Rating: 
Summary: I couldn't put it down!
Review: I came upon this book in the library with no prior knowledge of the book or the author. From page one I was captivated by Mark's life story and finished the book in 2 days. I'm surprised that it never received more recognition, as it has become one of my all-time favorites. It covers so many topics...religion, homosexuality, family relationships, love and loss...that anyone can relate to and identify with. Written with honesty and humor, I highly recommend this book to everyone!
Rating:
Summary: I couldn't put it down!
Review: I came upon this book in the library with no prior knowledge of the book or the author. From page one I was captivated by Mark's life story and finished the book in 2 days. I'm surprised that it never received more recognition, as it has become one of my all-time favorites. It covers so many topics...religion, homosexuality, family relationships, love and loss...that anyone can relate to and identify with. Written with honesty and humor, I highly recommend this book to everyone!
Rating:
Summary: Well worth your time
Review: I enjoyed this book thoroughly. I bought it through my book club without knowing anything about it, and once I started it I couldn't put it down.
Rating:
Summary: Well worth your time
Review: I enjoyed this book thoroughly. I bought it through my book club without knowing anything about it, and once I started it I couldn't put it down.
Rating:
Summary: Personal & Profound
Review: I loved Mark's honesty. It wasn't just about being gay, or fatherless. It was about searching for identity, friendship and meaning. His superb writing and sense of humor made a serious story delightful to read.
Rating:
Summary: Personal & Profound
Review: I loved Mark's honesty. It wasn't just about being gay, or fatherless. It was about searching for identity, friendship and meaning. His superb writing and sense of humor made a serious story delightful to read.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful story, a very open and vulnerable story-teller
Review: I picked this book up purely on a hunch, having gone through my "father-work" a few years back. What a wonderful story. I read this book in 48 hours. I gave it to my wife, who rarely shares my literary taste, and she read it in 24 hours. Matousek is a very courageous and honorable story teller. I was rivited until the last page. All so human are the people in his life. He is honest about his rage...honest about his loss..and honest about his compassion. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: A special work that is very touching
Review: In Los Angeles, four-year old Mark Matousek fights to leave with his father James, but his sisters and his mother refuse to allow him to go. His mother Ida informs James that she will see him in jail. Over the next two decades, Ida, a transplanted Brooklyn Jew raises her three daughters and son in abject poverty. Along the way the oldest sibling commits suicide and the other two females go in and out of bad relationships.Though suffering and unsuccessfully running from his own demons, Mark never looks back on that incident until he sits with his pal Joe in a Manhattan restaurant thirty-two years later. Joe challenges Mark to search for his father. For no obvious reason, Mark feels it is time and turns to private investigator Mac Sullivan to find the man who left the boy behind when Kennedy was president. THE BOY HE LEFT BEHIND: A MAN'S SEARCH FOR HIS FATHER is a modern day autobiographical (and somewhat biographical) Odyssey, with the quest being a lost father. Though Mark Matousek never completes his physical search, some closure occurs for him at the deathbed of his mother. The very talented Mr. Matousek (see SEX DEATH ENLIGHTENMENT) provides an inspiring, absorbing, and perceptive story that provides his audience with much insight into a one parent family. Mr. Matousek cleverly uses jocularity to offset the melancholy and maudlin moods that begin to overwhelm the audience. This book is a must reading for those who enjoy a true life dysfunctional relationship story centering on a fatherless family from an author who knows how to entertainingly and educationally spill his guts. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: Terrific Memoir
Review: Matousek's book crosses a lot of genres:gay/Jewish/writer's life/memoir and ends up being universal. He is also an excellent writer and some of the quotes from other writers (Pessoa,Kazin) are really thought-provoking. The book rises above the usual litany of abuse and self-pity endemic to many memoirs. This is the best memoir I've read since Paul Monette's Borrowed Time.
Rating:
Summary: Terrific Memoir
Review: Matousek's book crosses a lot of genres:gay/Jewish/writer's life/memoir and ends up being universal. He is also an excellent writer and some of the quotes from other writers (Pessoa,Kazin) are really thought-provoking. The book rises above the usual litany of abuse and self-pity endemic to many memoirs. This is the best memoir I've read since Paul Monette's Borrowed Time.
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