Dream Boy: A Novel [Paperback]

Jim Grimsley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 30, 1997

In a novel as stunning and heartbreaking as his acclaimed debut work, Grimsley recounts the story of a painful first love--between two adolescent boys who bravely sustain each other in a world of domestic disintegration.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

With this heartbreaking story of first love, Grimsley, recipient of the 1995 Sue Kaufman Prize for his first novel, Winter Birds, has crafted another potential award winner. Here he works that novel's theme?a father's abuse of his son?into his sensitive depiction of a love affair between two high-school boys in the rural South. Nathan, a sophomore and the only child of an abusive, scripture-quoting, booze-guzzling father and a nearly invisible mother, becomes smitten with Roy, a senior who lives next door. Almost without realizing it (and with some reluctance on both sides), they begin an achingly tender romance. Ultimately, peer pressure leads to tragedy, and to a sort of metaphysical denouement that may strike some readers as over-the-top. But by that time, Grimsley's scenario has become so poignant and credible that the ending seems almost inevitable. He clearly understands the pain and confusion of budding love, and his present-tense narrative adds urgency and a touching immediacy to his tale. Without ever succumbing to cliche, Grimsley cuts with surgical precision to the heart of these characters' inchoate longings and barely repressed fears. Deceptively simple descriptive passages are hauntingly elegiac, and things left unsaid become as important as words expressed: these players' silences speak volumes. Romantic passion, violence and ultimate liberation coalesce in this singular display of literary craftsmanship.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

For collections desirous of a "problem" coming-of-age story with a gay theme, this might be a good bet. Grimsley, a Pen/Hemingway finalist for Winter Birds (LJ 8/94), writes smoothly, his Southern settings are evocative, and the dysfunctional family (with an abusive, alcoholic, Bible-toting father) of young Nathan rings true, as does the violence that pervades Dream Boy. Psychologically, what draws Nathan to Roy, the older-boy-baseball-star-with-a-girlfriend, makes sense; but, sexual orientation aside, Roy's interest in Nathan makes much less sense?as if it's supposed to be magic or chemistry. Whatever it is, the treatment is too perfunctory. Similarly, settings can tend toward the formulaic (farm pond flanked by overgrown cemetery?check; deserted, picturesque, haunted plantation mansion?check), and the plot is too subservient to atmosphere and theme. Still, this interesting effort will undoubtedly collect some rave reviews and therefore deserves consideration.?Robert E. Brown, Onondaga Cty. P.L., Syracuse, N.Y.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Touchstone; 1st Scribner Paperback Fiction ed edition (January 30, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684829924
• ISBN-13: 978-0684829920
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (173 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #299,177 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

56 of 60 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Clean, simple, plaintive, divine., July 26, 2004

By 

Holly "junkstory" (Los Angeles, CA, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dream Boy: A Novel (Paperback)

The last time a book affected me this much ... well ... suffice it to say that it's been a long time.

First things first. I wish I wrote it.

It's the only novel I've ever read that I'm truly, genuinely envious of.

The writing is sensual but succint, the words lyrical but moderate. I actually became breathless while reading.

Secondly, and perhaps most importantly, it's a love story between two boys, and neither the word 'gay' nor the phrase 'I love you' is ever used.

Sure, there's touching, kissing, sex, teenage awkwardness, guilt, fear, even discrimination. But nothing beyond narrative emotion + action speaks of the nature of it. No labels, clichés, or assumptions. It's just simple, perfect, and beautiful.

I want to cradle this book like a baby.

28 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Seductive, compelling tale, July 2, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Birmingham, Alabama) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dream Boy: A Novel (Hardcover)

I read DREAM BOY a couple of years ago, shortly after its hardcover publication. I was on a business trip, and stayed up well into the night to finish what I still consider to be one of my favorite novels. Grimsley's use of the first-person is a particularly wicked turn of style: I was hooked on page one, immediately drawn into the lives of these two boys. Seductive may be a better descriptor, for DREAM BOY is nothing if not seductive. While most readers may identify with Nathan's pain and his unwavering affection for Roy, it is Roy's love for Nathan that most captivated me. Strong yet subtle, confused yet confident, his undeniable passion and desire for Nathan give the book its emotional core. An unsteady core, to be sure. But it is that unsteadiness that allows the reader to more fully appreciate Roy's love, and to more easily understand the novel's inevitable climax. Much has been written about DREAM BOY's ending, mostly comments on Grimsley's talented use of some very powerful, dream-like imagery. But I think the ending only serves to remind us that Grimsley's real genius in this tale is his careful manipulation of his readers--to the point that we are willing to believe...either that the dead can rise and angels exist, or that a tortured soul can survive and redemption exists. Either way, he is simply asking us to believe in the same hope that allowed Nathan and Roy's relationship to blossom in the first place. Tonight, I have just seen Eric Rosen's stage adaptation of DREAM BOY, at Atlanta's 7 Stages, where Mr. Grimsley is a playwright-in-residence. The performance was textually and visually precise...nearly as emotionally stunning as the book itself. James McKay's Nathan will quietly draw you in, and Christopher Graham's Roy will make you believe, just as Nathan does, that this love is real...that it is somehow worth the pain.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good till (not through) the end, April 24, 2006

By 

Chad Sosna "Doo-Lang Love" (Chicago) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dream Boy: A Novel (Paperback)

With teen-coming-out books plowing into the fiction market by authors like James Howe, David Levithan, Alex Sanchez, Brent Hartinger and surely more to come, this little, quiet book (originally published in 1995) might be evaporating into invisibility.

Teenager Nathan finds his new home in the country especially welcoming when his neighbor, Roy, befriends him. Roy is a year older, hot and needs help with his homework. While their homework evolves into bodywork, Nathan still has secrets. Apparently his father is an abusive alcoholic whose actions have caused the family to move from city to city. And now gossip is starting in this town.

As the story progresses to a campout that brings the book's climax, you find the tale shifting to a disturbing level of horror that doesn't really match the more subdued tone of the rest of the book. Though I liked the writing style very much, the ending confused me--and once I realized what had happened, felt the story was ruined by the ending. That single element made me reduce what would have been a five-star rating to a three-star one. But you decide: a friend of mine loved the ending and thought it was totally appropriate.

If you're tired of the overly-trod gay fiction themes of alcoholic parent/ abusive parent/ hot, confident jock who easily realizes he's gay, you will not like finding these plot turns yet again (though, admittedly, this book was more than 10 years ago, so Grimsley was probably the trendsetter rather than a follower).

The novel's style is much more literary than the newer gay-teen books by the authors mentioned above. Its richer style and layered nuances prove the writing above average.