false 1768202 3 In the Dear John letter Daddy left for Mother and me, on a Saturday afternoon in early June 1996, on the inlaid Florentine table in the front entry of our house, which we found that night upon returning from a day spent in the cr+me-colored light of Neiman's, Daddy wrote that he was leaving us because Mother was crazy, and because she'd driven me crazy in a way that perfectly suited her own insanity.In a memoir studded with delicious lines and unforgettable set pieces, Robert Leleux describes his East Texas boyhood and coming of age under the tutelage of his eccentric, bewigged, flamboyant, and knowing mother.Left high and dry by Daddy and living on their in-laws' horse ranch in a white-pillared house they can't afford, Robert and Mother find themselves chronically low on cash. Soon they are forced into more modest quarters, and as a teenaged Robert watches with hilarity and horror, Mother begins a desperate regimen of makeovers, extreme plastic surgeries, and finally hairpiece epoxies---all calculated to secure a new, wealthy husband. Mother's strategy takes her, with Robert in tow, from the glamorous environs of the Neiman Marcus beauty salon to questionable surgery offices and finally to a storefront clinic on the wrong side of Houston. Meanwhile, Robert begins his own journey away from Mother and through the local theater's world of miscast hopefuls and thwarted ambitions---and into a romance that surprises absolutely no one but himself. Written with a warmth and a wicked sense of fun that lighten even the most awful circumstances, The Memoirs of a Beautiful Boy is a sparkling debut. 1766328 8 1 2008 The Memoirs of a Beautiful Boy total:239|5:42|4:62|3:92|2:33|1:10| 239 810 376 77 5 3 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu Jan 10 12:15:48 -0800 2008 Wed Apr 02 13:08:43 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 3 false false Tue Jan 15 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Jan 28 07:44:58 -0800 2008 Mon Jan 28 07:46:58 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 3 false false Sat Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu Mar 06 15:58:51 -0800 2008 Thu Mar 06 16:00:16 -0800 2008 5 3 false false Fri Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Feb 19 06:28:55 -0800 2008 Tue Feb 19 06:30:27 -0800 2008 5 3 false false Wed Apr 02 22:14:25 -0700 2008 Wed Apr 02 22:14:50 -0700 2008 3 2 false false Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Thu Dec 27 03:36:35 -0800 2007 Thu Dec 27 03:42:46 -0800 2007 more...]]> 4 2 false false Fri Feb 22 12:43:42 -0800 2008 Tue Feb 26 10:17:51 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 2 false false Sat Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Fri Oct 26 20:29:38 -0700 2007 Sat Jul 05 20:53:49 -0700 2008 5 2 false false Tue Apr 29 20:24:36 -0700 2008 Tue Apr 29 20:25:04 -0700 2008 4 2 false false Tue Jan 29 07:15:45 -0800 2008 Sun Apr 13 18:41:33 -0700 2008 4 2 false false Sat Nov 10 18:31:32 -0800 2007 Sun Oct 28 21:43:48 -0700 2007 Sun Oct 28 21:44:08 -0700 2007 1 1 false false Sat Mar 22 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Mar 24 10:21:23 -0700 2008 Mon Mar 24 10:21:23 -0700 2008
Leleux is NO David Sedaris (whom I adore!). This "novel" (and I use that term, oh so loosely) was a diary gone wrong. From beginning to end, this "b...more...]]> 3 1 false false Sun Sep 21 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu Sep 18 11:08:03 -0700 2008 Sun Sep 21 20:37:26 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat Apr 25 19:07:24 -0700 2009 Sat Apr 25 19:22:25 -0700 2009 more...]]> 0 1 false false Fri Jan 18 11:54:37 -0800 2008 Fri Jan 18 11:55:53 -0800 2008 "This exuberant, hyperbolic new memoir runs through the authori's louder-than-life, left-Texas adolescence spent in the shadow of his glorious, bewigged, gold-digging lovable momma. It's darkly funny that readers of David ...more...]]> 4 1 false false Fri Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Mar 04 12:06:02 -0800 2008 Tue Mar 04 12:11:45 -0800 2008 4 0 false false Wed Sep 30 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 01 13:38:40 -0700 2009 Wed Sep 30 17:59:55 -0700 2009 an article in the New York Times about multitasking by her friend Ruth Pennebaker, in which Robert Leleux is quoted, and it brought ...more...]]> 5 1 false false Tue Apr 29 20:27:38 -0700 2008 Tue Apr 29 20:27:54 -0700 2008 0 0 false false Mon Jun 16 20:34:31 -0700 2008 Mon Jun 16 20:34:35 -0700 2008
Previously supported by the in-laws, Robert and his mother find their emotional and financial lives in turmoil when his father ab...more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu Apr 30 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Apr 22 10:56:00 -0700 2009 Fri May 01 16:31:03 -0700 2009 more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=1768202