Boston Boy: Growing up with Jazz and Other Rebellious Passions (Paperback)

by Nat Hentoff (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
There are well-etched scenes, amusing episodes and even some surprises in this evocative memoir of growing up Jewish in the Boston of the 1930s and '40s. From the moment he eats a salami sandwich on Yom Kippur in defiance of his Orthodox neighbors, to organizing a union among the boys in a candy store, and later earning his stripes as a journalist, the author deftly recalls the events and people that influenced him. Hentoff, known variously for his Village Voice column, his novels and books about politics, civil liberties and jazz, here looks at his youth and the forces that shaped his views as a staunch libertarian, including a crusading woman publisher and the jazzmen he came to admire. Told with frankness and gently self-deprecating wit, Hentoff's recollections pleasantly define a very particular place in time and how that place formed this interesting man.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description
Through stories and portraits of the strong personalities around him, Nat Hentoff brings to life the political, familial, and musical forces that shaped his unique perspectives on the world. His love of jazz and his political stance put him at odds with his working class Jewish family and the predominantly conservative world of Boston of the 1940s. In this memoir, Hentoff revisits his Boston neighborhood, filled with colorful characters, including militant candy-store owners and evil-eyed schoolteachers. Hentoff's journeys into legendary jazz venues draw the teenager even further away from his parents and into the world of jazz greats such as Duke Ellington and Charles Mingus.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 212 pages
• Publisher: Paul Dry Books; 2 edition (December 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 096796752X
• ISBN-13: 978-0967967523
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #665,251 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A terrific, short read, November 30, 2002

By	Louis Gudema (Newton, MA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Nat Hentoff, who later became famous as a writer about jazz and civil liberties, describes his "coming of age" and discovery of jazz in the Boston of the 1940s. A very enjoyable read.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Boston Boy, July 1, 2008

By	Edwin D. Lawson (Fredonia, NY USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

It's great to see a book like this. As another Boston boy, I had many similar experiences that have been hard and perhaps confusing to explain to someone who grew up in another time and place.
My wife feels that she understands me better now after reading Boston Boy. We are giving copies to our sons.
The book for me is nostalgic, poignant, and somewhat reassuring. Helps to understand that generation, that time, and that place. We made it in spite of the bastards.

4.0 out of 5 stars Boston Jazz and the South End, July 21, 2008

By	Eden Page (Boston, Ma) - See all my reviews

Once, jazz was a real and pervasive presence in Boston and in the dim and scruffy clubs of the South End, this American Music-par-excellence thrilled thousands of afficionados, while yet rarely affording its dedicated and colorful creators a living.
It was the Twenties and the Jazz Age; it was the Thirties and the age of the Big Bands; it was the wartime Forties, the age of The Savoy on Mass Ave and of Sidney Bechet; it was the baby-boom Fifties and the age of Storeyville in Kenmore Square...
There were Big Bands and great ballrooms but there were, as well, many talented smaller bands, playing inspired improvised jazz and struggling to survive as they enthralled more limited audiences in more limited venues.
Nat Hentoff eloquently reminisces about a time when the soulful sound of trumpet and clarinet, piano and bass - pained, glorious, yearning, introspective, challenging, alien even - could inadvertently reach out of the smoky, dark, cave-like clubs of Washington and Columbus Avenues, and so mesmerize a young boy that it could change his life.
Nat Henhoff blends this tale of a city, its cultural glories and its social sins, with the story of the music, light and dark, somber and witty, pure and besmirched - the faithful mirror of the human soul.
He leaves one desolate that - much too soon! - things changed, and he leaves one wondering why Boston let it happen; why the city - host to The Berklee College of Music and the New England Conservatory, the Symphony as well as The Boston Pops - couldn't swiftly rally to support and, in time, to save a once-thriving Jazz community...
Oh, economics and changing taste are the answer, of course, but one is left wishing that Boston had been able to sustain its local jazz scene and, failing that, wishing that it should presently choose, at the least and at last, to honor it with a South End Jazz Museum.
Many of the greatest Jazz Musicians played there once and their presence or passage should not be forgotten.