own Story" worthwhile reading for all.

Rating:
Summary: An enduring masterwork
Review: Edmund White is one of America's finest writers. From his early forays into a then edgey genre of stories that happen to include in depth studies of gay men and their questionable place in the public fabric to his current biographies of famous writers (Proust, et al) to his assessment in literary form of the AIDS crisis and it effect on life in all of America, White has become ever more erudite, polished in technique, and fascinating to explore. Because of this current prominence among gifted writers it is rewarding to return to the early works and see if they contained all the seeds of his success. Having just re-read "A Boy's Own Story" I am even more deeply moved and impressed with White than I remembered. This treasureable book is not just a Pink Triangle groupie read. This is wondrously beautiful writing by all standards. White knows how to make the English linguage sing with acute observations that begin with a keen delineation of line but then blossom fully into metaphors than can only be called poems. These descriptions apply not only to walks in nature or observed qualities of light at varying times of day, but they are used to define his characters in such a vivid manner that they literally step off the page, indelibly.

And the story.....this tale of the grappling of a youth over questions not only of sexuality but of coming of age in social, religious, educational, dream vs reality strikes chords in all of us. His unnamed narrator is in a way the Everyman of Youth. White does not go for the happy Hollywood ending: he writes about the truths of decisions gone awry, dreams dismemebered, realites coming into being. I would hope that "A Boy's Own Story" would be part of the required reading list for the liberal arts schools who care about not only quality of literature but also of complexity of becoming an adult.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best books with a gay theme ever written
Review: Edmund White long ago established himself as a premier voice in gay America. "A Boy's Own Story" is a literary masterpiece both moving and disturbing. Many readers make the mistake of calling it "autobiographical", forgetting it is a work of fiction LOOSELY autobiographical. I can't imagine being gay and not having read this book. Yes, the ending is disturbing, and this makes it all the more powerful. "A Boy's Own Story" is so moving a reader threw it across the room upon reading the ending, vowing never to read Edmund White again. This alone should cause you to click on "add to shopping cart."

Rating:
Summary: One of the best books with a gay theme ever written
Review: Edmund White long ago established himself as a premier voice in gay America. "A Boy's Own Story" is a literary masterpiece both moving and disturbing. Many readers make the mistake of calling it "autobiographical", forgetting it is a work of fiction LOOSELY autobiographical. I can't imagine being gay and not having read this book. Yes, the ending is disturbing, and this makes it all the more powerful. "A Boy's Own Story" is so moving a reader threw it across the room upon reading the ending, vowing never to read Edmund White again. This alone should cause you to click on "add to shopping cart."

Rating:
Summary: In the beginning....
Review: Edmund White's brand of prose is top-shelf. From page one of this novel, his first loosely autobiographical piece about growing up gay, I was bewitched, bothered, and bewildered by him once again.

I have now read his first-person narrative trilogy in full, though out of sequence, and each book is captivating. While this, his early adolescence, is not as sexually charged as the others, it is still replete with the same auto-erotica that emanates from his fertile imagination in the subsequent pieces of the work as a whole.

The protagonist, still unnamed, draws readers into his world of summers at the lake with his well-off family; his first tentative sexual liaisons; his forays into the world of heterosexual 'normalcy', his escape from parochial school to the comforts of an all-boys private academy, and his reluctant quest to discover his homosexual self. Through the pages of this novel, the boy takes diffident steps out of the closet, even in the 1950's, when such actions were decidedly more taboo than in present day, yet White's experience can be understood by all who have come out, whether it were 1955, 1985, or 2002.

White takes his narrator, and the reader, through the highs and lows of self doubt and self awareness; through numerous quests for love and acceptance; through the dangers and disappointments of trying to conceal your true nature from the world and yourself, and finally through the daunting labors of disclosure of his homosexual tendencies to others. In the finale, the protagonist arrives, albeit in a disturbing way, at childhood's end, and forges ahead toward adulthood.

Ever present are White's frank, revealing takes on being gay. No matter what your age; no matter what the year, White's voice speaks to all. His trilogy of growing up gay in the 50's and 60's and being gay in the 70's, 80's, and beyond is among the finest examples of gay literature I have ever read.

Rating:
Summary: Touching & Rich in Imagery
Review: Edmund Wilson writes with genius. His 1982 novel, A Boy's Own Story, brought the boy to life for me, helped me to live his life with him from age 10 to 16. The reader never learns his name making it even easier to see the world through his eyes, feel his emotions. You are him! As I was at that age, his life was lived in the imagination through books.

His four-year-older sister taught him that he was a sissy and exactly why. That may have been for the good since he learned, he naturally wanted to resemble other boys, among other useful items, how not to sit and stand. She pointed out that a real boy does not say the final g in funking and taught him where in a sentence to put damn and hell. And when he was 14 she gave him a program to become popular. It worked! He finally became best friends with Tom, the most popular boy in school. It was love but he knew, somehow, that he could not speak it. He had learned friendship well because, away at boarding school, he makes close friendships with other boys and with adults.

The novel has wonderful narrative drive; I turned the pages quickly eagerly reading on to find out what happened next. But best of all is the wealth of metaphor. I have been looking at all the BBC Shakespeare plays on our library's videos amd believe White's images are as rich as Shakespeare's.

Before her cold and cruel appraisal of him produced such dividends, his sister was a sister from hell. She taught him how not to be a sissy for her reputation not his. Enjoy the flavor of a hellish episode:

"Well, just play with yourself," my sister says. "I don't want to play with you. You wanna know why? Don't you? Wanna know why?"

I'm sitting on the bed now, uneasy, wishing I hadn't complained about the bandage.

"I'll tell you why: you smell bad. You do." My sister sticks her face right into mine. One her barrettes has come loose without her noticing, and suddenly an unexpectedly adult sweep of hair frames her face and caresses her shoulder. She's so close that some of her hair grazes my cheek.

"I do not," I mumble uncertainly. Perhaps I do smell bad. But where is the bad smell coming from? My mouth? My bottom? My feet? . . . Or is the bad smell inside me, the terrible decaying Camenbert of my heart? . . .

Every page has such amusing and telling imagery. It is a perfect read-aloud-to-your-spouse-and-friends book. He is a boy you will love to know. Memory of him will bless you.

"I was three people: the boy who smelled bad when I was with my sister; the boy who was wise and kind beyond his years when I was with my mother; but when I was alone not a boy at all but a principle of power, of absolute power."

Charles Ritner Keller MD [e-mail] Pediatrics (Family Medicine), retired, University of Rochester School of Medicine.

Dr Keller is the author of "Risky Habits: Desensitize Their Triggers." Prepublication copies for comment available from him.

Rating:
Summary: A Boy's Own Story
Review: For me this is one of the best books describing the experience of gay adolescence in the 50's and early 60's. I wonder if the people who dislike this book have personal experience dating from that era. I only wish that there had been a book like this for me to read when I was growing up during that time. The book rings entirely true to one person's character and growth, warts and all.

Rating:
Summary: Never have I ever
Review: had a book affect me like this one did. it will seriously get inside of you, and for some reason you just have to read it over and over again. so if you are looking for a book that you can call your "all time favorite book" give this one a try.