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The Men from the Boys Paperback – June 1, 1998
| Price | New from | Used from |
- Print length352 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherPlume
- Publication dateJune 1, 1998
- Reading age18 years and up
- Dimensions5.5 x 1 x 8.5 inches
- ISBN-100452278562
- ISBN-13978-0452278561
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- Publisher : Plume (June 1, 1998)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 352 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0452278562
- ISBN-13 : 978-0452278561
- Reading age : 18 years and up
- Item Weight : 10.4 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.5 x 1 x 8.5 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,542,061 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #5,157 in LGBTQ+ Genre Fiction (Books)
- #74,942 in American Literature (Books)
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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.
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Other reviewers thought the book was boring, i.e., that it simply repeated all the gay stereotypes. Well, there's something to that comment, but it didn't stop me from reading or enjoying the book. We've got a lot of novels out there about P'town, the gay life style, problems of being gay, etc., and I wouldn't want to read one every week - as opposed to books, say, on World War II or U.S. politics - but it's good to get a
reminder of what things were like for gays in the 1990s. I'm gay and have quite a few gay friends, but basically exist in a heterosexual world. Even though none of my best friends died of AIDS, quite a few people I knew or knew of did, and there was a pall hanging over the whole era that never went away. So this book was a good reminder of what things were like then on the gay front, and how one could never really escape completely from thoughts about the AIDS plague.
One criterion I use in selecting what books to read is to notice if the sum total of Amazon reviews adds up to four stars or more. Below that, I seldom bother. This book averaged out to four stars, but I was surprised at how extreme the comments were. Some people absolutely loved the book, but a substantial number were highly negative. What does that mean? Well, I'm not sure, but my guess is that most of the reviewers are gay, and that they are divided into those who were out in the period under consideration (and thus might find the book repetitive and lacking in plot and action), and those who are younger (and thus freshly exposed to how things were in a previous millennium). Now and then, I get a reminder that AIDS is still with us, but it's not now a dark cloud dominating the current era.
The story centers around Jeff and Lloyd, who find their relationship falling apart once Lloyd exclaims that there's no passion left. The book jumps back and forth in time, alternating between a past summer in Provincetown and the present in Boston. This structure, which showed what was happening for the main characters at two very different, yet equally important times of their lives, worked well and is quite creative.
Jeff and Lloyd enjoy and open relationship, which might turn some off automatically. For me, it wasn't so much that they had an open relationship that left a bad taste, but, at times, it seemed like the author was writing an essay on why open relationships are better than monogamy; or, it seemed like he was really reaching to defend the idea that monogamy doesn't work. I can understand his argument, yet, like other ideas presented in the book, it didn't work to enhance the plot all that much. Instead of reading a good piece of fiction, I felt as if I was reading strung together essays on the nature of gay culture and relationships at times. He (not so) cleverly hides these essay-like moments behind long conversations between Jeff, Lloyd, and their best friend, Javitz, an older, mentor-like figure.
Another problem is with the main character, Jeff. While he's not completely insufferable, he's not the most likeable character ever created and doesn't seem to show any growth by the end of the book. He gets obsessed with young, attractive guys and argues that he sometimes falls in love with them for only a night. But, he seems incapable of describing his strong feelings beyond long descriptions of their sculpted abs and pecs. Overall, he seems beyond superficial.
And yes, this youth and looks obsession in the gay community is something that exists and could be interesting to write about ... however, it doesn't seem like Mann scratches the surface enough on any of this. There's so much more to explore behind the why of all of this, yet Mann doesn't do that at all.
Throughout the book, Jeff comes off as pretty whiny and dim as to why his relationship isn't working. As Mann seems to make an argument for open relationships, his story points out how many problems it can open up. In other words, he seems to be making an argument for open relationships while unknowingly showing the obvious problems that can arise with such a situation. At numerous points while reading the book, I felt like hitting Jeff on the head and saying, "Duh! Dude, what do you expect?"
Parts of the book are pretty cliche as well. Some characters, like Javitz, could have been really interesting if explored further.
Overall, I wanted to really like this book but couldn't convince myself I did.



