Customer Reviews

All American Boy

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The back of the dust jacket on Mann's latest novel contain raves about his previous two novels, which dealt mostly with the stereotypical gay male cruising range of casual sex, bars, baths, drugs and circuit parties. Those expecting more of the same in "All American Boy" are in for a rude awakening.

"All American Boy" is a skillful tapestry of characterizations surrounding the lead character, Walter, his dysfunctional birth family, the family's own secrets, and regrets concerning the other adults in his life, including Miss Aletha (the transexual who raised him after he ran away from his parents' home), Zandy (the older man to whom he willingly gave his virginity in his early teens, but was later pressured to turn him in to the authorities, resulting in his being sent to prison) and boyhood acquaintances. He travels back to his small home town of Browns Mill, now an unemployed actor who is far from the "All American Boy" the town named him in his youth.

Much of the story is told in a kind of stream-of-consciousness manner that mimics the thought pattern of Walter's now senile mother, who still has daytime illusions of her dead husband and sister being alive, violent dellusions of killing those who have hurt her in the past, mixed with flashbacks from her own childhood (She had run away with her sister to sing in big city taverns) and of various stages of Walter's boyhood. It's not easy to follow, and more than a bit bleak and depressing, but realistically and emotionally tells the story of a boyhood lost and a life filled with regrets, which he doesn't know how to repair.

What a change of pace this novel is from his circuit part boys shennanigans. This is a much more complex, dark and heartbreaking tale of a family - mostly mother and son - coming to terms with their demons and their mistakes in life. The mother's story and background unfolds as the main character moves the the present trying to figure out what he wants and why he's returned home after a call from his mother. Mom's background unfolds as an aching and epically tragic life. The son - really, has not fallen far from that tree. Not a happy, carefree story, but a haunting and moving one. Actually, a welcome change from his last novel.

Wm. Mann's All American Boy takes us on two journeys: that of Walter Day, a child well lauded by his town only to have that praise stripped away as a young teen. Walter comes back to his home town to assist his mother and to set to rest something that has been nagging at him - how he put a man in jail for something that Walter initiated.

The second journey is that of Walter's mother, a troubled old woman who may or may not be losing her mind.

As Mann weaves these two tales, we meet some really interesting and well developed characters. They are characters that, no doubt, many will recognize from their own lives.

Walter's story is the driving force behind the book. His mother's is one in support of the secondary plot of the book.

While this novel has some very realistic characters and some very involved background data, after finishing the novel, I couldn't help wishing I'd had more. More what though?

Well, let me put it this way...All American Boy is a novel about a 30 something gay man and his 73 year old dotty mother. I doubt that many elder women are going to be the readers of this book...I could be wrong... but I don't think so. While Walter's mother's story has bearing on Walter's rearing, I really felt that it went on a bit too much. A bit of selective editing and rewrite could have more succinctly interwoven his mother's tale with Walter's.

Conversely, I would have liked to learn more about Walter's history. Mann teases us throughout with bits and pieces of material, all along introducing us to some really well developed characters. I found myself infusing my own life into that of the characters about whom I was reading. However, as I rapidly read the book, eagerly awaiting the outcome, the resolution to some of the mysteries evoked - I found myself more than a little disappointed.

I was able to divine the solution to the big "mystery" from the first mention. But what about the mystery of Walter's father? Why did he kill himself? It's not explained. Maybe that's because Walter and his mother never knew - but it would have been nice to be told at least that much. Just what WAS Luz doing in the city? Was she really trying to find work as a legitimate model? Who was she at the store with? Or was she with anyone?

Understandably, some of issues are meant to be a bit confusing as we come to learn that not only did Walter's mother spend time in a "funny farm", but so did Walter after his lover of 10 years died. But that doesn't mean that we can't glean something more than we do, that it can't a little less ambiguous for the reader.

Miss Aletha is an awesome character who really deserved more attention. I finished the book feeling that she knew more about Walter's life than Walter did and wishing that Mann had let her tell about it.

Dee is a great character. He is possibly the most fully developed character in the entire book. That is probably because Mann really feels at home with young men who are at the peak of their sexuality and they know how to use it to get what they want. Certainly in his previous books, Mann has demonstrated as much. Dee is a character I would love to meet in real life. He seems to be a really interesting boy.

Zandy - Walter's great love and his great despair - is sufficiently mysterious since the book is told from Walter's viewpoint and we learn just how little Walter ever really bothered to get to know Zandy.

Ultimately, this is the most fully developed book Mann has written. It is ambitious and detailed.

One of the most disturbing scenes in the book - and one that had me a bit non-plussed was the confrontation between Walter and Zandy. For the most part the book is reality based; in other words, it does not deal in imaginative wanderings. However, this particular scene (hopefully) does just that. I'm more than happy to make that kind of a leap in comprehension, but with no previous instances of that in the book, it was...really weird, and more than a bit gross - if it isn't flight of fancy. And if it is a flight of fancy, then what the heck really took place?

I do recommend it. It's not a fluff piece, but I wish it had even more meat to it.

I was interested enough in "All American Boy" to see it through, but mostly because I became hooked on the character of Regina, the mother of main character Wally Day. Much of the book is told through the prism of her thoughts which have become muddled with the onset of Alzheimer's. Her life is one of unfulfilled dreams and unreceived love, with a chaotic childhood and a stay in a "looney bin" along the way.

Wally is a jumble of gay lit character cliches: the sensitive boy who left home, the man who buried his lover who died of AIDS and mysteriously avoided the virus, the sexual compulsive, and someone who manages a comfortable life despite no concrete source of income (Regina shares this mysterious yet materially comfortable state). There is an abusive father and a doting mother (Regina) whom Wally shuns without clear motives. There is the town eccentric who initiates him into sex and another town eccentric who shelters him. Quite a few characters wind up in the "bin", although someone should tell Mann that it's been a couple decades or more since anyone one has spent 6 months in a psychiatric hospital without being independently wealthy. The book ends with a near deathbed reconciliation and we get the addition of another cliche, the lonely unloved middle aged gay man.

The eccentrics who take Wally under their wing are part of a social group that mysteriously stays together and keeps Wally even after his testimony puts one in jail. In general, the book is lacking in terms of giving us motives for people. Instead he has strung together characterizations and situations without really giving us full fledged characters. There is a mystery about Wally's cousin, a man who was something of an evil twin (yet another gay lit cliche).

Wally comes repeat some of what was done to him, but seems headed toward redemption (and rapprochement with mother) toward the end. The plot device of using the mother's addled thoughts is helpful as it provides a way to move back and forth in time and fill in various pieces. It also gives us a fuller picture of the mother and her motivations than is the case for other characters. The unfulfilled mother, the sensitive boy (and his callous adult self), the helpful eccentrics, the lonely middle aged gay men, etc. all exist in real life and we may see parts of ourselves in their stories. Unfortunately, they seem to over populate gay fiction and often have been presented in more well rounded ways than Mann manages to do here. If you can't get enough of the same old thing and don't mind a kitchen sink approach to writing, you may be satisfied with this book. If you embrace a broader world of gay characters and life situations, you probably should skip this one.

Wally Day was the All American Boy in Brown's Mill.
He had the stellar grades, good behavior and the title: the local paper wrote an article on him being voted the All American Boy in town.
But that all changed when he fell in love with 30something old Zandy who ended up in jail because of Wally's statements to the police. Everyone in this small pastoral town knew of the affair and its consequences.
Twenty years later, Wally, an actor, returns home when his mother calls him, believing she's losing her mind, thinking she killed his cousin Kyle. But when Wally returns, he is faced not only with the ghosts of his past but those of his present. He wants to face Zandy and apologize for sending him to jail while feeling obligated to help his emotionally-disturbed mom sort herself out and find his missing cousin.

Wally is the center of an emotional spider web in this novel.
The book revolves around his estranged relationship with his mother Regina; his long-ago first love with Zandy; his maternal love for his transexual guardian Miss Aletha; his all too familiar affections for a sixteen year-old Dee whom Miss Aletha cares for; and Wally's lack of love from his abusive and deceased military father.

It's a well-told, complex and layered story, often told through Regina's stream of consciousness. A week's worth of time takes the reader on a time-traveling journey through Wally's childhood during the Saturday Night Fever days and his mother's dreams of being a singer with her sister Rocky during the 1950s.

As I read this, I couldn't help but think the story was about love. Regina wants to be loved. Wally still yearns to be loved again the way Zandy showed him. Dee wants to experience what Wally felt for Zandy in some way, shape or form. Miss Aletha loves unconditionally by taking in troubled gay youth who aren't accepted in their own home but she loved with all her heart her partner who "has disappeared."

And I couldn't help but think the book was also about dreams and what happens when they're not realized. Regina wanted to be a singer but came home from the bright lights of the big city but daydreams of those days often. Wally leaves Brown's Mill to pursue acting and lives out his dream although he's not as successful as he'd like to be. Dee dreams of leaving the small town and seems to want to follow in Wally's path.

Although this was a dark story, it was written with power. It's definitely a page turner. It has an echo of the 1996 movie Dolores Claiborne in that an adult child returns to the New England home to help an emotional mother who seems to be thrust in the middle of a police investigation.
It was hard to put this book down, especially once you meet the All American Boy and his all American family.

Johnny Diaz, author of Boston Boys Club

Mr. Mann has written a novel that speaks of some of the very sad aspects of many gay lives. The main character, Wally, endures some dreadful encounters with his homophobic father, while his mother who is sickly has probably murdered his cousin. In addition, Wally returns home to visit the man who molested him when he was a child (with Wallys consent). Wally's dad has the guy locked-up. Turns out Wally loves the guy. While home he meets Dee, a younger guy with whom Wally becomes involved. Dee was a well-developed and interesting character and I would love to see him return in a future Mann novel. The book was an OK read, but a far cry from the author's previous works, "Men From the Boys" and "Where the Boys Are." These were outstanding in comparison to this new piece. This book was somewhat disappointing to me as Mr. Mann's earlier work was so, so good. Hence my rating of three stars.

Despite William Mann's title, this book is just as much, if not more, about the All American Boy's whacked-out mother, Regina, as it is about Wally Day. And that's a weakness. First, the scenes with Regina and Luz and Jorge are repetitious. Second, the central mystery -- where's Kyle and what, if anything, did Regina do to him? -- is never resolved. Then there's Wally and Zandy. Is what happens at their reunion a dream, a fantasy or is it real? Who knows? If it is supposed to be real, it is shockingly irresponsible. And how coincidental is it that Zandy passes on while Wally is conveniently in town? Wally's relationship with Dee is necessary to make the story come full cycle, but it is still disturbing. And maybe, just maybe, that's Mann's point: make this story different by making the title character and ostensible hero a reprehensible jerk. If that is the intent, then Mann succeeds. And he succeeds in making the mother one as well.

Walter (Wally) Day was a boy with promise, the brightest in his class, that is until his fourteenth year when he meet Zandy. Zandy, a rough hippy man in his thirties fulfilled Wally's sexual desires, and they entered a relationship that was bound to end in disaster - with Zandy in prison and Wally escaping his abusive father and confused mother, eventually to run away from Brown's Mill to New York and realise his dreams of becoming an actor.

We meet Wally some twenty years later when he is in his thirties, as his mother calls him asking him to come to her help. He does, but more to put things right with Zandy than to see his mother. But his return will prove to be a turning point for Wally, still not over the loss of his lover of ten years, and with a somewhat middling acting career.

Through the course of his visit, among other things he finally gets to know the mother he feels failed him, and he finds Dee, a flambouyant young boy of sixteen who instills him a new hope.

All American Boy is well written, but I found it a rather frustrating read. It constantly moves about in time, from the present to various times past, Wally's childhood, his mother's upbringing and chaotic early life, his farther's navy career and its dubious ending and much more. To be fair, if I was prepared to give the book more time, read at a more leisurely pace I might feel differently, but as I found little of appeal in the majority of various characters I did not have the patience. However towards the end some of the characters redeem themselves, particularly Wally and his mother, and the introduction of Dee brings adds a lighter touch - and it is towards the end that it becomes a much more engrossing read.

This is a well thought out story, a story as much about Wally's mother as it is about Wally himself, the characters are well drawn, and it builds towards a positive and open conclusion, but it is not a book to hurry.

While I found this book a difficult, dark read at times, I also could not put it down. I was hooked from the first sentence. Mann's ability to take us to the depths of a painful childhood is riveting, masterful and powerful. A book that takes us to the humanity within all of us.

Mann deals with many difficult topics...from emotional and physical child abuse, to intergenerational sex and possible murder. It is his finely detailed descriptions that were especially engaging and yet, difficult to read. I could not remove myself from the story, making it all so intense. I was riveted and read the book through the night. I had many dreams that night which dealt with the many truths, scenarios and possible meaning of the story. Mann doesn't tell you how to interpret his character's truth. He leads you to their soul and the rest is up to you.

Go there...now!

A haunting, powerful inspiring read. Very different from his other wonderful novels, but worth the soulful inquiry. I am still wondering about Regina and Wally. I pray Mann will bring them to his readers again.

While portions of this book briefly addressed important issues related to relationships between people of different generations, I found myself wading through mounds of useless monlogue about the mother of our "main character". At times, when dealing with Mrs. Day, it was difficult to distinguish between past and present events. Her character made the story tangential. There was also Mrs. Day's ongoing murderous subplot that ended anticlimatically.

When the character Donald, or "Dee", arrived, I thought the story was about to begin. I was wrong. This entry provided little more than a brief reflection into Wally's past, similar, circumstances and the potential for a better written sequel.

Mr. Mann obviously put a lot of effort into this book. Perhaps a more esoteric reader could have found and followed his plot, but, in the end, it had totally escaped me.

Thank you.