Customer Reviews

A Rock and a Hard Place: One Boy's Triumphant Story

5 star:		(36)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(29)

 

 

...work of fiction. But it's a lousy attempt to pull the wool over the reader's eyes; it's unethical and almost unforgivable that neither the author nor publisher have admitted to the book's fictional status, as of October 2003. As a fictional account, the book carries many of the expected traits - child abuse, fatal illness, family strife, all of which are fine in their fictional surrounding. The problem comes from the fact the book is sold as an autobiography, a memoir, a journal. It's none of these; it's a work of pure fiction, with not a single word of truth in the entire sordid journey. We the public are more than happy to read both fictional tales and autobiographical volumes, but we do at least deserve to be treated with respect; this is sadly lacking when a fictional author releases a fictional tale which is then poorly disguised as a true-to-life memoir.

Read it if you want to peruse a "what might have happened to someone, at some point, somewhere along the line" tale. But don't believe that it's a true account - it simply isn't.

Well, by this time just about everyone knows it, but he doesn't exist. A movie loosely based on these events is coming out starring Robin Williams, called "The Night Listener."

There's something ultimately creepy about this entire thing, though. Usually "fake" authors or authors who have elaborated/created "true" stories come out sooner or later and admit their work is a hoax (e.g. "A Million Little Pieces") -- but the woman who wrote this novel (whose real first name, I believe, was determined to be Virginia), has yet to come forward. She is believed to have some type of mental disorder and she actually spoke over the phone to people imitating "Anthony's" voice. She then used photos of a young boy (presumably inside the book cover?) - but because Anthony doesn't exist, no one knows who the boy in the book is. It's just strange.

Also, I'm almost positive she's monitoring this book's entry on Amazon, because I noticed all the reviews divulging into the truth behind this story will typically have only one "negative" vote. Unless there's some rabid fan of this novel going around trying to cover up the secret behind this, the author is pretty disgruntled that people aren't enjoying her little game.

A Rock and a Hard Place, like Go Ask Alice before it, is a supposedly true "memoir" but is in fact patently obvious fiction. I read it for the first time when I was about twelve and I remember thinking, "This sounds so fake." Three years later I found out that people had done some looking into Anthony Godby Johnson and found that there was nothing to see -- he didn't exist. The book is made up out of whole cloth.

It purports to be the biography of fourteen-year-old Anthony "Tony", who is dying of AIDS. He lead a miserable life. His parents seemed normal on the surface, but behind closed doors they beat him and starved him and abused him sexually and lent him out to their friends. This how he became infected. Tony's friends are mostly dead or gone: David committed suicide, Joey overdosed on cocaine, and Alison got lost in the nightmare of addiction and disillusionment. His future is bleak, the only ray of light being the loving family who adopted him when he was eleven.

I didn't like this book when I thought it was true, and I don't like it any better now. It's overly moralistic, Tony is too good to be true, and the dialogue is stilted beyond belief. It's nothing but a lot of anti-homosexual propaganda. Above all I hate it that they say the book is a true story. That's decieving the readers, and for a book to be successful the reader has to believe in it.

I would not recommend A Rock and a Hard Place to anyone.

I read this book when it first came out. I am a survivor of child abuse, too and found the book too dificult to finish, thinking that it was a true story. Now I find it is a fake. How DARE you fake a story like this! We abuse survivors (and I am in my 40's) have fought long and hard to be believed. Then, someone
writes this. Do you know the harm you do when you write this type of thing??? If you (the author) are a middle-aged woman and have some kind of Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy, I hope you get help soon. I am infuriated!

This book is the sacred text of a minor cult religion of the 90s.

"Tony" is pure, angelic, without flaw. You could meet his priests
but you could never see him, only hear his disembodied voice or read
his email. He suffered so that we will know the truth. You must
have faith that he exists -- if you doubt him, you are on the side
of evil. And he has gone away, leaving behind a permanently under-
construction webside, and us to wonder exactly what he meant.

It's a fake, but it drew people in. Even very intelligent people
like Armistead Maupin, whose novel "The Night Listener" is based
on the "Tony" cult. (That novel, plus the New Yorker article,
killed the cult dead -- nobody concerned with the real world can
take "Tony" seriously anymore.)

"Tony's" creator seems to have started a second career writing
heartfelt reviews of her book on Amazon. As other personas, natch.

Some Tonyists say: "But it doesn't matter whether he's real or not,
his story is important!" No, it isn't. A fake story passed off as
true makes nonsense of the real stories of real people. Only the
truth can set us free.

This book is for those interested in hoaxes, sentimental pity, and
the deep strangeness that the human mind is capable of. It may also
appeal to a few fans of sick humor. In any case, there is nothing
healthy or honest about this book on any level, and nobody connected
with it has anything to be proud of.

This book was just detailed in a special on hoaxes on 20/20 (7/21/06). Its all a lie, and a women wrote the book and made all the phone calls to the people who thought they were talking to the young boy. Dont waste your time and money on this.

This book is a hoax - do NOT waste your money. I would have rated it zero stars had I had the option. If you buy this book you will only be contributing to Internet hoaxers. No one has been able to verify this person's EXISTENCE, let alone illness. If you believe you are buying a non-fiction book, think again - this is purely fiction (and bad fiction at that).

Sadly, this book is a complete hoax. Tony doesn't even exist. Read Tad Friend's amazing expose in The New Yorker. But don't invest any money or emotion on this con.

This book, supposedly an autobiography of an abused boy, is a work of fiction. It is a tear-jerking story, but the only ones really getting jerked around are the readers who innocently put their time, emotion, and money into the book. Two recent writers have exposed this hoax: Tad Friend, in a New Yorker article, and Benjamin Radford, in his book Media Mythmakers. Shame on "Tony," whoever he or she really is, for exploiting people's sympathies and emotions.

Okay, first off, Vicki Zackheim, writes a fake memoir, pretending to be a boy with AIDS. Sick, but forgiveable. Next, she poses as this boy and tricks Mr. Rogers into believing her. MR. FREAKING ROGERS! That's morally reprehensible, and she could've damaged his credibility. Next, she up and marries a shrink, who then SIGNS A SWORN AFFADAVIT that says the boy exists, and uses THUG TACTICS on anyone investigating a book sold to the public. I won't go into the shrinks own problems that don't have anything to do with his wife, they are public knowledge.

But worst of all, when she was posing as this child, she sent out pictures of one of her LIVING students that she taught in her fourth grade class. That is seriously disgusting.