The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys [Paperback]

Chris Fuhrman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 28, 2001

Set in Savannah, Georgia, in the early 1970s, this is a novel of the anarchic joy of youth and encounters with the concerns of early adulthood. Francis Doyle, Tim Sullivan, and their three closest friends are altar boys at Blessed Heart Catholic Church and eighth-grade classmates at the parish school. They are also inveterate pranksters, artistic, and unimpressed by adult authority. When Sodom vs. Gomorrah '74, their collaborative comic book depicting Blessed Heart's nuns and priests gleefully breaking the seventh commandment, falls into the hands of the principal, the boys, certain that their parents will be informed, conspire to create an audacious diversion. Woven into the details of the boys' preparations for the stunt are touching, hilarious renderings of the school day routine and the initiatory rites of male adolescence, from the first serious kiss to the first serious hangover.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Heartbreaking yet hilarious, this posthumous novel set in Savannah, Ga., in the 1970s chronicles a school year in the life of narrator Francis Doyle, an eighth-grader at the parish school of the Blessed Heart. Though the plot turns on the youthful pranks of Francis's gang, Fuhrman brings to his characters a near-adult consciousness as rites of passage like the first kiss are interwoven with imaginative acts of adolescent revolt and moments of terrible family life. Francis, soulful and suffering from a hernia, is beaten regularly by his father and turns to drink. He falls in love with Margie--a delicate, off-balance girl with a "wrist fragile as a swan's throat," who attempted suicide the year before--and longs for her with a sensual need that is captivating. When Francis first sees her, in church, the touching, love-at-first-sight moment is juxtaposed with the slapstick antics of a dog, with "tags clinking," who urinates against the altar. By marrying the earnest to the ridiculous, Fuhrman captures the sublime intensity of adolescence. But the novel expands beyond first-rate character studies as Francis and his friends struggle against the racial prejudice that saturates their school and neighborhood and threatens to explode into a race riot when a black schoolmate breaks a duck's wing with a baseball bat. Fuhrman (1960-1991) died of cancer while working on the final revision of this book--his first and last, which can be compared to many of the classic coming-of-age novels.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

On the cusp of adolescence, some 13-year-old boys band together, swigging the Sacrament wine behind their priests' backs and drawing illicit comic books depicting nuns and priests engaged in--you guessed it--sex. This fictional memoir of a Catholic boyhood concentrates on the coming-of-age of its narrator, Francis, who a year before the book begins, at 12, attempted suicide. No wonder, considering the dark underside of punitive Catholicism that Francis' story puts generously on display, not least in the figure of the boy's father, who literally beats his son bloody for not eating scorched corned beef. Francis' mother looks on horror-struck and cowed; afterward she is helpless except for the salve she administers. As Francis blunders through his first sexual encounter with a much more experienced girl, gets himself muddy and bloody in school-yard fights with his buddies, and eventually faces the frailty of human life, this darkly comic work by an author who died young well before its publication takes on an increasingly savage tone full of foreboding, grief, and very Catholic reparation. Whitney Scott --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 200 pages
• Publisher: University of Georgia Press (September 28, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0820323381
• ISBN-13: 978-0820323381
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.7 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (47 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #953,536 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally somebody writesthe truth about us teenagers feelings, October 7, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: The DANGEROUS LIVES OF ALTAR BOYS (Paperback)

I personnally think that "The Dangerous Lives of Alter Boys" is the best book I've ever read. I am a teenager and it totally captured a tremendous amount of my thoughts as they really are, not "fake" ideas about teenagers like some authors do. I tried to do what the love of Francis's life did, and to see some of my feelings written out like this was simply amazing, and also very breath-taking. Never have I read a book like this before, and never willl I read one like it again. The ending of this book was so unexpected, it made me cry (honestly.) Then, to find out after I read the book and was ready to look for more work by Mr. Fuhrman, i was terribly shocked to read that he died. That made the book even sadder. This book cannot even be rated on the scale, it's to good to be put in a number.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dangerous Lives of Alter Boys, January 16, 2000

By 

Christina Howard (Cedar Falls, Iowa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys (Hardcover)

I have repeatedly read The Dangerous Lives of Alter Boys over the past five years. It has been swapped from family member to family member and from friend to friend. The ability the book has to appeal to such a wide audience, and continually gain a person's interest (even after reading it several times before) amazes me. This charming coming of age novel speaks to the experiences and innocent emotions each of us encounters during the akward age of adolescence. Chris Fuhrman captures the true essence of growing up, and tells his story in a way that will captivate each of his readers

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best reading experiences I've ever had, November 2, 2000

By 

John N Dedeke (St. Louis, Missouri United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys (Hardcover)

I came across this book ... I almost didn't buy it, but the fact that I did will go down in my own personal history as one of the greatest decisions I've ever made. After merely the first chapter, I was ready to call this book my all time favorite, and the rest of the novel does not disappoint. I don't know that I've ever been so moved before by a book, and I can't say for sure that you will (unless you're an alienated kid from the suburbs looking for love), but the book is a true gem and a pleasure to read nevertheless. After all of the ups and downs of the emotional ride that this novel presents, the biggest blow of all came when I discovered that the author, a newfound god in my estimation, had never lived to see its publication. If there is one single book that can totally sum up the joy, terror, beauty, humor and horror of youth and coming of age, it is Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys.