Customer Reviews

The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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

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.

My mom brought this book home one day after she stopped at the bookstore to get a book I needed for school. When I opened the bag to grab my book to go to school the next morning, and I saw a book with an apparently insane kid riding a book wielding a machete, I was a bit disturbed and concerned. When I got home from school, I read the back jacket and the book sounded pretty funny. When I started reading it, I couldn't put it down. Being a sophomore in highschool and being in a private, Catholic highschool after going to nothing but public school before that, I could perfectly relate to the characters. Francis is almost entirely relateable, and funny. Tim Sullivan reminds me of a bunch of my friends. All in all this book was hysterical, until the end when the book suddenly shifted tone, and really became sad and moving, and I really sympathized for Francis. And I'm also really glad my mom didn't read it, like she was planning to. This book reminds me a lot of the movie "The Sandlot," both having real-to-life kids in a close group of friends, who you really begin like and feel like you know, and then ends in retrospect, telling of the kids' futures.

After reading 'Altar Boys', I fondly looked back at the creation of other coming of age novels. Nothing I've read comes close to telling the trials and the daily struggles of being that misfit kid. Almost a parody, this tale of catholic life had me laughing, but shaking at the same time. It's not very often a book is this honest and understanding. A personal favorite.

Chuck Williams, an amature director/ screenwriter, April 29, 2002,
'Dangerous Lives', the book of the teenaged mind.
From the first word to the last, Author Chris Fuhrman holds you in a world of teenaged life. He portrays this world in a very down to earth sense, with no glamour at all. This is probably one of the books better features. The characters really feel pain and the reader follows the hard world of parental expectations and teenaged troubles. It was a book i couldn't put down, I was engrossed the entire time. The book is sad at times, action packed at times and throughout the entire novel there are moments of pure teen talk. Chris Fuhrman captures the true side of teenaged conversation, which causes the book to be incredibly funny as well. The story follows troubled Catholic teens rebelling against everything they know, and their adventures keep the book fun and exciting.The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys is a literary masterpiece and I reccomend it to everyone who ever was, or currently is, a teenager. The book is amazing.

The Dangerous Lives Of Altar Boys is an epic coming of age story set in the south in the 70's. This was one of the most enjoyable novels I have ever read. Chris Furman has created a masterpiece that is definitely the greatest undiscovered novel of our generation. No one should pass up reading this book. I highly recommend it to anyone, no matter what reading style you enjoy. The novel also has special significance for William Blake fans, although no knowledge of Blake is necessary to appreciate his influence on the novel.

I spent 9 years at a Catholic grammer and middle school and it will forever be a hugely influencial, good and bad, part of my life. I often thought that I was the only person who was so heavily influenced by this portion in their life. I was wrong. While at school, I had friends like Tim and the boys. I had the crushes that ached that between Francis and Margie. I fought the other black boys at my school for the fact that our skins were different colors. Fuhrman nailed the entire experience of being an adolescent at a Catholic school. He displayed the alienation of the boys through the beliefs they are taught at school and the beliefs that have found to be true. Through their distrust in authority and the celebration of free thought do the boys use the beliefs that they have time-tested to bond their friendship. That is why The Dangerous Lives of Alter Boys is a brilliant novel because Fuhrman shows how the bonds of male adolescent friendship are created. Through a common rebelious frame of mind, a shared twisted environment, and a infectious desire to disobey authority do these beliefs and philosophies create the bonds of friendship that fuel Chris Fuhrman's The Dangerous Lives of Alter Boys.

The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys is brilliant. It made me, for the first time in many books, both laugh out loud and nearly cry. I have never read a more accurate or moving account of being young. The synopsis at the top of this page, however, makes a big mistake in describing the book. Francis, the narrator did not ever attempt suicide, that was his girlfriend Margie.

Sadder than Chris' unfortunate death is the fact that this jewel-like book fell beneath the long and opaque shadow of "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil." A fine book, "Midnight," and as a Savannah native I can personally attest to the charm and nostalgia it evokes. But for too many people, "Midnight" is the Savannah story. They will stop there and never read THIS story of Savannah -- a smaller story, a hidden story. When I met Chris Fuhrman I was just a little kid, a nuisance at a dinner party. And Chris was tall, sunny-eyed, and somehow glorious as a teen-ager. And although our families did not often mix, the field on which Chris and I did meet was nearly always that strange and bizarre world of adult cocktail parties. What Chris captures about Savannah in "Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys" is not it's grandious homes and Civil War memories, not it's history and high society, not it's culture or its pungent marshland atmosphere. Chris captured my world in small. My youth and my childhood are inextricably bound within that story. I guess what needs saying is: I was there and Chris got it right! Most people reading this have not and will not ever live in Savannah. Fine. Read the book anyway -- especially if you've read "Midnight." Chris' Savannah is just as real. In truth, it's what's THERE