Picano's bold, funny and outrageously honest memoir of suburban 1950s childhood forever altered how we remember childhod and how we think of it today. So scandalous at the time that the book's first shipment to Great Britain was seized and burned on the London docks, AMBIDEXTROUS has since become a much-prized classic, and is now re-released as Volume One in this completely repackaged series of Picano's classic complete memoirs.
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
This fictionalized memoir recounts the adventures of an Italian-American schoolboy as he undergoes the trial of maturity in an upper-middle-class New York City suburb. One teacher hates him because he is left-handed, while another admires his ambition to become a writer and a truthful adult. In a first-person narrative, the hero describes his initiation into the rites of never-quite-innocent and sometimes harmful sex with the precocious Flaherty sisters and his school pal Ricky Hersch; later, there is his love affair with beautiful Franny Solomon whose crippled father is a voyeur. Bearing many resemblances to Doctorow's World's Fair, this novel re-creates a decadethe post-war yearsby limning the attitudes and desires of a young boy growing up and by an itemization of the toys he played with, the books he read, the friends he made and the games he played. But Picano's (The Lure hero is sometimes more sententious than Edgar Altschuler, and the narrative does not really engage one's interest until close to its end. February 22
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
"A stunning tale." - San Francisco Examiner "Compelling and engrossing, it will conjure up memories of everyone's adolescence, straight or gay." - Out Magazine "A book worthy to stand besides those of Edmund White, Rita Mae Brown and John Reed... A vivid portrait" - The Weekly News "Picano deftly evokes those placid Eisenhower years of bicycles, boners and book reports. He makes us remember what it feels like to be a child. It really glows." - The Advocate
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
This story goes both ways!,
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Ambidextrous (Paperback)
Well, if graphic depictions of underage preteen intercourse, glue-sniffing and incestual voyerism are your cup of tea, then this is the book for you!"Ambidextrous" bills itself as being about the secret lives of children. Not really so much of a secret, as just forgotten by people once they get to be adults. Most of what happens in this book will seem familiar to many readers, especially those are other than straight. The book is apparently semi-autobiographical, and tells the story of a young boy's early sex and social life. It details how the main character loses his virginity at the age of eleven, and starts having sex with other boys not long after. There's a lot that happens in this book, but really it's the sex stuff that tends to be most memorable. Admitedly, as I write this, it's been about twelve years since I read the book though obviously it stayed with me. I plan to read it again soon, at which point I may or may not change this review. For now, take it for what it's worth. Overall the book is well-written and entertaining, but if you're someone likely to be put-off by the idea of kids having sex, then this is likely not the book for you. Otherwise, hey... *UPDATE!* So about two minutes ago I finished re-reading the book for the first time in a long while. It's a bit more than I remember it being. Yes, the sex scenes are what stuck in my mind, but now I've also began to see it as the story of a young writer first starting to learn what he wanted to do with his life. My life is quite similar to the main character's, despite the 30+ years that seperate us. I, too, was sexually active at a fairly young age (though not quite as early and not quite as far as he got). Like him, I also took an interest in Greek mythology (though I didn't read Homer until much later and I never have read "The Illiad" despite having a copy at home). And, like him, I've gone on to be a writer. I can understand the protaganist's annoyance and frustration at having a story rejected because I've been through that myself. This book also offers a much more detailed slice of 1950's life than I recall from my first reading, though again, it was about twelve years ago. Even though my childhood happened 30 years after his, there's still a lot that I recognize, and I'm assuming the same is true for kids who are eleven or twelve now. Ultimately I liked this book much better on my more recent reading and even more highly recommend it than before (even if I'm not sure about the grammar in that sentence).
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product).
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
