The World of Normal Boys [Paperback]

K. M. Soehnlein (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Late 1970s New Jersey is the backdrop for this gay coming-of-age novel by newcomer Soehnlein. As he starts his freshman year in high school in the fall of 1978, 13-year-old Robin MacKenzie is baffled by "normal boys" and men. Why, he wonders, do his salesman father, Clark, and his younger brother, Jackson, his crude uncle Stan and his oafish cousin Larry insult and torment other people, like Robin's 7th-grade sister Ruby, his chronically dissatisfied mother, Dorothy, and his new "burnout" friend, Scott Schatz? Robin already feels different because he has a collection of Broadway cast albums and helps his mother "accessorize" her clothing. Now the gulf between him and "normal" boys is widening: he is beginning to fantasize sexually not about girls but about other boys. Soehnlein depicts Robin's physical awakening with sensitivity, and also illuminates his struggles with new moral dilemmas, as he is forced to decide what to tell the adults about Jackson's fall from a playground slide, how to handle the mixed signals that he's getting from Todd Spicer, the older boy next door, and what to do about Scott's troubles with his abusive father. The third-person present-tense narrative presents an amusingly detailed and largely accurate picture of life in the Jersey 'burbs. Although marred a bit by rather facile psychologizing, Robin's story is ultimately a moving romance. That romance is not that of a boy with another boy (or man)Athe clinical depictions of Robin's various sexual experiences are not particularly movingAbut of a boy with a city: the New York where Robin lived as a small child; the New York he visits with his mother on their "City Days" throughout his childhood; the New York that remains, despite an ugly walk on its wild side, the city of Robin's dreams. Author tour. (Sept.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

Robin McKenzie is just starting high school and ready for change, ready to appear more "cool," make new friendships, and fit in more. But after his younger brother, Jackson, injures himself in an accidental and dangerous fall, Robin's life will never be the same. As his parents' fighting escalates under the strain and his family begins to fall apart, Robin adapts to the strangeness of high school. Central in his anxieties is his sexual attraction to other boys. His parents are no help, and to add to his confusion, Robin's friends are just as lost as he is: one minute he and Todd (the cute boy next door) are fooling around, and the next Todd refers to homosexuals as queers and fags. Feeling scared and isolated, Robin starts experimenting with drugs, cuts class, and thinks of boys instead of schoolwork. Full of tension and suspense, Soehnlein's well-paced debut novel is a fresh look at one boy's sexual awakening in the 1970s and his journey to find a place where he can fit in. Michelle Kaske
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 296 pages
• Publisher: Kensington Books (August 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1575666618
• ISBN-13: 978-1575666617
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (64 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #372,283 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

K.M. Soehnlein grew up in suburban New Jersey, the setting for his bestselling, award-winning debut novel, "The World of Normal Boys" and its 2010 sequel, "Robin and Ruby." After working various odd jobs for years, the success of his fiction allowed him to focus on writing, editing and teaching. He now lives in San Francisco, the city that provides the backdrop for his novel "You Can Say You Knew Me When," which takes place during two vibrant eras, the heyday of the Beat Generation and the early years of the Internet. Soehnlein's journalism and essays have appeared in various publications and anthologies. He has been awarded the Lambda Literary Award and the Henfield/Transatlantic Review Prize. He teaches creative writing at the University of San Francisco. Visit him online at http://www.kmsoehnlein.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Where Have all the Normal Boys Gone?, September 8, 2000

By 

Irishlad "irishlad" (Fergus, Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The World of Normal Boys (Hardcover)

The 70's...... an era of drive in movies, grease, john travolta and olivia-newton-john, pot smoking, leather wearing, motorcycle riding masses of muscle and testosterone..... alas, this novel brings everything back with such clarity that you can smell it seeping through the pages. 13 year old Robin MacKenzie is starting highschool in the midst of all of this and to make matters worse he is totally confused about his sexuality. His best friend is a girl who is experiencing changes of her own, his younger brother is closer to his Father than he ever hopes to be, and his mother still makes trips into the "city" with him where they create a fantasy world of handsome rogues, starlets and other escapes from reality! Tragedy strikes the family and suddenly Robin discovers that the literal "boy next door" is perhaps the boy he has always been looking for. The ensuing roadtrip is rife with burgeoning hormones, pot smoking, sexual awakenings and other hilarious anecdotes that recall that queasy feeling that young gay boys experience on their own road to self identity. For a debut novel, this is definitely a class act that deserves a follow-up. Pick it up, caress it, lose yourself in it!

33 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Major, Very Important Book!, March 3, 2001

By 

Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The World of Normal Boys (Hardcover)

About once every decade or so along comes an author with a voice so clear and exciting that a first novel becomes a revelation. K.M. Soehnlein has given us another universally effective tale of the coming of age of a boy in the labyrinth of puberty. Joyce, Salinger, Wolfe did it and created prototypes that became icons for countless young men fortunate enough to be encouraged to read abou the tangles life presents when the hormone balance shifts toward adulthood. "The World of Normal Boys" is a sheer wonder of writing skill, passion, and commitment. I wonder at the lack of notoriety due a book of this stature - but then perhaps this book has fallen victim of being too "specialized" in its reader audience. Yes, ONE of the struggles that the main character, Robin, encounters is his fear and coming to grips with nascent homosexuality. But Soehnlein handles this so adroitly that it should ring bells in everyone's psyche; sexual ambivalence is a normal step toward sexual identity, gene theory or no. Accompanying this odyssey of a highschool freshman is an incident which changes everything in his milieu of maturing. And with this incident we are allowed to observe the disintegration of a "normal" family unit, the inception of alcoholism, parental abuse of children as they seek escape from their own frustration about life choices, the obsessive need to feel loved/needed/to exist, the imbalance between juvenile naivete and adult "sophistication." Yet the author sweeps us along with a storytelling technique which is incredibly fine. If you wonder early in the book why he is taking such detail to describe a playground and especially an almost architecturally rendered view of a play slide, then you only realize in a few pages further why that little bit of apparent "diversion" was so important and why there is a replay of the same theme at book's end when our now beloved main character unveils the place the universe has fashioned for him in this life. If there were more than 5 stars to rate this book I would go to the maximum number. This is a brilliant book by an enormously gifted author who has not only given us a new Stephen Daedalus, Holden Caulfield, Eugene Gant...he has documented a decade (the 1970's) better than almost anyone writing today. Yes this book deals with gay issues (very well) and that can only be another reason for everyone to read it. Highly recommended!!!!!!!!!!

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Packs an emotional wallop, January 1, 2006

By 

krebsman (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The World of Normal Boys (Paperback)

In some ways KM Soehnlein's THE WORLD OF NORMAL BOYS reminded me of the teenage novels of Paul Zindel. There is that same depth of feeling along with characters that can break your heart and make you laugh at the same time. Zindel wrote specifically for adolescents. Soehnlein does not have those restrictions and has written a brutally honest book about homosexual experimentation among post-pubescent boys and its social implications. Although the book is written for adults, it speaks on a deep personal level to the adolescent in all of us.

THE WORLD OF NORMAL BOYS is the story of a family that falls apart when a tragic accident befalls the youngest child. The story is seen through the eyes of the victim's 13-year-old brother as he tries to find something to hold on to while his mother drifts into alcoholism, his father goes nuts, his sister becomes a religious fanatic (and a kleptomaniac) and he finds himself smitten with two boys. One is Todd, the athletic and arrogant brother of his girl-pal confidante who lives next door. The other is Scott, a boy who deals drugs, cuts school and has an alcoholic father who beats him. All the characters are vividly rendered. If this were ever turned into a film, the actress who plays the mother would probably win an Oscar just for her final scene in the car.

This is powerful and emotional writing. I found it very moving. It's tempting to want to recommend this book to a wide audience, but I am reticent because there are several scenes of furtive and unacknowledged sex between teenage boys that could upset some people.

But I will never forget this book. Five stars.