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Becoming a Man: Half a Life Story
 
 

Becoming a Man: Half a Life Story (Paperback)

~ (Author)
4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (49 customer reviews)

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  Hardcover, June 21, 1992 -- $3.15 $0.01
  Paperback, May 31, 2004 $10.91 $1.58 $1.58
  Paperback, June 11, 1993 $11.70 $0.01 $0.01
  Unknown Binding, December 31, 1992 -- -- $11.17

Frequently Bought Together

Becoming a Man: Half a Life Story + Borrowed Time: An AIDS Memoir + Last Watch of the Night: Essays Too Personal and Otherwise
Price For All Three: $39.90

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  • This item: Becoming a Man: Half a Life Story by Paul Monette

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Paul Monette first made a name for himself in 1978 with his debut novel, Taking Care of Mrs. Carroll, a comic romp with serious overtones. He established himself as a writer of popular fiction with three more novels before he and his lover were both diagnosed with HIV. In 1988 he wrote On Borrowed Time, a memoir of living with AIDS and of his lover's death. The passion and anger that fueled On Borrowed Time surfaces again in 1992's Becoming a Man: Half a Life Story, his National Book Award-winning autobiography. Although it follows the traditional structure of the autobiography and bildungsroman--early family life, education, reflections on how art influenced the subject's view of life--Becoming a Man also filters Monette's story through two central facts: the closet and AIDS. Monette writes of the pain of being closeted, the effect it had on his writing, and how it shaped (and often destroyed) his relationships. Monette's fear and fury at AIDS and homophobia heighten the same skill and imagination he put into his fiction. This vision--poetic yet highly political, angry yet infused with the love of life--is what transforms Becoming a Man from simple autobiography into an intense record of struggle and salvation. Paul Monette did not lead a life different from many gay men--he struggled courageously with his family, his sexuality, his AIDS diagnosis--but in bearing witness to his and others' pain, he creates a personal testimony that illuminates the darkest corners of our culture even as it finds unexpected reserves of hope. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.


From Publishers Weekly

Monette offers a heartfelt illumination of how he, a gay man, overcame the self-reproach fostered by societal condemnation in this National Book Award-winning memoir, which traces his life through the moment of his coming out.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 278 pages
  • Publisher: HarperSanFrancisco (June 11, 1993)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0062507249
  • ISBN-13: 978-0062507242
  • Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (49 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,193,152 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

More About the Author

Paul Monette
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What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Becoming a Man: Half a Life Story
81% buy the item featured on this page:
Becoming a Man: Half a Life Story 4.4 out of 5 stars (49)
$11.70
Borrowed Time: An AIDS Memoir
6% buy
Borrowed Time: An AIDS Memoir 4.9 out of 5 stars (24)
$10.20
The Best Little Boy in the World
6% buy
The Best Little Boy in the World 3.5 out of 5 stars (30)
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The Best Little Boy in the World Grows Up
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The Best Little Boy in the World Grows Up 2.8 out of 5 stars (28)
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Customer Reviews

49 Reviews
5 star:
 (36)
4 star:
 (8)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:
 (4)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.4 out of 5 stars (49 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars poignant enough to alter the course of my life, May 29, 2000
By A Customer
I'm a straight girl. I read this book when I was fifteen years old. Paul Monette's story was the most moving, heart-wrenching I have ever read, and his honesty, humanity, and incredible gift of writing made it all the more powerful. Being straight and young and female posed no barier to my empathy for him, or his impact on me. Since reading Becoming a Man, I have dedicated myself to gay rights; I have composed two articles on the topic of homophobia, started a gay-straight alliance at my high school, which is dedicated to the memory of Paul Monette, and become close friends with several gay and lesbian students. Monette's words and stories seeped into me so deeply that they're a part of me, a part of what I do, a part of the way I think and act. I consider him the most influential person to me besides my immediate family and best friends. I ache that I can never meet him and tell him how heroic and nobel I think he was. He is my favorite writer, and my personal hero for combatting oppression, ignorance, disease, and the suffocating trap of the closet, and for refusing to go quietly into the night. I recommend this book to anyone, straight, gay, closeted, young, or dying. No one will read it all the way through without being changed.
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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Gone But Not Forgotten, May 28, 2000
Why would a straight woman want to read the memoirs of a gay man, the late Paul Monette who died of AIDS in the '90s? Because all you have to be is human to appreciate the passion and conviction this man brought to his life as he neared the end of it. Monette grew up in the Ivy League albeit deeply closeted. When he finally "came out", it was to discover the love of his life, Roger Horowitz. They spent happy years together until Roger first got AIDS and then Paul got it. Paul took care of Roger while he died from AIDS. His love for Roger is recounted in BORROWED TIME, AN AIDS MEMOIR, also by Monette, which I view as the prequel to this book. With this book, Monette went back to the time before Roger and his coming to terms with the fact that he was a gay man. He spent most of his youth in total denial. Monette was a good writer before he and his longtime companion contracted AIDS but AIDS transformed him and his work to much higher levels of art. This book deservedly won the National Book Award and many people felt, including me, that BORROWED TIME should have won it as well some years earlier.
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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Moving, courageous, honest, August 6, 1999
By A Customer
Like a previous reader, I read an older version of Monette's 'Borrowed Time' and hoped I might one day meet this wonderful man; it wasn't until I saw nfalzone's review here before reading 'Becoming a Man' that I realised Monette has since died. I also cried; Paul Monette really touched something in me and I can only hope that many, many more people will read this book, though I fear he is somewhat preaching to the converted. For those of us with gay family members it is a real eye opener, though I don't know that many parents would be able to handle this book. His story will drag you through so many emotions, not least anger; may Paul Monette rest in peace and may he be an example to us all to speak out, with open hearts and minds.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars passionate but poisoned
I read this book years ago and recently came across it in an old box and reread a chapter in the middle. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Christopher Tricarick

1.0 out of 5 stars Hack writer kindly informs world that it isn't worth his time
Paul Monette is not a subtle man. There is nothing in this trite tome to think about; Monette has already thought for you. Read more
Published 17 months ago by P. Moore

5.0 out of 5 stars A most moving account
A frank, honest and very moving memoir, it is beautifully written (which makes the odd grammatical error all the more perplexing) with prose which flow almost seamlessly. Read more
Published on September 8, 2007 by Benjamin

5.0 out of 5 stars Angry, thoughtful, disheartening, and triumphant
The tone of this book is sometimes so overwhelmingly negative and self-deprecating that, if you don't know at least a little about the author, it would certainly overshadow the... Read more
Published on December 27, 2006 by Michael L. Wiersma

5.0 out of 5 stars Taps into the rage many of us felt growing up gay
I give this book 5 stars because of the intimate way in which I related to the story told here. I am not sure if a non-gay person would enjoy this quite as much, although I'm sure... Read more
Published on December 11, 2005 by Thom Y.

4.0 out of 5 stars Not incredibly written, but profoundly important
As a twenty year old heterosexual male I found this book to very insightful. Monette illuminates both the sturglles and the shame of the homosexual community. Read more
Published on November 1, 2005 by K. Finch

5.0 out of 5 stars Important text in gay literature
Becoming a Man is the National Book Award winning memoir by Paul Monette, and was a landmark text in the literature associated with HIV. Read more
Published on June 29, 2005 by S. A. Morano

5.0 out of 5 stars No one ever told the truth as honestly and blatantly...
Paul Monette carries the reader with him through his life so smoothly you'd think he was actually happy about writing about his life. Read more
Published on May 12, 2005 by Jeremy Crowe

5.0 out of 5 stars Powerful Story
I found this to be a very powerful and moving story about a man struggling to come out of the closet. Read more
Published on February 25, 2005 by Terry C.

4.0 out of 5 stars Brilliantly Written but Disingenuous
Born in 1945 to a small-town, middle-class New England family, Paul Monette--like most Americans of the era--was spoon-fed a negative knee-jerk re homosexuality. Read more
Published on February 22, 2004 by Gary F. Taylor

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