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86 of 86 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A very true story that anyone should read, November 18, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: The Boys on the Rock (Stonewall Inn Editions) (Paperback)
"The Boys on the Rock" was my second novel of the very new literary genre of "modern gay fiction." And I have to say that it moved me beyond words. Having been at a point in my life where I have become true to myself after a long time of hiding in the closet, John Fox's book was a god-send. Books such as these make it seem like love between men (of any age) is actually possible, even with the bigotry and intolerance of society today. This book tells the story of Billy, a "popular guy" who narrates his entire experience of dealing with his sexuality, and, in the same breath, falling into true love for the first time with a young man named Al. The sex scenes were vivid and realistic (a nice thing to see when I had been raised to believe that it just could not happen), but not central to the plot. The story is more about Billy's coming of age, and his realization that being who he is is more important that being who he is told to be. The thing I liked the most about this book is that the characters are normal people, not idealized images of perfection. There are flaws, beauties, and strange quirks about every character, which makes the entire tale ring all the more true. Even the narration style is that of a true voice, not an embellished, edited version of humanity. I would recommend this book to anyone who has (or is having) a powerful journey into accepting themselves as who they are. It helped me, and I hope it could help others. Though the ending could have been better for the romantically minded, it was even more realistic in that it also showed that life is not always perfect, no matter how much we'd like it to be.
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45 of 45 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the best gay coming-of-age novels ever, April 9, 2000
This review is from: The Boys on the Rock (Stonewall Inn Editions) (Paperback)
I don't claim to be an expert on gay literature, but I am very widely read, and having especially read a lot of fiction on the gay male experience (since coming out myself six years ago at age 30), I would attest that this is one of the most luminous, beautiful, heartbreaking, and honest coming-of-age novels (gay or otherwise) ever written. It also has some potent nostalgia value, set in the Bronx in the spring and summer of 1968 when the Vietnam War was raging and Gene McCarthy and Bobby Kennedy were running for president. For any of you other gay guys who might need an incentive to read it, let it be said that this tale of first love between high school swimmer Billy and college-student political volunteer Al has some stunningly (and graphically) erotic passages. But the sex is just a natural (and inevitable) outgrowth of a ruthlessly honest (and often laugh-out-loud hilarious) look at a teenage boy's life. The book is so intensely sexy for the same reasons that it's so intensely funny, and so intensely sad in places that you want to cry. Written in Billy's head-long first-person stream of consciousness prose (with some artful leaps back and forth in time), it is one of those rare novels that make this sort of style work. And it does so very economically at only 146pp, though it seems to cover more range than books three times that length. You really HEAR Billy's Bronx accent and FEEL every rollercoaster turn of his emotions. It accomplishes that supremely difficult feat that separates out the truly gifted novelist: to tell life simply as it is, and make you feel you are LIVING the storyteller's life, and thus capture life's comedy, sadness, and aching beauty. Comparisons to "The Catcher in the Rye" are inevitable, and it exceeds the best one could expect of a "gay version" of Salinger's novel. It belongs on a short shelf with such gay coming-of-age classics as E.M. Forster's "Maurice" or (sub rosa) Henry James's short novel "The Pupil." I don't mean to diss Edmund White (a brilliant writer whom I admire) but it is puzzling that White's "A Boy's Own Story" is so much more famous and widely read (even by hetero presidential candidates like Bill Bradley to show their sensitivity to gay culture), when Fox's novel is demonstrably SO MUCH better, more powerful, and more lyrically written. I understand that Fox died of AIDS without ever completing another novel; yet another reason to weep at what that epidemic has cost.
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A stunning achievement ..., January 22, 2002
This review is from: The Boys on the Rock (Stonewall Inn Editions) (Paperback)
I first encountered "The Boys on the Rock" during the Summer of 1991, at a time when I was just coming to grips with my own sexuality. Dealing with the turbulent feelings that accompany your own sexual and emotional awakening as a gay person can be an often overwhelming experience ... and you find yourself desperately searching for little pieces of this world that can somehow help validate your feelings, educate you, inform you, shape your beliefs. "The Boys on the Rock" is a book that I needed to read, a message I needed to hear. Having come at a crucial time in my own life, this book is not one I can easily review, because I have a tremendously personal connection to it that perhaps renders me bias. But, as I consider this, I think, what is the power of a book if not the power to profoundly affect a person's life? Any form of entertainment--book, movie, play, song--that can positively alter the evolution of a man, woman, or child's humanity is something to rejoice in. With "The Boys on the Rock" the late John Fox tapped into the very core of what fuels our humanity: the fear, the pain, the joy, the love, all the tangled emotions that propel us forward through the complexities of this life. Billy Connors is John Fox's gift to the world--a young man whom, by the end of this groundbreaking novel, you will have come to understand almost as well as you understand yourself. Through his eyes and with John Fox's eloquent, immediate prose, you will be afforded a view of the world that, hopefully, will change your own outlook. Billy's path to self-acceptance and self-discovery is one of the boldest and most beautiful journeys we should ever be so fortunate to witness, and the honesty of his story will bring a tear to your eye. Not just about coming out, "The Boys on the Rock" is about the universal struggle for identity we all share ... about feeling truly alive for the first time. This is a novel for all people to cherish. Do yourself a favor and read this book. It will touch you.
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