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74th out of 1,752 books
—
6,337 voters
The End of Boys
by
Peter Brown Hoffmeister (Goodreads Author)
Peter Hoffmeister was a nervous child who ran away repeatedly and bit his fingernails until they bled. Home-schooled until the age of fourteen, he had only to deal with his parents and siblings on a daily basis, yet even that sometimes proved too much for him. Over the years, he watched his mother disintegrate into her own form of mania, while his father—a scholar and doct...more
Paperback, 224 pages
Published
May 24th 2011
by Soft Skull Press
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This book is everything I love about memoir. I read it twice.
I had a hard time putting this book down. Page after page after page has highlights on it, as I marked the bits that particularly resonated with me. Peter's childhood starts out as rather idyllic, with a mother who plays and laughs with her children, but as he grows older, she becomes more and more emotionally distant, leaving her children to fend for themselves. Homeschooled until he was 14, he doesn't really fit into high school and has a hard time learning to blend in. His father has incredib...more
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This is a truly amazing memoir. Peter is a skilled wordsmythe and storyteller extraordinaire. But beyond the book, he has taken those broken shards of his teen years and created a beautiful mosaic that attracts and teaches hundreds of high school students, by the example of his healthy, wholesome, athletic, and compassionate adult life, to find growth and meaning, purpose and survival in the midst of their own trials and challenges. How wonderful that he made the choice to turn his experiences i...more
I've read so many memoirs that I have rather high standards for them. Overall, this was a well done book, but I felt like the story was a little choppy and didn't have much of an arc. Not that someone's life must have a dramatic arc, but...okay, maybe it should, in a memoir. ;) He wrote this memoir while the family members mentioned within were still alive, and because they are not portrayed in the best light, I wonder if he left out some of his own reactions in an attempt to go easier on them....more
"Hoffmeister was a nervous child who ran away repeatedly and bit his fingernails until they bled. Home-schooled until the age of fourteen, he had only to deal with his parents and siblings on a daily basis, yet even that sometimes proved too much for him. Over the years, he watched his mother disintegrate into her own form of mania, while his father—a scholar and doctor who had once played semi-pro baseball—was strict and pushed Peter particularly hard. He wanted only the best from his son but i...more
Peter Hoffmeister was a nervous child who ran away repeatedly and bit his fingernails until they bled. Home-schooled until the age of fourteen, he had only to deal with his parents and siblings on a daily basis, yet even that sometimes proved too much for him. Over the years, he watched his mother disintegrate into her own form of mania, while his father—a scholar and doct
...morePeter Hoffmeister was a nervous child who ran away repeatedly and bit his fingernails until they bled. Home-schooled u...more
...morePeter Hoffmeister was a nervous child who ran away repeatedly and bit his fingernails until they bled. Home-schooled u...more
The End of Boys is a remarkable story of a remarkable young man who made a remarkable choice: to be a husband, a father, a brother, a son, a teacher, and the writer he wasn't sure he could be. Peter Hoffimeister has written a terrific book about the human struggle to regain ourselves after great disillusion and desperation. It's a book about family, loyalty, humility and the "harsh journey" toward wholeness. I read The End of Boys in one sitting.
The End of Boys is a testament to the spirit of y...more
The End of Boys is a testament to the spirit of y...more
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Painful, revealing, brutal...Peter Hoffmeister has shared his sad and twisted story of growing up in a supremely dysfunctional family with an overbearing, powerful father and a mother who seems to disappear into herself. It is made all the more impressive, because it is TRUE and this gifted author came through, if not completely intact, at least strong and content in his own self-worth.
Surviving isolation from the world, drug dependency, and an emotional wasteland, this author has the strength t...more
Surviving isolation from the world, drug dependency, and an emotional wasteland, this author has the strength t...more
Superbly written, how a book is supposed to read. Capturing your attention right from the beginning and keeping you intrigued until you’ve finished the last sentence in the Acknowledgements section. You want to know every little thing about each person in the story. It leaves you yearning for more stories of a fascinating childhood, troubled youth and finally an inspiring man.
Raw and relatable, with honesty you don’t expect. This book reminds me in a way of ‘The Glass Castle’; although, I actua...more
Raw and relatable, with honesty you don’t expect. This book reminds me in a way of ‘The Glass Castle’; although, I actua...more
Peter Hoffmeister articulates so well the weirdness of childhood and the Sisyphean struggle to do more than just fight to survive. It's not so much the awfulness of his particular hell, but how he gutted his way along through choices that were strengthening, life-threatening, illuminating or completely stupid, and made a man of himself - a man I'd trust my kids to because he knows a child's terror, his sadness, his rage, his loneliness and his exultation.
"The objection to fairy stories is that...more
"The objection to fairy stories is that...more
I absolutely loved this book. There are parts of this book that I earmarked to read again, simply for the beautiful writing. But what is really amazing to me is the ability that Hoffmeister has to show the flaws in people. It is a powerful thing to show the shortcomings in a parenting style and how that can turn around and be alright. People learn from their mistakes. We all make parenting mistakes and instead of coming away from this book hating his parents I came away loving them for their hum...more
This is a coming of age story of a man who grew up in Eugene, the son of a Eugene physician, and an artist. He was homeschooled for much of his life. I did meet him (and his father) once when he was briefly enrolled in public middle school, when he came to dinner at our house. He attended a local high school for a time, as well as several other schools in other parts of the country. He was expelled from several of those schools. He survived all this, and much more, and currently teaches at a loc...more
Peter Hoffmeister's memoir describes his childhood years filled with anxiety and growing up in a dysfunctional family, his troubling teenage years and his path to a changed life. I read this as a book club selection and perhaps would not have selected it on my own. But this is what I enjoy about a book club ... to be stretched and expand my reading taste. Peter Hoffmeister hit a "home run" during the last few chapters. It was good to see how we all can make a difference in someone's life, see po...more
One of the interesting things about, “The End of Boys,” is that this is such a middle class family. The author’s father is/was a prominent Neonatologist and the family led a typical life, religious, active in their church and community.
The Hoffmeister children were home schooled by an artsy mother who appeared to be suffering from some variant of bipolarity until they reached high school age. She was engaged with her children at times, but became increasingly disengaged and detached from them as...more
5 likes · like · see review
This was an interesting memoir of the author's transition from childhood to his out-of-control teen years, and while I laud him for his honesty in relating events that can only be painful to look back on, it felt like something was missing. Mr. Hoffmeister's relationship with his father was strained, and at times abusive. By the end of the memoir, we get a glimpse of what adult life has been like for the author, and while I'm glad he straightened himself out and everything seems to have worked o...more
Brilliant. I'm not surprised he studied with Dorianne Laux.
"At night when I am alone, the machine comes suddenly like an old relative. The machine moves in, settles, unpacks its suitcases in the closet, hangs coats on the bedroom hooks. The machine moves in with its monotone."
"I know that I've lost something now because this keeps happening, and I feel as if this is all I ever come to, to this place, this knife, this feeling, almost killing, and I wonder that I'm not drunk because I feel fucked...more
"At night when I am alone, the machine comes suddenly like an old relative. The machine moves in, settles, unpacks its suitcases in the closet, hangs coats on the bedroom hooks. The machine moves in with its monotone."
"I know that I've lost something now because this keeps happening, and I feel as if this is all I ever come to, to this place, this knife, this feeling, almost killing, and I wonder that I'm not drunk because I feel fucked...more
Wow, did this guy have an eventful life. There was so much to go through, and all of it so interesting. The author did a very good job of portraying his feelings about the events, which allowed the reader to do the same. The pace was very quick, jumping from story to story, but it all connected. Since it jumped from event to event, it sometimes mentioned in between an everyday life event, describing an OCD action and thoughts, which was weird because that seemed downplayed in the book, but only...more
Life is all about perspective, right? The next time I think that my family is dysfunctional, I must remember Peter Hoffmeister and his family,... then my family will seem just like the Ingalls.
This is an incredible, brutally honest story of a troubled young boy and his desperate struggle to find a sense of normalcy. Somewhere. It is disturbing and sad and raw and powerful and impossible to put down.
I give this book 4.5 stars. The only reason I don't give it 5 stars is because it seemed a bit ch...more
This is an incredible, brutally honest story of a troubled young boy and his desperate struggle to find a sense of normalcy. Somewhere. It is disturbing and sad and raw and powerful and impossible to put down.
I give this book 4.5 stars. The only reason I don't give it 5 stars is because it seemed a bit ch...more
3.5 stars for this one. It was very interesting to me because I knew all the places he was talking about, and I grew up in Eugene at the same time, and knew many people like him. It got a little violent for me a couple times, and some bad language, but it went with the story. Would've liked to hear more about his "changing" process and how he really decided to make something of his life.
I am breathless, (almost) speechless and in awe. The angst almost tore me apart. It's often those who struggled and bit and screamed but survived who can speak for and nurture kids. It makes me so delighted that He is a TEACHER! He gets it and can put it into beautiful words! Read this book!!!
This book was pretty awesome. I felt a little disconnected from it at first but then I went and listened to "Welcome to the Machine" by Pink Floyd and used that as a lens through which I read it and it became so much more than a bunch of random memories. I also got to meet the author and he was an amazing guy who was great to talk to about his great story :)
A coming of age story littered with teen angst - no. A memoir of a lost teenage boy rising to the man he is destined to be - yes. This book is captivating, dark, beautiful, and haunting all at the same time. Not once does Peter drift into a world of excuses for his childhood. Not once does he cry out in search of who he is during his darkest moments. Hoffmeister simply retells his story in a way that is unbiased and straight forward. His writing style is refreshing - a quick, to the point, no b...more
I didn't realize this was a true story as I was reading it. Pretty crazy considering what little Pete goes through and what he becomes. An interesting story about second chances and taking advantage of them.
I read 80% of this book on a 6-hour plane ride form Philadelphia to San Francisco. I initially found the non-sequentialness of the book to be annoying, and I sometimes failed to see the relevance of the author's italicized asides in the context of the body of the chapter. As I continued reading, however, I became totally engrossed in his story. I do wish that the book was longer and had more detail throughout, though this can be forgiven as it was written so long after the events took place. Plu...more
The subject matter was difficult to read...but I am glad I hung in there for the ending. :) I felt the book was written well in terms of imagery, but the flow was a bit choppy.
This is an exceptionally well written memoir. So compelling you will read it in one sitting. Gritty. Honest. At times difficult to bear. It captures a liminal teenage perspective.
This guy has a great story to tell. He staryed out being homeschooled, but got in all sorts of (fun) trouble. Read it very quickly because it was a page-turner.
I'm not quite sure what to say about this book. Hoffmeister describes a painful adolescence in this memoir - he went to some very dark places inside himself. Which reflected in lots of violence and destructive behaviour. I was surprised that as everything went wrong, his parents packed him off to other friends, other family ie anywhere but home. He came out at the other end, as did his brother & sisters. Interesting point in the last chapter - the two youngest children were raised by the sam...more
Ok first of all, I didn't realize it was a non-fiction book...that makes it a little more interesting I guess. However, it felt like it was all over the place. I had a hard time following the story line.
Very fragmented memoir of a troubled youth - had me half intrigued until 2/3's of the way through, then I was just annoyed by it.
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Hoffmeister is a writer, teacher, and rock climber living in Eugene, Oregon.
His first book, The End of Boys, was released by Soft Skull June, 2011.
He has written for Climbing Magazine, Rock and Ice, Gripped, and Ampheta'Zine, and he is represented by Adriann Ranta at Wolf Literary.
His fiction earned an Oregon Literary Arts Fellowship in 2006
More about Peter Brown Hoffmeister...
His first book, The End of Boys, was released by Soft Skull June, 2011.
He has written for Climbing Magazine, Rock and Ice, Gripped, and Ampheta'Zine, and he is represented by Adriann Ranta at Wolf Literary.
His fiction earned an Oregon Literary Arts Fellowship in 2006
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“I know that I've lost something now because this keeps happening, and I feel as if this is all I ever come to, to this place, this knife, this feeling, almost killing, and I wonder that I'm not drunk because I feel fucked up and cold and hot, and this man, the drunk man, he's backing away from me toward a parked car and he trips over the parking meter and stumbles and takes a few steps and there's a wall he can follow along and he's scuttling back into the doorway of the bar and his off-white shirt gets hazy like cottonwood down floating off the river back home but it's hot in the spring there, back home, when the cottonwoods are dropping, and nothing about this night is even warm at all except my fist around the handle of the knife that's still cold, and there's the smell of the river water, the water in the air, and water everywhere, over my eyes and the city and the night, and I wonder why the water's not frozen because it's cold, cold every night here, so fucking cold, and no amount of weed will warm me up because I'm a long way from home and my bed and my room and my house and my family and anything and everything and everyone that I have ever loved, and I can sleep on a dirty floor with gum and spiders and garbage and wrappers and ants and dust and spit and cum, and I can sleep here and wake up, and I can sleep here and wake up again, but no amount of sleeping and waking will ever make it right.”
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