Customer Reviews

A Boy's Own Story

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

This story is a very beautifully told literary classic. The intimate proximatey of such a well developed character is truly amazing. White tells a wonderful sotry of a gay boy growing up in the 50's--though he never truly accepts it; not until the second book of the series, anyhow.

Warnings: Many people reviewed this book negatively and I wish to use this space to share who will NOT enjoy this book. First of all, you must enjoy the "literary" style of writing; if you don't enjoy classics and works by the likes of John Irving than this is not for you. A fine example is to compare it to J.D. Salenger's "Catcher in the Rye"--if you read this in your schooling years and hated it, you'll probably hate this also. If you like a solid and clear course of plot you may not enjoy it; this book is written much like life is lived, and that is with a degree of chaos. Also, if you are homophonic, this book is obviously not for you unless you are attempting to open your mind. Finally, if you are the type of person who is offended by the unappologetic beliefs of the 50's that homosexuality is an illness, etc., then you may not want to read this; this was an issue with me, but I came to understand that this would be the thought process of someone in the narrators posision at his age and time.

I loved this book, and hope that other readers will expierience the same amazement as I did.

Edmund White is one of America's finest writers. From his early forays into a then edgey genre of stories that happen to include in depth studies of gay men and their questionable place in the public fabric to his current biographies of famous writers (Proust, et al) to his assessment in literary form of the AIDS crisis and it effect on life in all of America, White has become ever more erudite, polished in technique, and fascinating to explore. Because of this current prominence among gifted writers it is rewarding to return to the early works and see if they contained all the seeds of his success. Having just re-read "A Boy's Own Story" I am even more deeply moved and impressed with White than I remembered. This treasureable book is not just a Pink Triangle groupie read. This is wondrously beautiful writing by all standards. White knows how to make the English linguage sing with acute observations that begin with a keen delineation of line but then blossom fully into metaphors than can only be called poems. These descriptions apply not only to walks in nature or observed qualities of light at varying times of day, but they are used to define his characters in such a vivid manner that they literally step off the page, indelibly.

And the story.....this tale of the grappling of a youth over questions not only of sexuality but of coming of age in social, religious, educational, dream vs reality strikes chords in all of us. His unnamed narrator is in a way the Everyman of Youth. White does not go for the happy Hollywood ending: he writes about the truths of decisions gone awry, dreams dismemebered, realites coming into being. I would hope that "A Boy's Own Story" would be part of the required reading list for the liberal arts schools who care about not only quality of literature but also of complexity of becoming an adult.

Edmund White's brand of prose is top-shelf. From page one of this novel, his first loosely autobiographical piece about growing up gay, I was bewitched, bothered, and bewildered by him once again.

I have now read his first-person narrative trilogy in full, though out of sequence, and each book is captivating. While this, his early adolescence, is not as sexually charged as the others, it is still replete with the same auto-erotica that emanates from his fertile imagination in the subsequent pieces of the work as a whole.

The protagonist, still unnamed, draws readers into his world of summers at the lake with his well-off family; his first tentative sexual liaisons; his forays into the world of heterosexual 'normalcy', his escape from parochial school to the comforts of an all-boys private academy, and his reluctant quest to discover his homosexual self. Through the pages of this novel, the boy takes diffident steps out of the closet, even in the 1950's, when such actions were decidedly more taboo than in present day, yet White's experience can be understood by all who have come out, whether it were 1955, 1985, or 2002.

White takes his narrator, and the reader, through the highs and lows of self doubt and self awareness; through numerous quests for love and acceptance; through the dangers and disappointments of trying to conceal your true nature from the world and yourself, and finally through the daunting labors of disclosure of his homosexual tendencies to others. In the finale, the protagonist arrives, albeit in a disturbing way, at childhood's end, and forges ahead toward adulthood.

Ever present are White's frank, revealing takes on being gay. No matter what your age; no matter what the year, White's voice speaks to all. His trilogy of growing up gay in the 50's and 60's and being gay in the 70's, 80's, and beyond is among the finest examples of gay literature I have ever read.

This is one of the first "literary" books I read when I was several years younger than I am now (though I am far from ancient at the age of 18), but the impact it has had on me remains; I approach it, perhaps, with a little more maturity and insight now than I could have them. I was recently elated to note the publication of the 20th anniversary edition by Modern Library; while White has long been adored by the literary community (with praise from the likes of Joyce Carol Oates, Gore Vidal, and Michael Ondaatje just to name three), the Modern Library edition might make him more generally read by the "mainstream" literary reader--a term which strikes me as odd, but I am sad to report the adjective is a necessary distinction that must be made in describing many in the United States. This book is daring, unapologetic, and very well crafted.

I now feel compelled to defend A Boy's Own Story from a particularly misguided criticism I've seen made by another reviewer. The narrator has been attacked for his perceived "selfishness" by someone who not only missed the sociological significance of the character and his place in the novel and the 1950s, but also the fact that in great literature, characters are not bound to stereotypical renderings and predictable personalities. There are reasons important to the tone and theme of the novel for the character's personality; White is also basing his narrator on an amalgamation of his own life and the lives and experiences of others he has talked to about their coming-of-age and coming out.

This is one of the finest pieces of contemporary fiction by one of its finest practitioners.

Edmund White long ago established himself as a premier voice in gay America. "A Boy's Own Story" is a literary masterpiece both moving and disturbing. Many readers make the mistake of calling it "autobiographical", forgetting it is a work of fiction LOOSELY autobiographical. I can't imagine being gay and not having read this book. Yes, the ending is disturbing, and this makes it all the more powerful. "A Boy's Own Story" is so moving a reader threw it across the room upon reading the ending, vowing never to read Edmund White again. This alone should cause you to click on "add to shopping cart."

With its recent re-publication by the oh-so-tony Modern Library, Edmund White's _A Boy's Own Story_ has officially left the semi-pornographic demimonde of Gay lit, and entered the domain of canonical American fiction. For this reason alone it merits at least a passing glance from readers interested in the state of the written word. Twenty years ago, this slight little book was hailed as the Great Gay American Novel -- and, for better or for worse (often the latter), it still is.

What intrigues me most about this novel, however, is not its portrait of an emerging Gay/male consciousness (a plot which has been done nearly to death by now), but the way it toys with its own overall chronology. Unlike a typical bildungsroman, the novel's episodes are not narrated in sequential order, but in an elliptical, interlocking fashion. Think of the oddball three-act structure of Tarantino's film _Pulp Fiction_, and you'll have a solid idea of White's scrambled sense of time. (Of course, the style is completely different: White's placid Francophilic prose, reminiscent not so much of Proust as of Julian Green, is self-consciously "literary" and retrograde -- not at all like Tarantino's jittery, overcaffeinated camera eye.)

To this particular Modern Library edition, Allan Gurganus has contributed a typically long-winded foreword. My advice: Skip it and go directly to the novel. White himself also weighs in with a brief afterword on the novel's reception, and its impact on his overall career as a writer. It makes a pleasing endnote to this boy's tale, and it's definitely worth a read.

It is December, 1983. I am a twenty year old on a subway train, and I have an embarrassing itch. I scratch it, which in turn is interpreted as a signal that I want to get laid by the young man sitting across from me. When I get off the train, this handsome young man, a light skinned African American with an intoxicating look, also exits the train and asks me if I have a match. He realizes I am clueless and then tells me bluntly what he wants to do. He also tells me not to fear AIDS because if we do it that night, he will not do it with anyone else. I ran as fast as I could. I had yet to deal with being gay, speak less of the remote possibility that someone could be attracted to me. Some friends told me I should have beaten him up, others that I should have given in. I decided what I really needed to do was buy a book. The only gay themed book I could find was A BOYS OWN STORY. The cover of the book had a young man who was skinny and not very handsome, but still cute. He had slightly effeminate features, but he was still a guy. The cover alone interested me so I purchased it. I got home and began to read it. And could not stop. I was vicariously interacting with another gay person, and we both understood each other. We understood knowing love in our heads, but not our hearts. We understood parents who wish we were different, which translates into being someone else. While the young man had many sexcapades, more than most people probably have, he still fears exposure and a lack of acceptance.

Though this is often termed a gay coming of age novel, it is far more universal. Edmund White creates a Holden Cauffield sort of character that speak to all people who have ever felt left out. As I look back, though my sexuality promoted me to read this book, the connection that remains is based on loneliness and acceptance and the need to feel loved.

This is the autobiographical story of the boyhood of this famous gay author. It tells the story of his late childhood and early adolescence. The dominant feature of White's story is his discovery of his gayness, and his coming to terms with it.

This theme is handled with great sensitivity. We the reader can feel for the boy as he travels down this rocky road of growing up. His father is a distant person, so is his mother, so the young lad is quite isolated. He is with his family, but he is not part of it. One can sense his quandry at knowing that he does not quite fit in with his family's concept of a proper son. For those who have read the later novels by White, this isolation shows its early roots.

There are some graphic yet tender sex scenes. The boy is amazed to discover that a younger lad looks up to him, and is willing and eager to serve him sexually. They pass a very pleasant, yet transient, few weeks at the summer cottage by the lake. Each boy is able to explore and learn his sexuality. Yet there is little affection, and no love.

The themes of this novel are complex, and would make good study subjects. This novel ought to be one of the texts used in teaching English Literature. No doubt homophobia would prevent this. But many a teenager would benefit from exposure to this story, if only to learn that they are not alone. That other boys have travelled, survived, and even enjoyed this journey of sexual discovery.

had a book affect me like this one did. it will seriously get inside of you, and for some reason you just have to read it over and over again. so if you are looking for a book that you can call your "all time favorite book" give this one a try.

For me this is one of the best books describing the experience of gay adolescence in the 50's and early 60's. I wonder if the people who dislike this book have personal experience dating from that era. I only wish that there had been a book like this for me to read when I was growing up during that time. The book rings entirely true to one person's character and growth, warts and all.