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A review by craigmaxwell
A Boy's Own Story by Edmund White
3.0
A strong 3.5!
"Is it real wet and slippery in there? Some guy told me it was like a wet liver in a milk bottle"
One of the many weird and funny quotes from this book.
A boy's own story follows a young boy's story and his relationship with his family and exploring his sexuality.
It isn't what you would expect to be from the outset, which makes is quite refreshing.
I had some problems while reading the book, for example, A boy that is 15 that is goes from calling his father "daddy" in a child like manner to then describing events in his life like a memoir in an elaborate emotive language. The text jumps from basic narration to suddenly describing his feeling in a deeply metaphorical way - It almost seems as though the author is writing a memoir of his life, but became confused in whether it was him reflecting or him in the moment. One minute he is a fifteen year old helpless boy, the next a 45 year old librarian. It does get a little bit confusing.
There are parts of the story that I can however really relate to, a lot of the internal dialogue that the main character has I could find myself finding similarities. Also with how society views gay people. The protagonist has lots of character traits that I can relate to so that made it enjoyable for me.
Chapter 4 was one of my favourite intros, the character analysis is so vivid, I could almost smell the cigarette being put out of the woman that worked in the bookshop.
My major criticism would be that the author focuses on minor details and then races through the important ones, and it becomes extremely frustrating while reading! It also felt extremely long for the size of the book, I read longer books far quicker but there wasn't really anything to keep me hooked.
Overall I did like it despite the ranty review! It felt really fresh and I enjoyed how weirdly relatable it was.
"Is it real wet and slippery in there? Some guy told me it was like a wet liver in a milk bottle"
One of the many weird and funny quotes from this book.
A boy's own story follows a young boy's story and his relationship with his family and exploring his sexuality.
It isn't what you would expect to be from the outset, which makes is quite refreshing.
I had some problems while reading the book, for example, A boy that is 15 that is goes from calling his father "daddy" in a child like manner to then describing events in his life like a memoir in an elaborate emotive language. The text jumps from basic narration to suddenly describing his feeling in a deeply metaphorical way - It almost seems as though the author is writing a memoir of his life, but became confused in whether it was him reflecting or him in the moment. One minute he is a fifteen year old helpless boy, the next a 45 year old librarian. It does get a little bit confusing.
There are parts of the story that I can however really relate to, a lot of the internal dialogue that the main character has I could find myself finding similarities. Also with how society views gay people. The protagonist has lots of character traits that I can relate to so that made it enjoyable for me.
Chapter 4 was one of my favourite intros, the character analysis is so vivid, I could almost smell the cigarette being put out of the woman that worked in the bookshop.
My major criticism would be that the author focuses on minor details and then races through the important ones, and it becomes extremely frustrating while reading! It also felt extremely long for the size of the book, I read longer books far quicker but there wasn't really anything to keep me hooked.
Overall I did like it despite the ranty review! It felt really fresh and I enjoyed how weirdly relatable it was.