Where the Boys Are [Paperback]

William J. Mann (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2004

In William J. Mann's witty and provocative follow-up to his acclaimed bestseller The Men From the Boys, Jeff O'Brien-still in search of love and sex-navigates the circuit in the company of friends, tricks, old loves, and irresistible strangers, going any place... Where The Boys Are "Someday, when they look back and write about these times, I will be able to say that I was here. I danced every dance and knew the words to every song." Jeff and his on-again, off-again lover Lloyd Griffith are thirty-something professionals still grieving the death of their mentor, Javitz. Jeff bounces from party to party, forgetting his pain only when he's on the dance floor, immersed in a sea of beautiful boys with sculpted pecs and speed-bump abs. At his side is his protege, best friend, sister, and not-so-secret admirer Henry Weiner, once a ninety-eight-pound weakling who has lately blossomed into a hunky muscle-boy escort. As the lives of Jeff, Lloyd, and Henry intertwine, each confronts a different challenge. Henry's repressed feelings of love for Jeff propel him on a quest to discover his own identity amid the often-seedy world of sex for cash. Lloyd deals with the dark side of the "fag hag" experience when his Provincetown housemate, Eva, exhibits increasingly bizarre behavior. But the most intriguing mystery of all involves the beautiful stranger Jeff meets at yet another circuit party and invites to move in. Anthony Sabe is a young man seemingly without a past, whose bright-eyed ingenuousness at first charms everyone, but later raises suspicions. When Jeff sets out to uncover the truth about Anthony, what he finds is progressively more disturbing, raising questions not only about Anthony but also about himself. Over the course of a life-changing summer, Jeff, Lloyd, and Henry deal with the myriad issues confronting gay men today: sex, drugs, grief, AIDS, barebacking, body image, commitment, one-night stands, and the search for love. The first novel to be set on the gay party circuit, Where The Boys Are evokes a world with its own language, customs, traditions, and idiosyncracies, set to a backdrop of sex, drugs, and dance music. "Guaranteed to send your temperature soaring."-The Advocate

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Mann continues to chart the lives, lusts and losses of Jeff O'Brien and Lloyd Griffith, who first appeared in his 1997 novel, The Men from the Boys. This lively sequel finds them estranged after six years together, yet considering a reconciliation. The death from AIDS of their mutual best friend and mentor David Javitz sent them scurrying in different directions: Jeff to discover a blissful bachelorhood of drugs, circuit parties and dance floor groping in Boston, and Lloyd to adopt a peaceful, celibate Provincetown lifestyle, exploring his spiritual side and running a guesthouse with friend Eva. Can these two men find common ground again? Lurking in the background are several friends who stand in their way: Jeff's current squeeze, the independently wealthy Anthony; Henry, Jeff's smitten best friend; and the widowed, emotionally unstable Eva. Each reveals his or her own secrets while selfishly pecking away at Jeff and Lloyd's happiness. This is especially true of Henry, who is indebted to Jeff for helping to transform him from nerdy nobody to muscular hottie. The chatty story is related from different characters' perspectives, the better to reveal their occasionally earnest but generally shallow motives. Mann doesn't skimp on cattiness, camp and clever barbs, yet he addresses serious subjects-safe sex, gay families, moral responsibility-as well. But at more than 400 tight-packed pages, the onslaught of rapid-fire, sitcom-style repartee and melodrama may have some circuit boys leaving this dance early.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

William J. Mann is the critically acclaimed author of Wisecracker: The Life and Times of William Haines, Hollywood’s First Openly Gay Star, as well as The Biograph Girl and the novel The Men from the Boys. He is a contributor to Architectural Digest, The Boston Phoenix, and The Advocate.

Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Kensington Books (May 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0758203276
• ISBN-13: 978-0758203274
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (52 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,047,773 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I live in two of the most beautiful places on the planet ' Provincetown, Massachusetts, with its exquisite light and ever-shifting dunes in the summer and the fall, and Palm Springs, California, with its majestic mountains and invigorating desert air in the winter and the spring. I am indeed blessed.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You Gotta Have Friends, August 17, 2003

By 

Richard F. Carson (St. Petersburg, FL United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Where the Boys Are (Hardcover)

While it helps to have read Mr. Mann's earlier novel, "The Men From the Boys," because the main characters carry over, this book stands on its own. Since the narrative progresses in chapters which are told in the first-person by several of the characters -- and this device really works well in telling the story -- this is one of those books you have a hard time putting down.

There is something compelling about each of the half dozen main characters that propels you forward to uncover the next revelation. Mr. Mann uses his keen insights into the gay culture to address important issues like how gay men grow and mature, and he incisively describes the difficulties in maintaining the kinds of communication necessary to nurture healthy relationships between partners and among friends. Sounds kinda heavy, and it is, but the several story lines going on provide a lot of juicy entertainment as well.

When I finished "The Men From the Boys," I wanted the story to go on so I could see if these guys could get their acts together. I got my wish with "Where the Boys Are," but I'm hoping there's a third act in the wings. The issues Mr. Mann raises warrant more of the kind of continuing dialogue on this that he's so great at delivering.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars We Are Family?, July 31, 2003

By 

H. F. Corbin "Foster Corbin" (ATLANTA, GA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Where the Boys Are (Hardcover)

William Mann's premise in this novel is that gay people have our own families apart from biological ones, that we make our own rules up as we go and that we will make mistakes. Mr. Mann expounds on this by continuing the story he began in THE MEN FROM THE BOYS. Jeff and Lloyd have now lost their best friend Javitz to AIDS but must somehow continue without him. Mr. Mann introduces new prominent characters, Henry, Eva and Anthony as well as the subjects of circuit parties, drugs in the gay community, barebacking, new age jargon, gay bashing, internalized homophobia, "fag hags," male prostitution and what is described as "sacred sex workers." Yes, the chef emptied out the entire refrigerator to make this pot of soup.

For my money, the character Anthony works very well and is one of the best things about the story. Mr. Mann handles the mystery and intrigue surrounding his background very well. He is not so successful in the portrayals of Eva and Henry. Eva is so needy and manipulative as to be for the most part totally obnoxious. And I groaned when Henry became what he calls a sacred sex worker.

Also, Mann ties all the threads up too quickly in the end, I thought-- was he running out of pages? On the other hand, I've read dozens of gay novels that were neither as entertaining or well written as this one.

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars What a letdown!, November 27, 2003

By 

Brent Spencer (Madison, WI) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Where the Boys Are (Hardcover)

I loved "The Men From the Boys" so I was looking forward to any new book by William J. Mann. I was thrilled when I discovered that on top of everything the new book ("Where the boys are") was going to be a sequel to the one I loved ("The Men..."). What a disappointment! "Where the Boys Are" seems to be written by somebody else.

Some of the characters have the same names (Jeff, Lloyd, the ghost of Javitz, and very vague references to Eduardo, Tommy, etc.) but that's about the only thing the two books have in common!

(Mis)Using a narrative technique taken from Faulkner's "As I lay dying", we get to see the events from inside three character-narrators (Jeff, Lloyd & Henry) but instead of introspection and personal points of view, we get shallowness and confusion -especially since it changes from one to the other every few pages, before the reader can get a feel for the character. Since there is no introspection, it doesn't make a difference who is narrating, only confusion as to who the "I" on that page refers to!

In addition, each of these three character-narrators gets into an irritating 'dialogue' (?!) with the reader, teasing her or him on what they will share or not share with her/him, etc.

Paradoxically, this approach of getting inside the characters -to get to know them better- leaves the reader with the impression that there is nothing there making the characters far less likeable than in the previous book.