The Best Little Boy in the World Grows Up

Rating:
Summary: NOT the first book
Review: Having grown up myself with the help of Tobias' 'Best Little Boy in the World,' I was overjoyed to return to a replay of the insecurities, confusions, unanswered questions, and mixed friendships of John Reid's life. This book is no longer written by the John Reid I fell in love with. In "growing up," Reid (aka Andrew Tobias) has come to believe that unless one is politically gay and snobbishly gay, one is not much of anything. Also, according to this book's constant name-dropping, it's not what you know, but who you know that will make your gay life worthwhile. Oh, add to that also that unless you find a lover, as Tobias has, you really don't count. Whereas I felt so much a part of Tobias mindthink from the original "Best Little Boy in the World" (still a classic), this sequel made me feel as though I had lost my Best Little Boyfriend in the World to a group of financial and political gay snobs of which I will never be a part. In this regard, thanks also to my 'old friend's' newfound prejudices, I could have done without all of Tobias' negative references to growing older. How very sad, distant, and very hopeless this sequel made me feel.

Rating:
Summary: Grown up, maybe, but not much improved.
Review: Having just finished this delightful book, I decided to post a review. As I read over the comments about this book, I was taken aback by the harshness and negativity of so many of the reviews and the intensely personal nature of the comments, many of which appear to spring from jealousy of Tobias' financial success, and have nothing to do with the intrinsic merits of his book. They constitute what I would call an ad hominem attack on its author. The man's work is fair game, but please refrain from attacking him personally.

As a reader who found "The Best Little Boy in the World" to be a seminal (no pun intended!) work in his own coming out process, I was quite looking forward to the sequel. I wanted to find out how The Best Little Boy had fared during the twenty-five years since the book was first published. Also, since learning a few years ago that "John Reid" was a nom de plume for Andrew Tobias, whose financial books I had enjoyed, I wanted to see how he had integrated his two personas. And I must say, he has done so quite nicely!

This book is a wonderful read. Andrew Tobias has written an entertaining narrative that is well worth anyone's time. I read the book in one weekend, and found myself breaking out in laughter time and time again - his anecdotes resonate with me.

In fact, I enjoyed this book so much that I went out and bought "My Vast Fortune", Tobias' account of his various business ventures and misadventures, and found it delightful and informative as well. It includes the author's tragicomic accounts of locking horns with Ralph Nader over no-fault auto insurance and launching an anti-smoking campaign in Russia. (I'll write a review of that book next!)

Personally, far from begrudging his success, I wish Andrew Tobias the best in all his endeavors. He's a gay man who's making a positive contribution to American society, in a way that reflects well on all of us. I am very proud of the role he is playing as Treasurer of the Democratic National Committee. I only wish I had some money to contribute!

Rating:
Summary: A book that never needed to be written
Review: I have such incredible affection for John Reid's The Best Little Boy in the World; I truly believe that it should be required reading for all junior high school students. As such, I was very excited to read Andrew Tobias' The Best Little Boy in the World Grows Up. I really wanted to love it. However, Mr. Tobias, who by his own admission is not the most dynamic guy in the world, has created a bland shapeless book that recounts his life over the last quarter century. It is void of any great writing or insight and instead reads like a kiss and tell book about people we do not know well (and thus about whom we do not really care). This book never needed to be written; Mr. Tobias should have simply added a forward to his original work letting us know he was doing well after all these years.

Rating:
Summary: ok
Review: I'm a straight who skimmed this just as a fan of Tobias' writing. I didn't get the impression he has as bloated an ego as others have suggested. I found it a readable, human relating of his life. He is pro-Clinton I think largely because he's had social contact with Clinton. Clinton phoned him up to say he was going to run for President. Surely Tobias' relishes that. I think Clinton is a scum-bag. So I part ways on Tobias about him. Tobias has his vanities. He's upset with ...bias. But he's obsessed that none of his lovers be more than 5 years older than he. But isn't that anti-age prejudice? He admits he's super-picky about who he considers for lovers. But isn't there prejudice there, against people with no social stature and ugliness? Or whatever his standards are? If you want to be treated equal, you've got to treat others equal. Or not. But it is good manners. Anyway, this is a decent work. I'd hoped for a bit more about his career. I ended up skimming a lot of the... trauma pages as a result. Although I admit I didn't realize before how being... can alter every moment of your life! I enjoyed this over all.

Rating:
Summary: ok
Review: So now we know! John Reid is really Andrew Tobias! If you loved The Best Little Boy, don't miss a chance to meet the grown man.

I wish I could give this work 5-stars, but I just can't. The book is composed of two kinds of writing. There is the private life of Andrew Tobias, and then there is his public/political activity. I enjoyed reading about his private life; I don't share many of his political views. As an example of what I liked, there was a moving account of how he and his spouse selected their wedding rings. On the other hand, the book actually includes a speech by President Clinton. I didn't expect that.

This book is worth reading if you loved the BLBITW. It's a shame it doesn't focus more on the authors personal relationships and private insights.

Rating:
Summary: Review of The Best Little Boy In The World Grows Up
Review: This review impugns not the substance of Tobias' writing in this work, but it's sad lack thereof. An alternative title to his "Lite" a bit and commend Tobias for the the work to which this is the sequel--it was a masterpiece of universal appeal and aegis for so many--part of the Gay Canon to be certain. But 25 years is a long time to rest on one's laurels, and haughtily rest Tobias does. I have never encountered such crass, vapid, insipid, superficial name-dropping, empty references, vague apothegms, and guileless Look-What-A-Good-Boy-I-am defensiveness. TBLBITW has apparently not OUTgrown (double pun intended) the damage done to his self-esteem during his formative years. The work reeks of low self-esteem to anyone with marginal psychological acuity.

What I'm searching for and didn't support, now in concert with the unopposed cache of established social institutions (educational, political, psychological, literary, etc.), and it's now time to GET ON WITH IT, stop whining, and self-actualize! My generation (Gen-Y) (inasmuch as one might say we are the subject and not the object of the verb "to generate") has gone through the "mess" stage of a fundamental shock to our self-esteem's development, and we've gone through therapy (or some equivalent), we've read "The Best Little Boy in the World," we've had the first messy relationships, we've figured out how to express ourselves sexually, assert ourselves in the workplace, contribute politically (I hope), and now we're struggling to define our individuality. Tobias defines himself with predictable cookie-cutter anti-entelechy. How boring!

Now what guys like me really need is a gay hero--a sort of Gay Howard Roark. And that's where I was so hoping Mr. Tobias would be at his age. I can't reinforce how disappointed I am that both the work and the man who had such Heroic beginnings could have turned out so average. He is seemingly crying out, "look you straight people, I"m one of you! Please like me!" Been there, done that (at 23 years old). And observe how he constantly apologizes for speaking of sex. No small wonder then that he's not versatile.

It's a perspicuous point that we don't need anymore straight "successful" clones, we need people that go beyond the quotidian. I'm an Ivy Leaguer, masculine, founded my first company while a senior, make (all on my own) 6 figures at 23, have researched under a Nobel laureate, am very well liked and respected, am extraordinarily good looking, am admittedly a bit arrogant (with reason to be, I will say), and grew up surrounded by famous people. So what? What am I LIKE? What is my value system? My point is, I and many others like me am/are looking for something more.

Can Tobias please say anything more than [name], [career], [rank], [looks] to describe someone? Mon dieu, how JEJUNE! And at least if you're going to be vapid, don't be boring--be boring at least with Wildean flourish! And further to the subject of style, there is not much of merit in Tobias banal writing. I'm sorry, Andy, cute turns of phrase a literati does not make. And the malapropisms seems coloured by more than a bit of vitriol; Tobias is undoubtedly a semi-self-actualized "nice" guy. I guess my (possibly unrealistic) expectations were more than a little dashed. I will have to find my hero within myself, after all.

Rating:
Summary: BLBITWGU was inspiring for another 50 year old gay man .
Review: Tobias's book was an inspiration for others like him whom society has branded negatively. I'm his age and can relate to every detail (except the friendship with the President, winning the Pulitzer, Nobel, and High Exalted Something-or-other Prizes, and finding Mr. Right, Mr. Wonderful, and Mr. Right Now!)--well, maybe not EVERY detail. Despite those aspects, Tobias shares in a very articulate way thoughts, urges, desires, frustrations, and navel contemplations that we all go through. He's disappointing in that he's reached a level of acceptance that is unattainable by many of us--and his fortunate financial situation permits him to say "f.... you" with pinache that's not available to the rest of us. I recommend this book to any gay man for comfort and to any straight man or woman to get a glimpse into how what they say and do, as innocent and thoughtful as they may think their comments are, can be devastating and insulting to gay men. I want to read Tobias's "Best Little Boy in the World Grows Up and Grows Old" in another 20 years.

Rating:
Summary: ANDY'S FAGULOUS LIFE!
Review: What a disappointment! "The Best Little Boy in the World" was Gay Everyman's story of growing up and dealing with being different, eloquently and humorously recounted. Well, TBLBITW grew up, and today he is rich, famous, and out of the closet. Hooray! And here we get to read ALL about it! I suggest that a better title for this book would have been "My Fagulous Life -- My Money, My Lovers, My Glamorous Friends!"

Rating:
Summary: An self-absorbed name-dropping boring memoir
Review: What a shock! The Best Little Boy in the World was one of those formative books I read when I was coming out in the 70's. I naturally assumed this was going to be a powerful follow-up to that volume. It was anything but that. Mr. Tobias tells us all about the wonderful, glamorous, rich and political un-gay and then gay-gay life he has had. With references to that book. If not for the fact that the book was cheap, I would've been furious. As it was, I just threw it away when I was done with it.